Hi all
Does anyone have any decent samples of successful letters that have been sent to owners of properties, trying to get them to consider selling their homes?
Obviously the take up rate would be low and numerous factors involved.
Thank you.This is a standard practice for real estate agents.
They send a letter to every house in selected streets asking if the owners are considering selling. It is slightly different to you as a private buyer, but similar and it works.
The conversion rate is low, but you only need one or two for it to be worthwhile.
Cheers,
Marc.
[email protected]“we get sent lemons; it’s up to us to make lemonade”
I would be keen to see succesfull letters people have used…
Shane McManus
[email protected]
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Visit: http://www.richmastery.com/nz/affiliate/register.aspx?af=dattosss&bn=2000007As a past real estate agent enigma, you would be best stricking up a relationship with one of your local agents & after a few conversations, ask him/her whether or not they have any samples for you to see. They would probably be more that happy to share with you their fantastic advertising idea.
Broome Henderson
We had some full colour brochures printed and delivered by a delivery company and the local paper. Here's what has worked for us in the past:
The law of large numbers:
10,000 plus deliveries every 2 weeks (need brand recognition and stick to the same colour).
Our success rate was 1 to 2% (very low)People are very disensitised to advertising so you need this volume to get it to work. It is the volume that works not what you say in the letter!
Also, how are your comparative market skills? Can you price a house? Why would they sell to you rather than selling through the local real estate agent? What would give them the highest price for their property. The one to 2 people that call you through your marketing campaign WILL ask these questions, if your sales skills and property knowledge are not sharp enough you will loose them and create a negative brand in what you are sending out! Once you know exactly what to say to swing the ods in your favour and win the competition over real estate agents, you will also work out how to word your letter
Hi Enigma,
Approaching owners directly is a great way to find well priced IPs and I have done it several times. I have the added advantage of being a real estate agent, so what comes naturally to me, I guess may not be that obvious to others. So I’ll let you in on a couple of trade secrets.
Usually only 3% of people are in ‘real estate mode’ at any given time, so if you are doing a mass flyer distribution then expect a 1-2% response rate.
A well known fact of direct marketers is that a personally addressed letter is 80% more likely to be read than an unaddressed letter (just think about the mail you get at home). Real estate agents use a subscription only database called RP Data but similar information is available to the public through either Dept of Natural Resources or your local council. So try and get owners names for your database.
Use a plain (no logo) window faced envelope as the mail will look official and has an even higher chance of being opened.
What is the main hot button for a private seller? Obviously they can avoid paying an agents commission. In many cases this may be around $10,000.
One word of caution – I would recommend not putting anything creative in your letter. ie. don’t say flexible terms, long settlement, lease-back, vendor finance or anything like that. These terms will freak most people out and they will think your are looking to do something dodgy. It’s fine to discuss these things face-to-face once you have met the seller.
Recently I ran a classified ad in the local newspaper that read: “Need a Qick Sale. Receive a cash offer within 48 hours. No real estate agent fees. Call me Today.”
Steve McKnight published a ‘Classified Ad Secrets’ CD years ago when he ran a wraps course. It’s got some of the best ad writing tips I have seen or heard, but I don’t know whether it is still available.
In 3 weeks I received over 20 calls and made 2 offers. I got one deal together which is a $300,000 purchase (approx market value $330,000) on a long settlement with a lease-back. Exit strategy is to do a quick reno and on-sell in summer when we can get a premium price due to the nice swimming pool. On the Gold Coast proeprties in this price range are currently rising, so we expect to achieve at least $360,000. In addition I have a JV partner who is funding it upfront on a 50/50 basis.
If you need any more help wording letters, just email me at [email protected] and I can email you a couple of letters that I have used. There is no perfect letter, but activity leads to results. Just have a go, you may be surpised what can happen!
Hope that helps. Good luck!
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