Absentee Owner Lists for Real Estate Investors

Absentee Owner Lists for Investors

How to find, get and use absentee owner lead lists for real estate investors…

Absentee owners are one of the most sought after types of leads for real estate investors and investment firms. How can you find them? What are the pros and cons of different methods for amassing these real estate lead lists? What do you do to maximize the lists once you’ve got the data?

Real Estate Lead Lists

There are many types of leads to help fuel business for real estate investors, including:

Absentee owners intersect and can help identify many of these types of leads as well.

Lead lists come in a variety of formats and can be obtained in a number of ways, including:

  • Building your own list from scratch
  • Collaborating and cross promoting to others’ lists
  • Buying individual leads
  • Buying lead lists in bulk
  • Renting existing lists and databases for individual campaigns
  • Acquiring competitors’ businesses to gain their databases
  • Using software to source highly targeted custom lead lists

Creating vs. Acquiring Lead Lists

The two most common ways to gain leads is to:

  1. Market and network to build your own list
  2. Buying existing lists or access to them

Both have great value. Both have a place in most investor’s business plans. However, most do not have the budget or expertise to grow a list from scratch in enough volume to fuel their business and financial goals. It can take time. It typically requires significant marketing to draw people to your website or blog and to convert them via opt-ins to join and then stay on your list.

Acquiring and tapping into existing lists means plugging right into data that is already there. This is especially important for those getting started or who need to break through plateaus in their businesses.

The Pros of Building Your Own List

  1. Attracting inbound leads who have expressed a desire for your services
  2. Contacts who are expecting and have given permission to market to them
  3. Unique lists which may not be as competitive as others
  4. Stronger personal relationships with prospects
  5. Not reliant on third party data or services
  6. Can be done organically

The Pros of Acquiring Existing Lists

  1. Ability to scale prospect databases instantly
  2. Capability of forcing growth at anytime
  3. Filling the constant need for fresh prospects
  4. Can be more affordable to generate on a per lead basis
  5. Precisions in acquiring highly targeted leads
  6. Speed of generating new business

Who Are Absentee Owners?

An absentee owner is someone who owns property they do not live in.

They often fall into one of these buckets:

  • Second home or vacation property owners
  • Out of area real estate investors
  • Owners of inherited property
  • Debt investors who have foreclosed on property
  • Owners who have had to move and left a vacant property behind

These leads can be especially useful for identifying and connecting with:

  • Cash buyers
  • Private lenders and note investors
  • Motivated sellers
  • Distressed property owners

Absentee owner leads can be used by real estate wholesalers, Realtors, house flippers and rental property investors.

Types of Lists

Real estate lead lists like these can come in many formats and for specific purposes. Some may be designed specifically for direct mail. Others may be great for phone marketing and may have phone numbers, addresses and names. Others may provide email addresses. Some are sourced based on data sourced about those owners and the property. Others can be user generated leads with data provided by that person when looking for help online.

The more generic the cheaper the lead. The more targeted, the more expensive they may be. Though the higher the conversion rates should be.

Investors can often filter these leads by numerous factors to customize lists. These filters can include:

  • Property location
  • Presence of financial distress
  • Amount of equity
  • Number of bedrooms
  • Price ranges
  • Property types

Ways to Market to Absentee Owners

Equipped with these real estate lead lists investors can ramp up diversified marketing campaigns to reach prospects in a variety of mediums and keep on connecting until they become customers.

These options include:

  • Direct mail
  • Cold calling
  • Door knocking
  • Ringless voicemail
  • SMS marketing
  • Cable TV advertising
  • Radio ads
  • Email campaigns
  • Creating lookalike personas to use in social media ads
  • Retargeting ads on Facebook