Return Mail: TRYING TO TAME THE BEAST by Joe Davalos

Return Mail: Trying to Tame the Beast by Joe Davalos

If you send out a number of cards per month you are going to get back a lot of returns. Lately this has been almost overwhelming for me. I am busy running an office, selling houses and trying to buy more homes to flip. The number of cards is high, especially since the number of new addresses add to my list is much lower than the overall total of mailings I do.

Before I go any further let me say that direct mail does work. I was able to purchase 6 homes from September through November utilizing only direct mail. I had a fairly decent system that worked. Now that the number of mailings are much higher I need to revise my system.

In order to better track I am going to either change the color of my first mailing postcard or add some type of text showing that its first mailing. On those that are part of the first mailing returned I will do what I always did before and look for a better address, heir and now call the family. First mail returns will be high priority.

On my subsequent mailings that will be of a different color or have a code or something to distinguish this as a second mailing returned. On those I am taking off the list as I already had performed my due diligence prior. So first return super high priority and subsequent returns move on. Why?

I need to focus my attention adding to my list and not spend an inordinate amount of time on those that I have already attempted to skip trace. Some leads are just a dead end. Deceased with unknown heirs, reclusive no data what have you. I need to keep hitting those with a good address to keep my company at top of mind when they are looking to sell. I also think its important to expand my mailing to add divorce, death, appointment of trustees and those that are having to borrow to pay their property taxes.

We will see how it goes. Either way I need to get back on track.