3 Motivated Seller Lists You're Probably...

searching Not having any luck in your search for motivated sellers?

Does is seem like their only motivation is to ignore you at all costs?

Perhaps you need to overhaul your mailing list. Perhaps you need to begin using multiple lists.

Most investors know that absentee owners are a very good list that you should be mailing to. However, therein lies one of its primary disadvantages: everyone in your city is mailing to that list (or at least it seems that way). So, obviously, you're going to have more competition.

Additionally, most absentee owners simply do not want to sell their property. (It’s true.) So you're sending a lot of mail to find just one deal.

Sound familiar?

These 3 Mailing Lists Are Worth The Effort

Today I want to talk about three other lists that we send mail to every month, and rarely do we have any competition with these lists. That's because it requires a little effort to obtain each list – effort many investors are not willing to consistently make.

These mailing lists are also a great place to start when your marketing budget is less than $500 per month, because while the lists are smaller, they generate a larger number of deals per lead. Just about everyone in these lists has a house that they want or need to sell!

These three lists are:

Probate
Divorce
Evictions

As I mentioned, it takes some effort to find these lists. Keep in mind, though, the harder the list is for you to find, the harder it is for everyone to find. So if you'll invest the extra few hours of effort it takes to track these lists down, you will have set yourself apart from 95% of the other investors in your community.

Here's How To Find Your Buried Treasure

Now all three of these lists – probate, divorce and evictions – represent actual court cases in your area. So the place to find them is through your county clerk of courts or administration building. So let's start there.

#1. First, do a Google search for “clerk of courts” or “county administration” with your county's name. For example, I'm in Shelby County, so when I search on “Shelby County clerk of courts”, I can find our local county website.

#2. Now here's where it gets a little tricky: Within that website you'll need to find the court cases in those three categories. This can take a little digging to find out where each particular type of case is located in your county's records. You may need to visit your courthouse or call someone up and ask for help. It's worth the effort. Remember this is like digging for treasure, so stick with it. Most people are going to give up, which is what makes these leads so valuable for someone that will persevere to the end!

#3. Once you find the relevant contact information in each category of court cases, you'll want to keep this list (along with all your other mailing lists) in a spreadsheet, something that you can refer back to and use each month. You need to keep them in a spreadsheet so it's easy to upload the list to clicked mail.

Another important point is this: You need to mail consistently to your list. This isn't a one-time effort. I recently read that 80% of deals will come from the third or later mailing, and I would say that's pretty consistent with what we find in our business. Again, most investors will give up after one or two mailings, so set yourself apart by consistently mailing every month to your list – and you will get more deals than the next guy!

Remember, mailing consistently to a smaller list is better than mailing once or twice to a larger list. So don't blow your budget in one month. Spread whatever you can afford over the next three to six months. Spread it out so that you're evenly hitting that list over three to six months.

Brace Yourself For Higher Turnover

Now these mailing lists turn over a little quicker than absentee owner lists. People in these groups are in a hurry to solve their problem (which is one of the reasons they make such a good list for you). Personally, in my business, we'll hit these three lists once a month for three months.

On the other hand, we’re going to hit our absentee owner list for six months (once a month for six months), because those deals can take a little longer. Absentee owners typically need to think about the selling process a little more.

But when you're mailing to probate, divorce, and evictions, they typically want to solve their problem pretty quickly. So we usually will grab the list and hit them once a month for three months before we'll refresh that list and start over.

So while these lists are small, there's a much higher ratio of deals in them.

Try it for yourself. Add these three lists to your marketing tool belt, and you could very easily find your next deal quickly – albeit with a little bit of work.

Search – Find the website for your local county clerk of courts or administration building.

Find – Within that website, find the court cases for probate, divorce and evictions. (Don’t hesitate to call your county clerk for help, if needed.)

Archive – Add all relevant contact information to your “Mailing Lists” spreadsheet.

Remember – Remember that mailing consistently to a smaller list is better than mailing once or twice to a larger list.

Refresh – Refresh your lists and repeat this process quarterly, due to high turnover.