Every few days I remember to check my mailbox. I’ll scoop out a pile of mail, mostly junk mail. Standing over my recycling bin, I fan through this mail, pulling out any envelopes addressed to me, but quickly dropping any unsolicited ones into the bin. Then I fan through a second time looking for pizza coupons. The rest of this mail is then dropped into the recycling bin without me ever looking at it more closely.
Chances are, your mailbox habit is similar to mine.
And guess what: our mailbox habit is shared by the homeowners who you are trying to contact to make them an offer on their house. Just imagine what they are doing with your postcards, yellow letters and personalized direct mail? I can’t be the only one who grabs the pizza coupons and recycles the rest of the direct mail.
Many real estate investors are using direct mail because it once worked well… sadly, many investors are not ready to accept that things are changing… that direct mail is different today and direct mail does not work the way it used to.
In addition to the way mail has changed and the saturation of direct mail from real estate investors, many of our postcards are returned due to incorrect addresses.
If Not Direct Mail, Then What?
If not direct mail, then what should we do with these lists of potentially motivated sellers?
Skip Tracing is a strategy that has been around for a while but many investors don’t know what it is, aren’t aware of what it can do, or have ignored because postcards used to work. Now that things are changing, more and more investors are seeking out strategies like skip tracing to help them find the contact information for potentially motivated sellers.
Send your list to a skip tracing service, preferably one that specializes in working with real estate investors (like we do here at BatchSkipTracing). They’ll go over your list and return it with phone numbers and more accurate contact information. You’ll be getting phone numbers of owners of distressed homes who have never received or read those postcards from your competitors. Skip tracing gives you the opportunity to be the first real estate investor to offer these homeowners a way to finally sell houses they haven’t wanted or needed for a long time.
Note: be aware that there are different levels of the quality of information you get from skip tracers. At BatchSkipTracing, we get the highest level possible—the same quality of contact information that banks get! Not all skip tracers can do this; just be aware when you’re seeking out a solution for your investing business.
Skip Tracing Opens Up New Approaches To Finding Motivated Sellers
Want to get started fast? Take your list of 2,000 absentee owners upload it to BatchSkipTracing to get the highest quality contact information on these potentially motivated sellers. Get phone numbers and better contact information. Calling these people could be very profitable.
Real estate investors doing this are seeing a higher response rate than they ever did with direct mail.
Summary
Direct mail is dying and the real estate investors who skip trace their lists and start using new technologies and new methods will find new opportunities to close deals with motivated sellers.
