If you know me well, you know that I was always seeking great demographics. One of the areas that even the National Association of REALTORS® agrees with is that empty-nesters move more often than almost any other demographic group.
The identification of empty-nesters is sometimes difficult because of how the tax records are kept in some cities in the United States. If your tax records are digital and carry with them the home’s square footage then we might be able to have success with this demographic in your area.
Here are the steps:
- Contact a list broker or mailing list house in your area. Give them the area that you want with either map coordinates or zip codes. Obtain all homeowners in that area and then match that to the people over the age of sixty-five from another database. If they happen to have square footage records then we can take care of it in one activity, but usually they do not.
- Take your over sixty-five year old home owners to the title company or you might have to do your own search in the digital tax records. Match your list of over sixty-five year old homeowners to all homes over 2,500 square feet. What you now have is a focused mailing list for your area of interest with all the people who live in that area over sixty-five years old and own a home over 2,500 square feet. This group is filled with prime candidates for downsizing or moving.
It is important with all solicitation programs that you do not get overwhelmed with the follow-up phone calls after the letters are sent. If your database is large, I suggest that you break it down into a manageable list. For instance, let us say that you are going to be taking ten names on Monday.
I would suggest using the following letter for the solicitation of this demographic:
Date
Name
Address
City, ST ZIP
Name:
In servicing of the area of (location/region), I have found that some of my most satisfied clients have been homeowners who were thinking about retirement or downsizing. Many of my clients have had a larger home such as yours at (address). These homeowners are delighted with the opportunities they have in the current market.
Some of these opportunities include the following:
- Being able to get top dollar for their home because of the low interest rates.
- Planning a sale around the homeowner’s schedule. This means if you need to take twelve months to make the transition that can easily be accomplished.
- Freeing up a large amount of equity that can then be used to invest for retirement, vacations, or even helping with the grandchildren’s college education. This is important because if the homeowner is going to buy a smaller home or a home in a different area, they can actually buy at such extremely low interest rates that the homeowner might want to use their equity from the sale for other purposes than a down payment.
- Taking advantage of deals on recent construction in the smaller, guard-gated, security-minded, newer developments.
- Utilizing the help of a financial consultant from (name), which as you know is the most prestigious financial firm in the area. We have arranged a free one-hour appointment so these professionals can show you how to properly re-invest your equity that was freed up by the sale.
- Learning how the proceeds from your sale might be income tax free.
- Buying two properties with the equity is easier than you think! Many homeowners choose to use their equity to buy a vacation home and a home closer to family. I can help with that investment by introducing you to the top agents in virtually any city in the world.
I hope that you can see there is a great benefit in considering the sale of your property with someone who has done this for many others. I am happy to direct you to www.waltersanford.com/testimonials to read the success stories from some of my clients.
You might be in the decision stage, which I certainly understand. This market requires a substantial amount of pre-planning. I offer something that I call a pre-listing consultation. This consultation will allow you to discover the small changes that we could make in obtaining top dollar for the sale of your property. It would also allow me to learn your exact goals so that I can customize a marketing plan to achieve those goals.
If you are considering a sale in the next twenty-four months, please do not hesitate to call. Let me give you an insight into some of the other things that I have done for other couples who want to leverage their hard work into a possibly more convenient lifestyle and leverage their money more effectively for the future.
Please accept my phone call in the coming days and let me know if there is anything that I can help you with.
Sincerely,
Walter Sanford
Sanford Systems
P.S. We have many other people on our team including home inspectors, lenders, and handymen who can help you with any area of concern. Please mention in the phone call if you need referrals to some of the top vendors in town.
All that is left now is a phone call within the next five days mentioning the letter and some of the services that you offer. It is an easy phone call when you are asking people if they would like to receive any of the free services mentioned in the letter they just received.
Obviously, you will need to have your “listing leads A” set up for those who want to do something soon and your database with calendared call back dates for people who have longer time plans. You will be talking to some of the best seller demographics in your area. As always, we do not want to ask anyone for anything. We just want to offer them services to help achieve their goals.
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Check out the details: http://www.waltersanford.com/shop/grow-your-leads-just-ask-walter/. Call 800.792.5837 and ask for the $50 blog special on this system!
