It's Been a While

Wow, hard to believe my last post was slightly over two weeks ago. I haven't had much to report, since I've been swamped at work and home. I keep telling myself that I need to stay focused so that I can be financially free and not have to worry (as much) about work, bills, work/family conflicts, etc.

I did get back to my mailout list, which has taken me a few days to revamp. At first, I was going to just do a mailout to every homeowner in my farm area over a stretch of 6 months, but I figured (1) it would still cost me a good amount of money to do and (2) the 6-month gap I'd be hitting the same homeowners is just way too long. Marketing is about getting your name and product in the face of the consumer so they can come to you first with their needs. A better ploy would be to hit the same people on a tighter schedule - like 2-3 months. In order to do this, though, my mailout would have to suffer a bit. It was then that a light bulb when off in my head and I realized I didn't need to be sending postcards out to people I couldn't really afford to help anyway - the high-end properties. So, I queried my mailout list for only those homeowners whose homes were appraised at $125k or below. This reduced my mailout list significantly and allowed me to go from a 6-month cycle to only a 3-month cycle. Sure, I will likely lose out on deals >$125k, but my farm area is so satruated with SFR's <$125k, I don't think the loss will be that huge.

Unfortunately, I had wanted to get this final list completed by Monday or Tuesday of this week, so that the homeowners would get them tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday in time for the weekend. Marketing experts say that sending product advertising to homeowners on the weekend is more effective than on the weekdays (i.e., people tend to have more time to read through the mail). Therefore, I may hold off sending the postcards out until next Monday or Tuesday, however, I doubt it will make THAT much of a difference myself.