Today’s REI Classroom Lesson
Today, Larry Goins discusses how to narrow down your search so that the post cards you’re sending for direct mail are targeted to the right type of homeowners.
REI Classroom Summary
Whether you want to market towards homeowners without a mortgage or who have owned the home for ten years or longer, you’re able to specify who you’re sending mail to and also, find out how often you should be sending them mailers.
Listen to this REI Classroom Lesson
Real Estate Investing Classroom Show Transcripts:
Mike: Welcome back to the FlipNerd.com REI Classroom where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.
Larry: Hey, this is Larry Goins, today’s host of REI Classroom. I really do appreciate you watching this and all of the other REI Classroom hosts and guests and trainers that you’ll see right here on this website. So today’s topic is going to be direct mail.
Mike: This REI Classroom Real Estate lesson is sponsored by UglyOpportunities.com.
Larry: Now we can do an entire course on direct mail, but I want to give you today is a little bit of information so you can basically get started. Now there’s a lot of people out there right now in today’s market that are looking for real estate deals. So you have to find alternate sources to be able find properties and one of those great ways is direct mail.
Now first of all, you’re probably thinking, number one, who do I mail to? Well, that is the easy part actually. You’re going to a site like, the first site that comes to my mind is Melissa Data, M-E-L-I-S-S-A-D-A-T-A.com. There’s another site that’s similar called CoreLogics.com and another one which is very popular is called ListSource.com. And what you’re going to do is you’re going go these websites and you’re going to look up whatever county or city that you want to mail in and you’re going to set a specific search criteria.
For example, you may want to look for homes that are valued at say $150,000 or less and the home owner has owned the property at least 7 to 10 years, some people do 7, some people do 10 years. You can also select the amount of equity. You can select properties that are free and clear, properties that have at least 40% equity, 50% equity, 40,000 in equity or whatever, and then Listsource or Melissa Data or CoreLogic will give you a count of the number of records that they have that meet that criteria.
So then what you can do is you can pay to download that list right onto your desktop. You can download that list and then you can direct mail that list and what I suggest is mailing a simple postcard. Now I’m going to show you some samples of postcards in just a minute, but before we do that I want you to remember two things about direct mail. Number 1, you have to be consistent and number 2, you have to be repetitive.
In other words, you’re going to mail that same list, say there are a thousand people on that list. You’re going to mail that same list almost every four to five weeks, something like that, but you’re going to mail it about four to five different times. So you’re going to mail the same list over and over and over and over again. After you’ve done that four or five times then you can move on to another list, or you can keep mailing it if you want too until your return is diminished.
Now in direct mail you typically get about probably somewhere around 1 to sometimes 2% response. I’m going to show you a couple of quick examples that you can use. Here is one that we use to actually promote our properties. It’s got pictures on it. It says “If you’re an investor.”
Now to find properties we actually use these. I love these little postcards. It’s yellow cardstock, black letters on yellow cardstock and on the back it has an important notice as well and then we also use these, pretty similar, but it’s on green. Notice how they stand out. It’s not fancy. You can even make these on your own. It’s not a big deal.
So you want to be consistent. You want to be repetitive and you want to have some sort of a follow-up system, either a website or have the message go directly to a voicemail.
I’m Larry Goins and I hope you really enjoyed this REI Classroom today on direct mail.
Mike: HomeVestors, the We Buy Ugly Houses folks, is a franchise system of hundreds of real estate investors that have purchased over 65,000 houses. If you’d like to learn more about the most powerful real estate investing system in existence, whether you’re a pro looking to take your business to the next level, or whether you have no experience at all but a burning passion to be successful in real estate investing, please visit FlipNerd.com/ugly to learn more.
Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers, or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of FlipNerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at FlipNerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips, and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at FlipNerd.com/shows, or simply search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
Larry: Hey, this is Larry Goins, today’s host of REI Classroom. I really do appreciate you watching this and all of the other REI Classroom hosts and guests and trainers that you’ll see right here on this website. So today’s topic is going to be direct mail.
Mike: This REI Classroom Real Estate lesson is sponsored by UglyOpportunities.com.
Larry: Now we can do an entire course on direct mail, but I want to give you today is a little bit of information so you can basically get started. Now there’s a lot of people out there right now in today’s market that are looking for real estate deals. So you have to find alternate sources to be able find properties and one of those great ways is direct mail.
Now first of all, you’re probably thinking, number one, who do I mail to? Well, that is the easy part actually. You’re going to a site like, the first site that comes to my mind is Melissa Data, M-E-L-I-S-S-A-D-A-T-A.com. There’s another site that’s similar called CoreLogics.com and another one which is very popular is called ListSource.com. And what you’re going to do is you’re going go these websites and you’re going to look up whatever county or city that you want to mail in and you’re going to set a specific search criteria.
For example, you may want to look for homes that are valued at say $150,000 or less and the home owner has owned the property at least 7 to 10 years, some people do 7, some people do 10 years. You can also select the amount of equity. You can select properties that are free and clear, properties that have at least 40% equity, 50% equity, 40,000 in equity or whatever, and then Listsource or Melissa Data or CoreLogic will give you a count of the number of records that they have that meet that criteria.
So then what you can do is you can pay to download that list right onto your desktop. You can download that list and then you can direct mail that list and what I suggest is mailing a simple postcard. Now I’m going to show you some samples of postcards in just a minute, but before we do that I want you to remember two things about direct mail. Number 1, you have to be consistent and number 2, you have to be repetitive.
In other words, you’re going to mail that same list, say there are a thousand people on that list. You’re going to mail that same list almost every four to five weeks, something like that, but you’re going to mail it about four to five different times. So you’re going to mail the same list over and over and over and over again. After you’ve done that four or five times then you can move on to another list, or you can keep mailing it if you want too until your return is diminished.
Now in direct mail you typically get about probably somewhere around 1 to sometimes 2% response. I’m going to show you a couple of quick examples that you can use. Here is one that we use to actually promote our properties. It’s got pictures on it. It says “If you’re an investor.”
Now to find properties we actually use these. I love these little postcards. It’s yellow cardstock, black letters on yellow cardstock and on the back it has an important notice as well and then we also use these, pretty similar, but it’s on green. Notice how they stand out. It’s not fancy. You can even make these on your own. It’s not a big deal.
So you want to be consistent. You want to be repetitive and you want to have some sort of a follow-up system, either a website or have the message go directly to a voicemail.
I’m Larry Goins and I hope you really enjoyed this REI Classroom today on direct mail.
Mike: HomeVestors, the We Buy Ugly Houses folks, is a franchise system of hundreds of real estate investors that have purchased over 65,000 houses. If you’d like to learn more about the most powerful real estate investing system in existence, whether you’re a pro looking to take your business to the next level, or whether you have no experience at all but a burning passion to be successful in real estate investing, please visit FlipNerd.com/ugly to learn more.
Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers, or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
Are you a member yet of FlipNerd.com, the hottest real estate investing social community online? If not, you can join for free in less than 30 seconds and get access to hundreds of off-market deals, vendors in your market to help you in your business, and you can start networking with thousands of other investors just like you. Get your free account now at FlipNerd.com.
Please check out the FlipNerd family of real estate investing shows, where you can access hundreds of expert interviews, quick tips, and lessons from leaders across the real estate investing industry. They’re available at FlipNerd.com/shows, or simply search for FlipNerd in the iTunes store.
