Posted on August 15, 2010 by Torrey Brothers

I’m sure that a number of investors will agree with me when I say that you will get a variety of calls from homeowners.  I’ve received all kinds of calls, including calls from homeowners upset that we’ve sent them a postcard or letter.  Whenever I’m on the phone with an irate homeowner, I stay calm and allow the person to vent, but not for too long.  Calmly, I apologize and let the homeowner know that I will make sure they are never contacted by me again.  There is no need to waste any time since there are so many homeowners that desperately need our services.

Anyway, I recently ran across an old list of absentee owners that I ordered about 2 years ago and haven’t mailed to this list in over a year.  So I decided to fish the waters again and mailed out to the list.  Postcard and other forms of direct mail are one of the most powerful marketing methods you can use to grow your real estate investing business and your profits.  On my postcards, I use a Google voice number as the contact number for sellers to call.  The voice mails are sent to my phone as transcribed emails.  Google doesn’t really do a great job with transcribing voice messages, and as I tried to read this one particular message, I knew it was going to be comical!

This message was from a dear elderly lady that owns several properties.   I’ve never spoken with her nor tried to contact her by phone.  The only contact I’ve had has been via postcard.  Here is her message:

Turns out that this dear elderly lady knows how to handle herself.  I’ve been WARNED!  Though she didn’t exactly say that, I can read between the lines.  I dare not send her another postcard or return her call.

If you’ve never sent out a mailing to homeowners, this is a glimpse at the type of messages you will hear.  This is an example of why we pre-screen potential sellers.  Drive all of your marketing calls to a voice mail, messaging service, or something other then yourself.  This will save you time and energy to put into another task.  You may hear 20 messages like this, but never let unwanted results bring down your drive and focus!  Remember, for every 30 – 40 unmotivated seller calls, there should be one great deal, which makes it well worth it.