GUIDE · UPDATED
Direct mail for real estate wholesalers: lists, letters and follow-up
Direct mail means sending postcards or letters to property owners and waiting for the ones who want to sell to call you. It has one advantage no other channel shares: the seller makes the first contact.
It is also easy to waste money on. This guide covers the four decisions that determine whether a campaign pays: the list, the piece, the message and the follow-up.
THE SHORT VERSION
- The list matters more than the design. Mail people with a reason to sell.
- Plan to mail the same list several times, not once.
- Be ready for the call. A seller who reaches voicemail may call the next card in the pile.
- Measure cost per lead and cost per contract for every list and every piece.
Start with the list.
A good letter sent to the wrong people produces nothing. Choose owners with a likely reason to sell, and prefer owners who appear on more than one list.
- Absentee owners: the tax bill goes to a different address from the property.
- Inherited property, from probate filings.
- Owners behind on property taxes.
- Owners with code violations.
- Long-time owners with little or no mortgage.
- Your own driving for dollars list.
Send each piece to the owner’s mailing address, not the property address, and remove returned mail from the list so you stop paying for it.
Postcard or letter.
| Row | POSTCARD | LETTER |
|---|---|---|
| Cost for each piece | Lower. | Higher. |
| Gets read | The message is visible without opening anything. | It has to be opened first. |
| Feels | Like marketing. | More personal, more so when it looks handwritten. |
| Good for | Large lists and repeat mailings. | Small, targeted lists such as probate. |
Many wholesalers use both: postcards to a wide list, and letters to the small group most likely to sell. Test one against the other on the same list before you commit to either.
What the message should say.
- Who you are, with a real name and business.
- The property’s address, so the owner knows it is about their house.
- What you offer: a purchase as the house is, without repairs or showings.
- One clear way to respond: a phone number, and a web page if you have one.
- Nothing else. A short message gets read.
Keep it honest
Do not imitate an official notice, invent a deadline or imply you have already made an offer. Misleading mail damages your name and can break consumer protection law. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
How often to mail.
Plan to mail the same list several times over several months. An owner’s situation changes, and the card that arrives at the right moment is the one that gets the call. A single mailing tells you very little about a list. Budget for the whole sequence before you send the first piece, and judge the list when the sequence is finished.
Be ready when the phone rings.
Mail is paid for before a single seller calls, so a missed call is money already spent. A Harvard Business Review study found that firms which tried to reach a new lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even an hour longer.
- Use a phone number that is always answered, by you, a person you trust or an answering agent.
- Use a separate number for each campaign so you know which mailing produced the call.
- Ask about the house, the owner’s situation and their timeline before you talk about price.
- Call back every missed call the same day.
Measure what it costs.
| NUMBER | HOW TO WORK IT OUT |
|---|---|
| Response rate | Calls received, divided by pieces delivered. |
| Cost per lead | Total campaign cost, divided by leads. |
| Cost per contract | Total campaign cost, divided by signed contracts. |
| Return | Fees earned from the campaign, against what it cost. |
Track these for each list and each piece separately. The totals hide the fact that one list usually carries the whole campaign.
Tools that send mail.
A local printer or an online mail house can send any list. Several investor tools also send mail from inside the product, according to each vendor’s own pages.
| PRODUCT | WHAT ITS PAGES SAY |
|---|---|
| DealMachine | Direct mail built in, with multi-step campaigns and published per-piece prices. |
| PropStream | Direct mail sent from inside the product. |
| BatchLeads | Direct mail in the same subscription as its lists. |
| REsimpli | Direct mail inside its investor CRM. |
| FreedomSoft | Direct mail inside its investor CRM. |
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Where ARIA fits.
ARIA does not send direct mail today. It is on the roadmap. ARIA does not build seller landing pages today. They are on the roadmap. Today ARIA handles the response. On the Pro and Max plans you can put your ARIA number on the mail piece: Aria answers the call, asks the qualifying questions, books the walkthrough and creates the lead, so a seller who calls at any hour reaches someone.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Does direct mail still work for real estate wholesaling?
It can, when the list is well chosen, the same owners are mailed several times and every call is answered. It fails when a wholesaler mails a broad list once and judges the result. Test it on a small list and measure cost per contract before you scale.
Are postcards or letters better for motivated sellers?
Postcards cost less for each piece and are read without being opened, so they suit large lists and repeat mailings. Letters cost more and feel more personal, so they suit small, targeted lists. Test both on the same list.
How often should I mail the same list?
Several times over several months. Owners’ situations change, and one mailing tells you little. Decide the number of mailings and the budget before you start, and judge the list when the whole sequence has gone out.
Who should a wholesaler send direct mail to?
Owners with a likely reason to sell: absentee owners, inherited property, unpaid property taxes, code violations, long-time owners with little debt, and the houses you found driving for dollars. Owners who appear on more than one of those lists come first.
What should a direct mail piece say?
Who you are, the address of the property, that you buy houses as they are, and one clear way to reach you. Keep it short and honest. Do not imitate an official notice or invent a deadline.
How do I track which mailing produced a call?
Use a different phone number, or a different web address, for each campaign, and record the source on every lead. Then you can work out response rate, cost per lead and cost per contract for each list.
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