By Matt Gerchow
The author has permitted the reprinting and redistribution of this article.
Mailing Lists
There are hundreds of mailing list providers available in your area, and they will typically charge a few cents per address or offer a monthly subscription and can be found easily online.
However, before you buy any mailing lists, check with your county tax appraiser’s office to see if you can buy a copy of the current tax rolls on a CD. In my county I can buy the entire tax roll database for every type of real estate there is in my county, for only $30.
The tax data provides me with all the physical information about all the properties in my county, the name and address of the owners, the last sale date and amounts, and any other possible information I could ever need for most of my mailings.
I use this information to segregate my lists for different mailing campaigns. For example, I’ll create a list of all the records that have the owner’s address out of state, and I send them an out of state owner’s letter.
Or, I’ll create a list of all the properties where the owner’s address is just different than the property address and then I will send a letter to landlords. Typically setting this up will grab 3-4% more names than strictly using an “Absentee” selection in one of the automated services. It’s only 3-4% more names but this is 3-4% more names that NO ONE is marketing to.
One of my best lists is where I find all the properties that were last sold for $100 or less and the owner lives out of state. These are non-owner occupied properties that were transferred by quit claim deeds, and I can usually bet there is a ton of equity in them. If you cannot get the tax rolls from your county, you should be able to find a local list provider by calling up advertising companies in your area. You can also try some of the online list providers by going to google.com and searching for “mailing lists”.
RealQuest is a great source for mailing lists. You can create a list by setting your criteria for price ranges, zip codes, amenities, and just about anything you can think of to narrow down your lists. If you are getting your comparable sales here as well then this allows you to nail two birds with one stone.
Hope this helps,
Matt Gerchow
If you would like to take advantage of the market and learn how to invest in real estate and you are local to the Dallas Fort Worth area, I know a really great teacher and mentor here in Arlington Texas. Please take a look at his web site:DennisJHenson.com, Dennis has a great Mentoring and training program, I know because I am one of his former students. I learned a lot from his one on one teaching technique. – Michael Harman 817-457-7572 mchfun.business@gmail.com
