Direct Mail Marketing

Want to find great properties to buy?

Then network with a purpose.  Let everyone you know hear about what you are doing. A narrow focus will generate more deals.  If you say you do everything you are just white noise.  Your 30-second elevator speech should explain who you are and what you do, to create exclusivity with a hook. Your goal is to find the most creative deal makers in any crowd.  This works for finding sellers, buyers, properties, and money lenders.

Direct mail is another powerful way to generate leads for real estate investing. It tends to be more expensive than many other methods, but the return is often much greater. There are several caveats and tips in using a direct mail campaign as a primary method to find prospective sellers of investment real estate - most importantly, the message to the market must match what you need.

For example, a simple "handwritten" letter may read something like this:

My name is Angelique, my husband and I are looking to buy a house.  If you want FULL PRICE for your home, please call xxx-xxx-xxxx. Get full retail.  

Thanks, Angelique 

Ps. Looking forward to your call.   

Each letter should contain a "hook," and a call to action. If the investor has a real estate license that should be disclosed, but make it clear that buying rather than listing is the intent here.

The best responses tend to come from letters sent in invitation- rather than business-size envelopes. The envelope should be hand written, with a crooked stamp, for best results.  It helps to mail more frequently to a smaller list. For example, send a letter every 5 days,  for a total of 7 times (35 days). These might be four yellow letters with slightly different wording each time, perhaps one simple postcard, one hand written memo, and one traditional letter typed.

If the investor is looking for seller financing, it would be good to do a search of prospects using the following terms on multiple listing services, or online websites such as Zillow, Craigslist, and FSBO.com:

"Owner terms" "creative" "finance""seller terms" "owner finance" "owner will carry" "owners do finance" "monthly" "motivated""bring" "lease option" "take over" "to own" "two tax" "three tax" "four tax" "two lots" "three lots" "four lots""two parcels""three parcels" "four parcels" "No low ball offers, no brokers, serious inquiries"

Use appropriate lists depending on the type of property being searched: are you looking for residential single family? or multifamily? How many units? 

Make sure your list matches the criteria set on property prices. For example, if you are looking for the best rental market you may want to set the maximum price for a single family home as average median price+ $25,000.  Maybe you want a minimum of two bedrooms. Be sure your list contains all of your specific buying criteria.

You may be able to get lists from your local title company, or perhaps from a list purveyor such as ListSource.com

My next blog will focus on making offers.

Happy Holidays! Happy Investing!