Posted by rm on April 02, 2003 at 18:17:44:
Sure, send a postcard with bullets, such as:
Behind on your payments?
Get cash for your house
etc., in simple, clean format and see what happens.
You’ll have to send out 50-100 to see if it works or not.
The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by Chris in CA
Posted by Chris in CA on April 02, 2003 at 09:58:49:
So I’ve driven the neighborhoods, located trashed houses that looked abandoned, used DataQuick to find the names and adresses of the owners, and they are all living in the homes. Instead of finding abandoned, trashy homes, it looks like I’ve just found trashy people…
Since I can’t see sending the “Do you want to sell me your trashy house before it’s too late?” letter (I think it will just offend them), do you think there’s any merit in sending a toned down “We buy houses” letter/postcard or just move on until I find a truly abandoned house?
Thanks,
Chris Smith
Re: The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by Cat - Tx
Posted by Cat - Tx on April 02, 2003 at 16:13:22:
Don’t send letters to homes that have people living in them if you are looking for vacant houses. The way I determine this for sure is to check the electric meter on the side of the house… if it’s not spinning, it’s vacant. If it’s not spinning and people are living there then I assure you, they are extremely motivated and will probably want to come live with you. If it is spinning, then dig deeper. I have never had anyone ask me what I was doing looking at the electric meter. I just pretend to talk on my cellphone and act official. Good luck.
Re: The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by Kristine-CA
Posted by Kristine-CA on April 02, 2003 at 11:18:24:
Chris: just because the tax address is the same as the mailing address doesn’t necessarily mean someone is living there. The owners could be dead. The owners could be using the address for lots of reasons.
What I do is send out the letters to all of my leads from driving around to the tax address. And then I research more thoroughly the ones that come back as “unknown,” “deceased,” etc.
If it were as easy as sending out letters and having people call you, ready to sell…well you know the rest.
Happy hunting. Sincerely, Kristine
Re: The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by bulletbobb
Posted by bulletbobb on April 02, 2003 at 10:09:47:
Get Joe Kaiser’s course. He has a complete method laid out, including letters. Great stuff for a reasonable price.
Re: The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by Chris in CA
Posted by Chris in CA on April 02, 2003 at 11:52:40:
You mean they don’t just call you ready to sell? 
You make a good point. I’ll go ahead and send letters to all of them tonight and see what comes back. The hunt continues…Thanks Kristine.
Chris
Re: The hunt for abandoned properties - Posted by Chris in CA
Posted by Chris in CA on April 02, 2003 at 10:29:46:
I have Joe’s course. I was refering it.
I probably didn’t make my point clearly. His course revolves around finding truly abandoned (i.e. empty) properties, locating the owner, and then calling or mailing to them with a message such as (paraphrasing): “Have you seen your property lately? It’s trashed. I’d be interested in buying it. Let’s talk.”
My point was that all the houses that I found still have the owners living in them. I feel that sending a letter stating that “…you live in a trashed house and I’d like to buy it” would just put them off.
When anyone runs into this, what do you do? Mail them a letter with a slightly different message, in case they’re contemplating selling, or just move on until you find an emptpy house where the owner lives elswhere?
Thanks,
Chris Smith