Using a combination of direct mail and internet marketing is very effective to niches. There are many niches where people are SUPER MOTIVATED TO Sell their house fast. Here are my best resources, how to’s , and secrets revealed:
THE ” 6 M’s” of Marketing
The key elements include:
1) Market: Who is your target market and where are they located?
2) Message: What will you say to this audience in your marketing? I’ve created long copy “yellow ” letters and personalized postcards that are proven and work incredibly well. The basic tone of these messages is, “I’m interested in buying your house at _______. We buy houses in your neighborhood and we’re looking to buy more. You can sell your house as is at a fair price on the date of your choice…” This approach works for all 15 of the marketing campaigns I’m about to give you.
3) Media: What media and mix of media will you use to communicate your message to this market? Direct mail is the silver bullet of cost effective media. Small, cheap postcards and personal looking letters handle this task.
4) Money: How much money on marketing will you spend to attract a great deal? Can you invest $1,000 mailing 2,500 postcards to do one deal that nets you $25,000? Say yes. If you got $10 back on every postcard you mailed, how many would you mail? As many as possible!
5) Multiple Hits: How many times will you hit your market with your messages? Always plan sending 5 or more hits using direct mail.
6) Months: Over how many months will you spread out a direct mail campaign? This varies depending on the type and quality of the list you select. I’ll share effective frequency rates to use as a result of mailing millions of postcards and letters for myself, and my clients.
15 Proven Direct Mail Lists for Buying Houses
1. BANKRUPTCY
Targeting homeowners who have filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy in the previous 3 to 9 months has proven to be a very profitable niche. They may or may not be keeping their repayment agreements and might need to sell their house. Target these aged filings plus recent dismissals and motions.
There homeowners are many times desperately trying to protect equity and have been in and out of foreclosure. You’ll find very little competition as most investors never target this niche. Mail a yellow letter to capture their attention followed by a series of personalized postcards.
Mail them 5 times:
Aged filings weekly
Recent dismissals every 2 weeks
Motion filings weekly.
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information via the internet at www.pacer.psc.uscourts.gov. PACER is a service of the United States Judiciary. This system take awhile to learn, to cut my time to 10% ….
Watch the coaching call we did showing you how to do this fast and easy : HERE
The hardest mailing lists to locate or acquire tend to be some of best niches. There are several small lists that work great but you’ll have to research how to get them from your city or county. A normal direct mail drip campaign is usually hitting a market every 90 days. A rapid drip campaign is every 30 days. Just keep mailing every month rotating a yellow letter and personalized postcard. Mailing to any of the following 4 lists is cheap and very effective:
2) Probate: Recently deceased homeowners may not be motivated sellers but the heirs or the person handling the estate may need your help to liquidate the house. Mail to the executor, trustee, all the heirs and the homeowner of record. Why mail to the homeowner? Whoever is handling the estate is probably handling their mail. Please read this post here on my reasons why I use US LEAD LIST
3) Divorce: You might’ve discovered that one of the top reasons homeowners who call from your online ads or direct mail need to sell is because of a divorce. The effort invested into learning how to get this list locally will be well worth it.
5) Property Tax Delinquent: Homeowners who’ve been delinquent on their property taxes for 1-3 years are good prospects. They are potentially distressed homeowners, may be motivated to sell and many times they have no mortgage.
6) Code Violations: Target owners of condemned houses and properties with code violations. Check with your city government offices for a list. It may be very difficult to get but sometimes it’s very easy.
Targeting for Equity
Unlike using ads, flyers and signs, direct mail allows you to target houses with equity to generate better leads. It’s always easier to buy houses with equity. There’s equity if you’d consider paying more then what’s currently owed against the property. The seller can discount their equity for cash now, or collect it over time in a note, or wait for all of it until you sell or refinance many years later.
First American Core Logic at www.Corelogic.com offers a wealth of data services for real estate professionals including agents, mortgage brokers and investors. They’re a good resource for data acquired through public records if you can’t otherwise get it easily. Use them to find properties with equity.
