I’d suggest that you do about 500-800 cards at a one time. Wait a couple of weeks and send out a similar batch. Do this a couple of more times. If, after you have mailed to everybody you have been getting a good response, then mail a second time to a group of them. I think that monthly mailings may be a little too closely spaced. Not too many people will find their situation changed greatly from one month to the next. I’d suggest about every three or four months will be easier to handle and less costly. It also gives you time to work the houses that you buy.
If you can, target first people who bought more than 10 years ago. They will have enough appreciation that they could sell for less than market value and still make a profit. Those who acquired the property in the past year or two are probably lower-valued targets.
After obtaining a mailing list of 5000 people of non-owner occupied homes and lining up the printing, mailing, etc., I’m reconsidering my strategy. I’ve heard and read from a number of investors, primarily on this messsage board, that you can’t go wrong with non-owner occupied mailings. My plan is to send about 4-5 postcards once a month to these folks. On the flipside, I have also heard that some investors have experienced great success with “farming” neighborhoods. My dilemma is I don’t have financial resources to do both, so I suppose I’m just looking for some reassurance that this is a sound plan before I put a few thousand dollars into a single basket.