Using delinquent tax lists to locate motivated sellers is one of the easiest ways Kathy Kennebrook knows to find good deals and really motivated sellers for your real estate business. None of your competitors are using this resource and there are definitely some motivated sellers in this group.
Each year, just before the tax certificate sale in your county, the county will produce a list of all the people in your county who have not paid their tax bills before the cut-off date. Usually this list will also include the name of the owner, the address the tax bill was mailed to and a description of the property including the subdivision if there is one. They provide this list in order for you to be able to look at properties you want to purchase tax certificates on. But this is also an excellent list for you to use for direct mail campaigns.
There are two easy ways to get this particular list. One is to simply look in the newspaper. Usually a few weeks before the sale, the newspaper will print a section listing all of the properties that have had tax certificates issued against them. They produce this weekly for about three or four weeks right up to the date of the sale. The other way is get this list is to go to your courthouse or tax collectors’ office and ask for it. They will usually gladly give you a copy.
The way Kathy Kennebrook utilizes this list is to carefully go through it and choose properties in subdivisions I want to buy in and mail each of these property owners a letter. The list is going to be fairly large, so picking subdivisions you want to buy in is a good way to hone the list down to something more manageable. The important thing you need to remember is to keep this letter neutral and personal, don’t mention that you are aware that their taxes are behind. You don’t want to do anything to alienate a potential seller.
Kathy Kennebrook mails them a personal looking letter letting them know who she is, how she can help them, and that she am interested in purchasing properties in the particular subdivision they own property in.
Kathy Kennebrook includes with the letter a response area where they will answer questions for me about their property and their motivation so she can determine whether there is a deal there when they respond to my mailing. The response rate from this particular mailing always seems to be very high and brings me a number of leads from motivated sellers. You probably don’t want to mail more than 500 letters at a time, or you may not be able to handle the responses from these motivated sellers.
Many of the people who have not paid taxes on their property have not done so for a variety of reasons, such as an inability to afford them, an inherited property, a divorce situation, a probate situation, or a vacation property they no longer intend to visit.
All of these are situations that are ripe for good deals to be made and many of these sellers are very motivated. Very often, they know they have a problem they need to solve, they just don’t know how until they are contacted by you.
Think about it, if a person just inherited a property they neither want nor need and they just got another tax bill for several thousand dollars, do you think they will be more motivated? The answer is a resounding yes! Sometimes you will see that the tax bill may be more than just one year behind. These are even better prospects. Many times Kathy Kennebrook has purchased properties at wholesale value or below.
Generally speaking, there is no competition for these properties since your competitors simply haven’t thought about using this list as a lead source. In the last mailing Kathy Kennebrook did to this list, she sent out 178 pieces of mail and received almost a ten percent response rate from that mailing. Kathy Kennebrook currently has two of these properties under contract.
This may be an exceptional response, but you should certainly try this mailing and see what kind of response you get. This list can actually be a dual resource for you, one is to find motivated sellers and the other is for you to buy some tax certificates if you are so inclined.
Any time you are able to reach a group of potential sellers, who have problems they need to solve, you will get good leads from them. This particular lead source will create many deals for you since there is a higher number of potential sellers who need to sell. Always be willing to do what your competition will not and you have more deals coming at you than you can handle.
For more information on excellent direct mail campaigns to use to attract motivated sellers from delinquent taxes, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for Kathy Kennebrook’s Free Monthly Newsletter and receive over $149.00 in marketing bonuses absolutely FREE!!