Buy from more sellers with equity by targeting these 5 niches:
7) Wholesale Properties: My definition of this niche is property owners who have “junker” houses or properties built prior to 1990 with a maximum loan to value of 69% and are in a price range below median. When you can get this specific selecting a list, mail a personalized postcard each month for 6 months. Then switch to a 90 day drip campaign.
8) Adjustable Rate Mortgages with Equity: This niche is defined as property owners who had adjustable rate mortgages on the property for 3 to 5 years and a maximum loan to value of 69%. Many times they are looking for relief from increased payments. Hit them monthly mailing a yellow letter, 3 postcards and then repeating.
9) Multi-Family with Equity: If you’re interested in buying, holding or flipping income property, target owners of properties with 2 or more units who have a maximum loan to value of 69%. They may be tired of dealing with tenant management and deferred maintenance. They also may like the idea owner financing your purchase, deferring taxes on capital gains and collecting note income instead of net rental income. Hit them every 90 days mailing a yellow letter, 3 postcards and then repeating.
10) Free & Clear: This is my favorite niche defined as homeowners with 40% to 100% equity. According to the most recent U.S. census data, 33% of all single family homes are debt free with even more having high amounts of equity.
***** TIP : Owners of More than 20 years ( See http://infousa.com/ ) Get 100 Free Leads
By buying with attractive seller financing and getting creative with a seller’s equity you can always give them their price. The only question is when. You can structure terms that can make any property cash flow. You can also pull out cash the day you buy using hard money loans or private investors. Hold as a straight rental, occupy with a tenant-buyer or sell with wraparound owner financing. Target free and clear houses, creating 0% owner financing and then rapidly paying off the debt to the seller from the income on the property is what I call “the ultimate strategy” for buying and selling houses. It works on any property… in any price range… in any area… during any market climate
Mailing list brokers and tapping into your local county tax assessor records can help you identify homeowners who have
- a low loan balance,
-
no loan balance, or
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have owned the property for 10 years or more.
Mail cheap postcards every 90 days.
11) Out of Area: Also known as an Absentee Owners or Non-Owner Occupants, this is the list of homeowners whose mailing address on public record differs from the property address. It includes burned-out landlords who own single-family homes and multi-unit properties. These prospects many times own (and will be interested in selling) multiple properties. Get this list from county records, mail postcards every 90 days, update the file after each mailing and then re-pull the list after 15 months. Ask your Local Title Company for a “6 Line Farm List” or your County Tax Records Office usually is the best bet)
Specialty Lists
12) Expired Listings: This is a great list of homeowners whose property was recently listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) but expired without being sold. You know they recently were interested in selling but they may or may not have sold their house. A lot of times they have been beat up by the market, are panicking and are now very motivated.
You can expect a high response rate but many of these sellers will have little or no equity. Therefore you’ll be sifting and sorting for deals that can work. A recommended campaign is hitting them once every 2 weeks alternating 5 yellow letters and 5 postcards.
You get the list from the MLS through your own access or through a real estate agent. The main problem you might face is matching the property address with the seller’s name and mailing address. Real Estate Data X-Change, Inc. at http://www.TheRedX.com is an “expired listing research company” who can help you import, cross reference and manage leads from expired MLS listings. Check out their services.
14) Pre-Foreclosure: These are homeowners who are behind on their mortgage and facing foreclosure. They have a Notice of Default or List Pending filed publically. Sometimes they’re motivated to sell… but many times looking to stay.
Consider first targeting other niches because mailing to the pre-foreclosure market is typically over saturated and highly competitive. Almost every real estate investor, market broker, bankruptcy attorney and real estate agent thinks this is a good list to mail to. You’re actually better off calling them on the phone or sending someone to knock on the door. That would give you a competitive upper hand. However, if this list must be complied manually from court records, or otherwise hard to get for your area, then it’s an awesome mailing list. Hit them monthly mailing a yellow letter, 3 postcards and then repeating. There’s real gold in skip tracing an owner when a mail piece comes back marked “vacant” by the post office.
