List Building

What it is

List building is pulling, filtering, and organizing targeted lists of property owners to mail or call. It’s the foundation underneath all direct mail. The tool doesn’t matter much — PropertyRadar is what I use, there are other list builders. What matters is how you stack the filters so the list isn’t random.

My system has layers. First layer is my buy box: geography, property type, square footage, year built, assessed tax value. I go up to 2,500 square feet, single family, 2006 or older, tax assessed value less than $70,000 for my market. I don’t trust AVM estimates — every list builder has them but not every house gets one, and the ones that don’t get cut from your list. Tax assessed value they all have, so that’s what I use.

Second layer is the audience. Owner-occupied, landlords, out-of-state, seniors — different audiences respond to different mail. A landlord gets a different letter than a widow. Third layer is the pain filter: pre-foreclosures, probate, widows, liens, tax delinquent, vacant landlord properties, expired listings. These are stacked separately, not all combined — if you stack all the pains on top of one audience, your list shrinks to four people.

Why it matters

I send mail to about 2,335 people a month right now. Some months up, some down. Probably 10-15% of those are houses I’d never buy unless it was an unbelievable deal — that’s the trade-off for not making 40 separate lists. I used to be much bigger when I was buying a hundred houses a year. Now I’m planning to buy maybe 20-30, so I don’t need that much volume. I need good leads.

Direct mail response rates are brutal if the list is wrong. Mail to a random ZIP code and you get sub-0.25% response. Mail to a stacked list and you get closer to 1% — four times the lift. On 1,000 mailers, that’s 10 calls instead of 2.5. Those calls convert at something like 30% to appointments.

Each pain type also needs its own message. A letter that opens with condolences and a soft offer doesn’t work on a tax-delinquent landlord who needs a cash close in 14 days. A letter with hard-money terms and speed doesn’t work on a widow who wants someone to respect the house her husband built. Mail the wrong message to the right list and you get silence.

How it shows up

Once a month I take each dynamic list — pre-foreclosures, probate, widows, property liens, tax delinquent, vacant landlord, expired listings, brat (inherited non-arms-length transactions) — and turn it into a static snapshot. I combine those into one monthly mail list, then subtract my X list: properties I own, people who asked to be removed, known investors I wouldn’t buy from. The net number is what goes to the mail house.

I run a sequence, not a single shot. Right now I’m running about six months out, pre-purchased. Hit them with a handwritten letter first — that runs about a buck fifty a piece. Next month something cheaper, like a postcard at 61 cents. Then maybe a professional letter with my photo on it. On and on. A VA on my team can run this once I have the sequence set. I don’t have to think about it every month.

The point of the sequence is that motivated sellers rarely call on the first touch. They call when the timing is right for them. Your job is to be the person who was consistently in their mailbox when they were finally ready to call.

Related

direct mail, buy box, motivated seller, probate, foreclosure, driving for dollars