My yellow letter for expired listings and vacant properties

good info
regards
tom

Thank You very much.
That was very helpful.
Jane.

...using the yellow legal pad paper AND the invitation envelopes too...I'm curious as to why you use red ink though..?

Its just different and stands out on the yellow paper, Grabs your attention more, and seems urgent. Thats all. Remember your marketing has got to stand out and be different amongst all the junk mail people receive everyday. They gotta want to open you letter and not just throw it out without even reading it.

Awesome. Thanks for the post.

this is some great info. thanks for posting. i've been wanting to try this out for a while

It's a good idea to get the person's attention.
Just putting down the first name on the envelope is also
a good idea. Thanks.

I might just give it a try. It's funny though because I was told by one homeowner that I am working with now (after I left a sticky on her door with the same type of info) that a typed, professional looking letter would be better. Hmmm, makes you wonder though because she called!

Also, do you have a response rate calculated? I'd be curious to see.

Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Susan

Has anyone else tried this yet?

Any thoughts on locating these properties to send this great letter to?

I LOVE this idea, Jason!

Where are you getting that size envelopes?

Karen

Should you put your address though? Just curious cause' on few I sent out already I have not put my return address because I wanted them to be curious as to who wrote it and open it more quicker then puttn it to the side for later for not recognizing the address. The weeding envelope is fantastic and creative! I like that!

The letter gets folded into fours so any size invitation envelope works. I get mine from???? You guessed it Walmart.

Thanks Jason,

very clever!
...also, you can use whimsical postage stamps instead of the common ones sold in rolls, and just seal the envelope with a sticker-anything that will get a homeowner's attention.
I'm definitely giving it a try.

Valerie

If you want to use a funny stamp thats fine too. It might work really good. Never tried it.

If you don't want to put your return address on it, you don't have to. There is no right or wrong way to do it. I just know they work fantastic for me.

As a matter of fact I just got a property under contract today that was being sold for $25k because it needs work. It was an expired listing and I sent my yellow letter.

We got the house on contract for $10k and will wholesale for probably $18k if all goes well. So we should be looking at an $8k profit give or take.

Guys and gals just get out there and take action and go with the flow. This stuff works I can assure you of that. Remember its a numbers game.

Best of luck to all.

Jason B

Jason, your suggestion and all the members are really great. Bob Diamond uses a similar strategy for his loan modification program. Funny, irregular postage stamps (I used the comics series because there're funny and large), sticking them on crooked so people think kids put them on, using anything but #10 envelopes so they don't fit with all the other bills, etc. (I used #6 invitations like you except I went to the local wholesale paper distributor who happened to have a special order of 250/bx on sale that was green - a return for $7/bx), leaving your name off the return address to draw their curiosity (you need the return address to get the vacants/moved so they can then be skip traced) and the handwritten letter inside that fit nicely folded into fours. I like your idea of the yellow legal sized paper and red ink. I sent my first 120 out and got one call from Hawaii due to the curiosity and five returns to skip trace. 5 out of 120 is 5% so it's above the normal 1~2% response rate but only .08% actual humand reply. I'll try the next batch using the tucked in version and the red ink on yellow paper. Like you said it's all a numbers game.

I tell you...Don't you guys just love being able to pick at eachothers brains? I learn something new more than once in a day on this site everyday!

WE WILL SUCCEED, EVERY ONE OF US AS LONG AS WE STAY FOCUSED. IF WE FALL DOWN, GET BACK UP LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES AND WORK HARDER!!! Nice going Jason and good luck with that deal!

__________________

"STrengTH And HonOR!" <@{}><

this may help my success rate with expired listings,been reading and following this site but have'nt posted anything until now.have gained so much knowledge from other people here,has given me confidence to pursue this.

When life knocks you down,
land on your back,
because if you can look up,
you can get up!

Jason I also use this marketing and it works wonderful. Thanks for sharing

This is the Eric Balidwada/Alex Pardo yellow letter from flipcrushers.

