A friend and fellow investor asked me an interesting question the other day.

“Sean, how can I make myself stand out from the crowd when targeting pre-foreclosures with direct mail”, he asked.

Don’t you think that’s a great question?

I do…and here’s why:

1) Real estate investors as a whole seem to all too often get caught up in the herd mentality
2) Pre-foreclosures may be the most competitive market that real estate investors target
So, what was my response?

“Take a look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite” I told him.

You see, when it comes to targeting pre-foreclosures via direct mail, most investors make a couple big mistakes. First, the majority of investor’s mail postcards with a little bit of content. Second, they do it only once or twice.

The problem with sending postcards is that it’s not personal. If you want to catch a prospects attention, you absolutely must “enter the conversation in his head”. The best way I’ve found to do that is by sending prospects a letter which addresses their situation in detail and offers a solution towards the end of the letter. In other words, draw them in to your advertisements by making them connect personally and emotionally with you. Below is a random example of how this would work.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Dear (first name),
Not so long ago, I fell behind on my mortgage payments and almost lost my home to foreclosure. I remember sitting up at night and wondering “what am I going to do”. I remember feeling helpless and worrying about my credit being destroyed. I worried about a judgment being filed against me by the mortgage company. I worried about where I was going to go if I lost my Home and How I would be able to afford to move when I can’t even afford my mortgage payment.
Do you have these same fears?

If you were a homeowner facing foreclosure and you received a personal letter that started out this way, would it hold your attention?

I know it would hold mine. The reason it would hold mine is because the writer “entered the conversation” that I was having in my head at the time. And, not only that, but the writer can obviously relate to my situation so I am connecting with him personally and emotionally.

Now, I realize that most people haven’t been in foreclosure themselves and I’m not recommending you lie to your prospect! The opening paragraph above is simply one example of how you can connect with your prospect. If you’ve experienced those feelings personally, write about them. If not, you could still ask the questions to your prospect without saying you have been in their “shoes” and still have a similar effect on your prospect.

So, by “entering the conversation” in your prospects head is one way to make yourself stand out from the crowd when targeting pre-foreclosures via direct mail.

The next way to stand out from the crowd is simply mail the prospect several times. For example, send letters at scheduled times throughout the foreclosure process. Most investors send a postcard when the prospect first goes into foreclosure and that’s it. Often times you need to mail a prospect 6 or 7 times before they respond. That’s not always the case, but more often than not it is.

There’s many other ways to separate yourself from the “herd” as a real estate investor. The key is to “think outside the box”. If you start incorporating a creative spin on your real estate investor marketing, you’ll see a big improvement in the results you receive.

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