Hitting roadblocks - sales turned to rentals - no new forwarding address for sellers in tax records either.

Also, I dealt mainly with buyers in my previous yearsand am reaching into the sellers' area for listing for the future (REO listing will not last forever), but, Borino's letter talks of enclosing the name/addresses of happy sellers or if don't have those using sellers from the offices' agents. I am one-woman band don't have that. My only seller-client is the ONE client - REO asset manager.

Any suggestions for changing the letter - anyone?

change that to here is a list of references..like a resume.

anybody who will vouch for you..friends , family, church members, your dentist, doctor, lawyer..etc.

or delete the sentence. but dont change anything else.

dont overanalyze this to much..

get your first 50-100 and mail them.

open up your price range criteria,..

im fortunate in my market there are over 500 expireds each month..
i pick the top 100 and go after them.

I hit one city and two counties. I could expand it out more but I don't want to do alot of heavy travelling. Perhaps I'll add one more county - a higher-priced county.

Interesting that I had emailed Borino this morning and finally answered around 6:30 p.m. (I just checked). Had the same comment as you, Linden, don't over-analyze.

I'll have to change that paragraph somehow. He recommended using the REOs because that's what I'm listing right now; but, these REOs are 1/2 the value of the target homes. My own opinion (maybe over-thinking), if I were a homeowner and my house had a value between $250-450k (target prices), and an agent sent me a list of their solds and they were $50k-260k, I'd say this agent's not 'qualified' because of the price difference; although one REO was over $300k sold, but that was just luck in getting that lovely home. Give me one more reassuring comment before I make this plunge.

500 expireds a month is incredible! Any reason why there are so many? When you say the top 100 - what makes them the top? Condition (gorgeous, not messy decorating)? Higher price range? Location?

location..location..location..take the plunge girl..just take out the paragraph and launch..

need words of encouragement!

you dont need the testimonials yet..you are awesome enough..
now mail them..before I come mail them for you...lol

I'll make you a risk free offer right here in front of everyone..

send at least 100 with proof of postage..
if you dont at least feel better..
I'll mail you half the postage...

First start with your market area and ignore the rest. If you want to expand your area later fine, but focus on one area now. yes adding testimonials is nice, but it is really just one step above yelling look at me and look at what I did once, but still a good idea. so if you have to wait it's OK when you finally do one you can use a testimonial from that deal, here is what the seller of my last one had to say!!! and build on that.

The truth is you never know what will work, get an idea and try it or copy someone Else's which is what you indicate your going to do.

I once used a expired campaign of your house expired without selling, did you do it, or did your agent do it, or were you both it in together? Find out which now with my exclusive review program. You want answers and I will give you my findings, so if you think you are at fault and your overly sensitive please do not call me, call someone that will be the yes man you probably looking for, and maybe just have it expire again. Sometimes only small changes are needed and that is good.

If your agent was doing a good job and it just didn't sell then re-list it with them now, they know you and your house better than anyone else at the present time and deserve the chance to finish the job they started for you. A lot of real estate activities are not visible and so much of what a good agent does for you doesn't show, and most good agents don't spend their time blowing their own horn, they just do what they need to do and hope the desired results show up.

I didn't do it the area I worked at that time but into an adjoining area just to check response and it worked really well but when I tried it into the next area I expanded to after that, it bombed big time but kept working well in the first test area, go figure, homes were similar in price, etc.

But it did lead to my next program which was a program where I declared myself xyz counties only marketing review broker. It was designed where an agent that had a listing heading for it's expiration date, 30 days prox, would call me and I would analyze their marketing and the property and then sit down with the sellers and if the seller extended or re-listed I would receive my consultation fee from the listing agent payable at the close of escrow. Sometimes the sellers wanted to list with me and I had permission from the agent to write me in as a co-lister and my fee became twice the consultation amount normally payable at the close of escrow. But I found out with the same time and effort spent I could produce more full listings with a much larger financial reward. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. Many of the agents wanted me to continue and offered to pay the fee whether the property sold or not but the difference in income was too great.

Lindenmoe - I appreciate the postage offer but it's not gonna break the bank, and, besides that, it's an expense I get to deduct - hubby already panicking because we're gonna get hit with more federal/state tax this year. He says, 'make money' then I make it and he says 'we have to pay taxes, don't make money'. Lord, and I thought women were supposed to be the complicated sex. I'm not backing out of this. I'm just not finding that TOP 100 choice as easily as you are.

Bay Area Brian - That experiment was very interesting. Curious how much you charged for consultation, but, yes, the larger financial reward is the goal.

I've chosen location, price range, nice homes, but there's just not that many in my area right now (that is, those under MY qualifications) - and that's 2 counties and 1 city! I weed out the short sales because those are iffy's anyway. I weed out the ones where the tax record shows a deed transfer of a price higher than what the neighborhood market values are. I did pick homes that were 16 years or younger though. We have alot of new home construction still going on.

Do you think I should expand to the older homes? They don't seem as popular.

Am I being too particular? I don't want to market to homes that are going to be losers and alot of buyers do not want an older home unless that's all that's in their price range...and right now...pricing is totally haywire!

Added later: I am going through the older homes now. This is not easy, but it will get done!

I recommend you open a Google gmail account for just such encounters. Then at some time in the future you can just get rid of that email account.