It’s that time of year again, the holidays, baking cookies, time with family… and also time for reflection on what you achieved over the last year.

This is when people who are serious about improvement take a few minutes to analyze what they did well, what they did that did not go as well, and what actions they need to take to make sure they are more effective next year.

Look back on the goals you created last January and see how well you did on each of them. Did you hit each one out of the park, or did you do well on a few and need to refocus your efforts on others?

Maybe one of your goals was a new approach for talking with sellers, maybe one was delegating more to your virtual assistant, or maybe one was just trying to do more transactions. Whatever your goals were, if you created strong, specific goals for yourself and were diligent about checking your status, you know if you were successful in achieving them.

If you did not to create goals for yourself, think about what you accomplished over the past year. Did everything work out perfectly? If you’re like most of us, probably not. Now that you have the benefit of hindsight, what can you do differently next year to be more successful?

Want to send a thank you card to someone, but don’t have time to go to the store and get the card, then go to the post office to get a stamp?

We have you covered! Now you can send one thank you card whenever you want, with any message you want!

Here’s how it works: simply tell us what you want your card to say and the return address for your envelope, and we’ll have one of our writers hand write your entire card, including handwriting the envelope with both the address and return address. Then we’ll put a commemorative first class stamp on the envelope and put it in the mail for you, all for just $2.99!!!

Yep, during the holidays. Think about it this way – the envelope is written by hand, there’s a commemorative stamp on it, and it looks just like the Christmas cards everyone is receiving right now, so you know it will get opened. Also add the fact that this is a slow time of year for people selling a house, so they’ll be happy to get any type of lead from a prospective buyer. Then think about all the other investors who are “taking a break” at this time of year, and WHAMO, no competition!

Now you can make money just by talking to your friends! Join our affiliate program and earn a commission on every referral, whether it’s for letters, leads or both. There’s no fee or investment to get started and we take care of all of the work. Just tell your friends and colleagues about us and starting earning your commission today!

There’s an article on us in the September/October issue of Personal Real Estate Investor magazine. It’s on page 43, and it talks about the effectiveness of handwritten direct mail. Pretty neat, huh?

Would you rather compete with Microsoft or nobody?

Easy answer, right – who on earth would choose to compete with an entrenched company that has enormous resources?

Yet this is exactly what many real estate investors and Realtors are doing.  They’re going after the same leads the same way as everyone else in their community, using saturated approaches like Craigslist and newspaper ads.  Then they wonder why their results are the same as everyone else’s.  Some people think outside the box and take an approach that’s different from their competition, getting breakthrough results.  Which one would you rather be?

This is a great question and the answer is… it depends. The biggest factor to consider when choosing a mailing list is your target audience. Are you looking for a property seller, a property buyer, or both?

Popular lists for finding property sellers include Pre-Notice of Default (Pre-NOD), Absentee Owner, and High Equity leads (also known as Free and Clears). A Pre-NOD lead is someone who is 30, 60 or 90 days past due on their mortgage, and they may need to sell their property to prevent foreclosure. Absentee Owner properties are typically vacation homes or rental properties, but can also be homes that someone has moved from but not yet sold. There are also High Equity leads, which are people with at least 50% equity in the property. For more information on these leads, click here.

The more frequently used lists for finding buyers include Renter and High Net Worth leads. Renter leads are people who are currently renting. They may be living in an apartment complex or a duplex. High Net Worth leads are people who have liquid assets of at least $1 million, and this list can be filtered by people who are or are not real estate investors.

These leads all come from credit bureaus, they are not public knowledge. This means someone using one of these lists will have much less competition for a property or individual because the information is not publicly available.

We have a new online special for each of these leads, order now before it’s gone!

All we need from you to get started on your marketing campaign is the 10 zip codes for your leads. Now it’s easy to find those, too! Just click here and you’ll be directed to Hipcodes, a great new site that will help you find your zipcodes!

We get this question a lot. How can people possibly get a 5-15% response rate with a direct mail marketing campaign? The simple answer is that our letters don’t look like a typical marketing letter.

Our letters use the handwriting of a person, not computer generated font. There isn’t a clear window on our letters, they don’t come in a business-size envelope, they don’t have a bulk mail stamp, and most importantly, the envelope isn’t typed! Since our envelopes are hand addressed and the letters are printed using a person’s handwriting, people want to open them to see what is inside. Our letters look like an invitation or a thank you letter, not a marketing letter.

Still skeptical? Request a free sample today and see what it’s like to receive one yourself!

We just added a Return On Investment Calculator to help make your investment process even easier. It’s simple to use and will help you determine the return on your marketing investment. Click here to try it out.