| Mailing lists..cheap using non-trad'l methods
Lots of folks here inquiring about mailing lists lately. Costs, good list vendors, types of lists, etc.
Lots of those same posters have only a shoestring budget for said lists.
Aside from what I have already written here and on other forums on this subject, here are some very cheap, very effective ways to obtain good lists using non-traditional methods. Please note these methods may or not be possible in your area. Indeed, some of these same methods I will write about here are not any longer possible in my own area, due to legislation recently enacted, such as the Family Privacy Act in South Carolina.
Currently I spend around $2000 per year on lists that I purchase, but before that became possible I used some or all of these methods:
1) County tax rolls may print for you a list of folks with delinquent property taxes. These properties will be sold at auction unless said taxes are paid. You may be able, using an appropriate FOI request, to obtain a list of those properties with the mailing address of the owners from the assessor/auditor's office in a given county.
2) Back when a suitable number of investors was available, I, for 2 years or more, obtained lists from local assessors offices of every mobile home owner who owned the land underneath the structure. This was a windfall for me and kept me busy for all of 1998 and 1999. This method is no longer plausible for me, but for those of you all who have a good investor list and a decent market for it, it may provide some benefit for you.
3) Interest rates being so low for so long has spawned many homeowners to upgrade to bigger houses while keeping their original homee and either renting them or providing private financing for prospective new owners using a bond for title, contract for deed, etc., whatever the applicable language is in your area. Your title company may have some of those non-institutional mortgagees in their databases, or, again, your local recorder's office may be able to create such a list for you. In every county office in SC, mortgages, when they are filed are assigned a code when they are logged. This same code is forwarded to the assessor's office for the purposes of knowing where exactly to send the tax notice, either to the institution (if escrowed, then a duplicate notice to the homeowner) or directly to the homeowner. Every institutional mortgagee is assigned a number, and so are the non-institutional ones as well. You simply ask for a list of folks in the appropriate office for a list of those mortgages assigned a non-institutional code and go from there. Again, you simply need an appropriate FOI request. This is a gold mine, as most of these folks have mortgages without a conveyance being recorded, so the mortgagor is making mortgage payments without being (technically, in the most literal sense) a homeowner. So you then can present them not only the possibility of actually becoming a homeowner, but point out the tax benefits as well!!!! Customers will be elated when you contact them. This is a highly effective method of list acquisition and it is very inexpensive.
4) Lis pendens lists aka foreclosure pending lists. These lists might be best used only by the more experienced originator, but lists for folks who have an action pending (a foreclosure is a legal act) are available from assessor/tax colletor offices.
5) For five years, an originator of mine did nothing but refinance builder-financed homes, rates fixed by these builders at 10%. Sometimes conveyances were recorded, sometimes not. If builder financing is a big deal in your area, then you should know that very often these deals are done at substantially higher rates than conforming. You simply need the legal name of the filing entity, and go from there. Specifically, (here's a bone), try Jim Walter Homes, among others. It would behoove you to get cozy with a title abstractor or two. (I can abstract titles and one of my originators does that now while she converts to being strictly a loan officer).
Generally, you should understand that your county office can be a treasure trove of information, aside from just pulling mortgagee records. EVERYBODY seemingly pulls courthouse leads, I did (or paid somebody) for years and years and years. It works, and it will make you some money. Those folks, by and large, will refinance. But the methods above are a way to fly beneath the radar somewhat to otherwise get good leads.
Your assessors office MAY, an additional example, be able to provide you with a list of folks with assessed values of x, with no mortgage filed in the last x number of years.
Similarly, it is important to know what the law is in your area. The above methods are no longer possible in my area because of legislation enacted in 04. Before that, quite a few county offices refused, initially at least, to comply with my requests until an FOI request was presented. Indeed, a number of them refused even after that, and the ones that did comply frowned considerably when they saw me coming. So know what is permissible in your area.
Lastly, these offices will require a charge for processing, but I never paid more than $100 for any one list, and most yielded thousands of records.
So, get familiar with Excel, see what is available in your area, do some planning, and have at it!!!!!
Best wishes.
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John Fowler
Carolina Home Loans
800-239-3196
Author, Mentor
Thousands Closed Since '89
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