Direct Mail in Real Estate

Well, my New Year has started off with a bang for my real estate venture. In the past I had used Realtors almost exclusively to buy property. For the past 6 weeks I have been direct mailing absentee owners and people entering foreclosure. Every week I have been mailing about 100+ postcards or letters out. At first I got only a few crank calls from people upset that I mailed to them. But in the past 10 days I have received about 11 calls. About 5 of them seem to be really good leads. I'm not sure if it is just a matter of planting seeds that are starting to sprout or the change I made in my letter. All of the calls have come since I changed the letter. I've got an amusing picture on the top of the letter (the previous letter has a picture of a check) with a catchy question.

I had never given direct mail much thought, although Dave Whisnant had spoke quite persuasively about it in his course. But now I am dealing with really motivated sellers that basically are handing me their papers and trusting me to solve their problem, and not worried about whether they will get money out of the sale.

So today I am scrambling to get a package together for each of the good leads I have. Each of the properties has a second (or third) that is a weak position and I will try to find a bank that will give me a short sale. It's easy to get caught up in the emotion of what is going on. I will have to keep myself in check and make sure the financial outlook of each deal I agree to makes financial sense.

What ever the result, this experience is cementing my belief in direct mail. It won't be the only advertising I do and I will still use Realtors, but I plan to keep it as a main part of my business.