Many of the real estate experts we learn from on Real Estate Mogul use direct mail advertising extensively to find deals. Why? Because it works. There are tons of people searching the MLS every day looking for good deals. When a good deal does pop up, it’s either gone quickly or bid up higher than you would ever want to pay.
What’s an investor to do? The savvy investors look where others refuse to go. They buy lists of motivated sellers from listing services, or dig up the names themselves from places like the county records. Motivated sellers such as:
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Probate Records
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Absentee owners
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Landlords who just had an eviction
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Divorce cases
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Foreclosures
You get the idea.
Higher Net Worths Come From Higher Net Works
Once the investors have these lists, they need to contact the people. One of the most effective ways to contact them is through direct mail with a letter asking about their property. Put yourself out there to enough people and the deals will come.
In order to find those deals, though, you have to mail and network with A LOT of people. Some investors send out up to 10,000 letters at a time! Can you imagine typing in 10,000 addresses on letters? Even if you paid someone to do it, it would take forever. Not to mention it would be very expensive for you.
“Let’s Merge, Baby”
Fortunately technology has come to the rescue. The folks over at Microsoft put a great function in their Word program called “Mail Merge”. With mail merge, you can upload a whole spreadsheet of data, and insert lots of personal information into each of your letters.
Mail Merge can really make your letter look like you just wrote it to one person. You can insert any data about the person. You can load the letter up with their name, address, spouse’s name, or pretty much anything else you put in a separate spreadsheet.
It doesn’t matter either how many names or records you put in to do your mailing. You are limited only by how much paper and printer ink is on hand.
Many of the more successful investors will tell you to outsource your direct mail. But if you are just starting out, you may have more time than money and need to do it yourself. Also you might hire a very enthusiastic assistant who doesn’t how to use mail merge. You may need to show them.
Regardless of who does the mail merge for you, we think it is important that you understand how mail merge works. We made a short video on how to use Mail Merge specifically for real estate marketing. We hope you enjoy it…
Click here to watch today’s video lesson.
Watch – Watch today’s video lesson.
Learn – Learn how your REI business can leverage the Mail Merge functionality in Microsoft Word.
Crush the Competition – Crush the other investors in your area(s) with a new-and-improved strategy for direct mail campaigns.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.