How to Contact Vacant Property Owners

Now that you’ve located the owner of the vacant property that you’re looking to purchase, you’ll have to get in contact with the owner. If you have done a proper investigation then contacting the owner should be a relatively easy task. We are going to offer a few suggestions about how to go about contacting the owner.

Method # 1 One very popular method to use is a letter to the owner. Our suggestion is to find as many of the owners of the family as possible so that you can write several letters and send them to everyone you can find. This is especially true if you know that the owner is deceased. However, even if the owner is alive, you’ll increase your chances of making contact if you go out of your way to write letters to several people. Here’s why…

Many people who abandon properties are in debt and receive many letters from debt collectors and probably even other people who want to buy their property. Yet if you get lots of letters that you don’t want to receive then after a while you’ll stop opening the mail. I can remember going to one house of a man that I wanted to contact and I saw my letter to him, unopened, on the floor in a pile of other mail in a room full of junk. If I had just contacted him, he would have never gotten back to me. Luckily, by sending a letter to his daughter, she did open the letter and called her dad who in turn called me and we bought the property. So send out as many letters as you can and you’ll have better results.

Letters…Rule # 1 Always Hand Write The Address On The Envelope. You will increase the amount of letters that get opened by 90%. It creates a sense of curiosity and people wonder who it’s from.

Rule # 2 Send more than 1 letter and send to as many people as possible. To save time, you can print out a form letter and just hand write in the name of the person you need to contact and the address of the property they own.

Method # 2. Oversized postcards. The reason we say oversized postcards is because they stand out in a pile of mail. If you have never used the site before, we recommend www.VistaPrint.com for your postcards. They have high quality cards and you can design them with your logo if you have one or easily customize the card to suit your needs.

Method # 3. Phone calls. It’s very important to seperate yourself from the pack of other investors who are likely contacting the owners as well. Especially if it’s a property in a popular investment area. I know that many people have a huge fear of the phone, but once you make a call or two you’ll lose your fear. Remember, people are mostly willing to help you if you are kind and appreciative and humble. Remember, be sly as a fox and sweet as a lamb.

Method # 4 Personally visiting the house. This is very underutilized in the real estate industry. People forget that we are in the people business. So our recommendation is that once you have tried the other methods of contact, you should go to the house where the person lives. If they are not home, you should leave them a hand written note letting them know you stopped by. If they are there, it’s a perfect time to introduce yourself and build a relationship. It’s a very powerful method and one that is often overlooked.

I hope that you will be able to successfully contact the owners of the properties you want to buy by utilizing this information.

In our next article, we’ll be talking about some of the issues that come along with vacant property acquisitions. If we can help you out in any way just let us know at http://www.WeFindOwners.com

Thomas Anderson is a successful vacant property real estate investor. He specializes in working with investors who want to purchase vacant properties and helps by locating and contacting the owners and then getting the buyer to the closing table quickly. http://www.WeFindOwners.com