I’m gearing up to do my first land deal and would love some input on my initial mailing campaign. I’ve selected a specific ZIP code within a county to target and am debating whether to send blind offers or neutral postcards for my first round.
Here’s some context:
-I pulled sales comps from the past 12 months (filtered for land value under $50k and parcels under 2 acres).
-Median sales price: $19k
-Average lot size: 0.24 acres
-About 38% of sales fall outside +/- 15% of the median, so there’s a fair bit of price variation.
Given that spread, would it make more sense to start with a neutral letter (expressing interest but no specific offer) or do blind offers tend to yield better response rates for smaller parcels in this price range?
Any advice or personal experience would be really appreciated!
It’s been a while since I’ve sent any blind offer campaigns. Many of the land investors I’ve talked to this year (those who are still sending direct mail at all) have moved away from blind offers and are doing neutral as a way to start the conversation.
That’s not to say they can’t work, but I do think it’s harder to make them work in this market, where sellers are expecting higher prices and some of them are hearing from lots of other land investors. It gives them the perception that tons of people are lining up to pay top dollar for their property, even if that’s not reality.
How much time do you have to qualify leads? That is probably question you want to answer first. Blind/Range offers will help pre-qualify sellers for you, but neutral offers will probably get you more leads on the phone, but a lot more tire kickers as well who just want to see how much their property is worth. At the same time, talking to a lot of sellers can sharpen your sales skills much faster if you don’t have a background in that.
I am also part of Sumner Healey’s land community and investors there are still having high success with blind/range offers, but you pay for a lot of education on market selection and pricing to make that happen.
I would send a minimum of 5000 letters. Most people are seeing 1 deal for every 3500 to 5000 letters. I have done the texting game for awhile and did my first mailer ever back in August. I sent 4500 and got 1 deal. I am speaking mainly for rural infill/recreational properties. I don’t market to infill lots so can’t speak on that.
Mailing is a very lumpy method. You might get 5 deals one month and zero the next. The key is to keep getting it out there every month and the law of averages should take effect.