That is a brilliant idea! I took art courses in college; And one of the things we have studied was color theory. What does yellow and red remind you of? Carls jr, McDonalds ect... The point being, It sticks out! PERIOD. We are not advertising food but the colors stick out. I'm going to try this now.Great post man!

Yes it is and I posted the link for everyone to watch it. Here's the link for others to watch the video.

This does work. I've done it several times and I've had success with it.

Here is the link:

http://www.flipcrushers.com/videos/yellowletter/

I think this is just a great idea! My realtor has started sending me expired listings. I will try this.

Thanks for the great help everyone is giving.

I just wanted to know that when you get a call back do you let them know you are buying homes at a discount? What do you tell them? Do you do qualifying questions like when your talking to sellers that call you from ads?

Thanks for the info. I just watched the video. BRILLIANT! keep them guessing; They get curious. And yes this is a people business where people share information. Nothing wrong with that. GOOD STUFF MAN!

P.S Are you located in FL?

You mentioned going to "the tax site" to get the seller's name, just to make the letter more personal?
Maybe a dumb question, but what site would that be? My County's tax site hasnt been very helpful at all!
I've gotten pages of expired listings from my 2 RE agents, & every attempt at finding a property owner's name by entering the address on the County site, has come up dry. When I called them directly, they looked it up & gave me a bank's name- so apparently that property had already been foreclosed.
I sure don't wanna call for every single address on these listings as I intend on mailing 25-50 of these per week, so is there a generic "greeting" or way to address these mailings....something other than "Dear Homeowner"... LOL

Thanx for any feedback.

Z

I did a standard letter and then did a mail merge to make it personal. I got this letter from either sfl, done for you marketing, or on one of the forums here.

Here is what I sent for my buyers with a mail merge. But you can do the same for sellers

«BusinessName»
«FirstName» «LastName»
«MailingAddress»
«MailingCity», «MailingState» «MailingZipCode»

Dear Real Estate Owner,

My name is (your name) and I am real estate investor. I noticed you bought the property located at «StreetAddress» «City», «State» «ZipCode». That area is also an area that I am always scouting for properties.

I have a knack for finding really good real estate deals. Many times I find more than one of these deals at the same time. I only negotiate on properties that have excellent equity and returns. If I can’t put together the financing to buy a property that has great equity and returns, would you be interested in looking at the numbers?

Please contact me at your earliest convenience so we can set up a time to discuss possible future business. My number is 000-000-0000. Thanks, and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Respectfully,

Your name
Your company
(phone number here)
(email address here)

Hello Z

Sorry I didnt do it as a reply to your message i just did it as a post in this thread. I hope that letter helps with your question

Its funny how sometimes you just need to write something down to come up w/ your own answers.
I googled for: " How to locate a property owners using the property address" & viola, I got my answer!
Dozens of public info brokers to choose from & I ended up registering w/
Public Records Now.com for less than a buck a day! LOL

I'm well on my way to starting the marketing blast & this tool will be invaluable moving forward!

Thanx for allowing me to think out loud, DG family!

Z

Have been doing this on and off for about 5 years. It has a tendency to pull more responses in middle America neighborhoods. I learned the process from a John MacNeil website which claims he is the Original Yellow Letter Marketer. Anyway, with much experimentation, I have learned to keep it fresh and I am never afraid to try something a little different. After all, a little different catches their eye.

The invitation envelope (or a different sized colored envelope) seems to works the best. I alway use multi colored stamps. I can't tell you the number of times someone mentions the stamp in my conversation with them. Red ink is fine but so is green and purple. Just stay away from blue, black and light colored inks. The paper should make the ink stand out. (Obviously that is why they call it yellow letter marketing)

If you can just do this, you will be surprised on the results after 500 letters. (Yes, 500 letters is the smallest sample that I would use, over time, to judge the effectiveness of them)