**** TIP : I prefer to mail Pre Notice of Default (PreNOD) 30 / 60 / 90 day late list ( link and order form below)
Attn: Dave Hurlbrink EZ Data Group
Tel: (505)866-0974
E-mail : mailto:ezlist@gmail.com?subject=List or PRENOD for Duncan Wierman Student
Special Discount Applies when ordering here
15) In-House Follow Up: This is your number one best list. Yet few investors ever setup a system to mail to it. This is your follow- up list of warm leads. You made an offer; they did not accept it; and you still want to buy their house. These sellers usually think they have time or other options. When they run out of time or options, you want them to calling you back.
Simply working this list efficiently can double your closure rate and triple your income. Mail anything to them every month until the house is sold. You can start with a yellow “follow- up” letter, 3 postcards and then repeat.
NOW that you have your list, HERE ARE SOME SMARTER OPTIONS ON WHAT TO DO.
1. Skip to Day 22 and Learn how to create alliances, and joint ventures and get your mailing done free or reduced cost. Read our bonus report on how to do this under the bonus section
2. You can upload your list to CLICK2MAIL.com !! or
Use Yellow Letter Services https://www.yellowletters.com/page/wiermangroup
Yellow Letters has a variety of proven products geared towards motivated seller calls. Some of our products include;
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- Text Postcards – Two Sizes
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- Typed Letters – Single or Multiple Pages
- Greeting Cards – Folded or Flat
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- Urgent Envelopes – Mini FedEx style Envelope
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- Business Cards, and more
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As you can see we have it ALL. Everything you need for your SUCCESS!! Not to mention that they have hundreds of predesigned templates or we can even create your very own exclusive mail piece only useable by you.
You can visit us through our partnership in success by going to this link.
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I’m sure by now you have noticed that we are not just another “printing company”; our company was started by a Real Estate Investor with over 30 years of investing experience and well over 1000 homes under his belt, and he has taught our staff everything they need to know about marketing. We’re not just here to sell you a product; we are here to make YOU successful.
Together we can easily customize a Direct Mail campaign to perfectly fit your needs.
We thank you and we look forward to helping you grow your business.
Once you get a response …
STEP 3 – MAKING OFFERS
These are some of the things you should be thinking about before ever presenting the offer. Here are some options to consider as your exit strategy: a. Do you plan to flip the property fast to another investor that will buy the property to fix up, then resell to a homeowner?
b. Do you plan to flip the deal to a landlord / investor who buys property for the long term?
c. Do you have an established relationship with any other investors that would be interested in the deal?Make sure the numbers work so the deal will look attractive to the end buyer. I’ve found that the best software around (and the cheapest) is “Flipper’s & Rehabber’s Analyzer”. Simply click here to find out more. Once I know my MAO, and comps, I make my offer.
STEP 4 – SELLING QUICK
Now you are ready to sell the deal to turn a nice profit! Your success largely depends on how quick you can move the property. Therefore, work to build solid relationships with real estate buyers in your area because they will be reoccurring buyers of your properties.
Investors have different criteria, so it’s best to find out what they’re looking for in advance when attempting to flip a property. For example, you don’t want to show a higher priced home when the investor only buys lower income properties.
Use www.Postlets.com or www.Vflyer.com to get the word out. These sites create flyers of your deals, and post it to millions of viewers across the internet by listing if for you on major property advertising sites for FREE! I include a link that goes back to my website where I have more details of my houses for sale. I also use this to build my buyers list bring investors back to my website to collect information on what they are looking for.
I always “Sell the Sizzle” on how I have structured the house finance / deal. As an example, you can promote the monthly payment or the “return on investment” (ROI). Other methods I have used have been to sell the house at 10% below market value, or I have offered to hold an Owner Financed Second Mortgage Note.
If you have a deal, never worry about selling it, it will sell itself. The trick is to get the word out letting people know about it. Master these four steps and watch your income soar!