After logging an address, is knocking ever the right first contact?

Question

Picture 60 addresses logged and sitting untouched for two months, which is its own kind of answer about which channel feels comfortable. The choice among the standard first touches comes down to trade-offs worth laying out plainly. Mail is the cheapest per contact, easiest to run at volume, and gives an owner time and privacy to decide, but it is also the easiest to ignore and does nothing if the owner is not at the address of record. Skip trace and call or text gives the fastest feedback, often within two days on whether a property is in play, but it also puts the caller in the middle of unsolicited contact rules that differ by state and are being tightened, which is worth confirming in writing for the specific state before dialing. Knocking the door has the highest response rate of the three by most accounts, and it is also the most exposed: standing in front of a stranger's house pointing out that their property looks neglected reads to some as the most direct version of the pitch and to others as the reason this channel has a reputation problem. Handing the list to someone with an existing marketing operation for a cut is the fourth option, trading upside for speed and lower personal exposure. There is no single right answer here, only a match between the channel and what the operator is willing to be on the other end of. The channel most people would want to receive themselves is usually the one worth starting with.

renee_dubois · Answer

Mail. The person you want to buy from is very often embarrassed about the property, and an embarrassed person does not want to answer the door to a stranger who has come specifically because their house looks bad. Mail lets them respond on a day they have decided to. The knock advocates are right about response rate. They are measuring responses rather than deals closed at a price you like.

diane_kowalski · Answer

On land I knock the neighbors before I contact the owner, which isn't on your list. The neighbor knows whether the owner died, whether there's a dispute, and often has the phone number. Nobody is embarrassed about somebody else's parcel.

raj_mehta14 · Answer

@diane_kowalski, that is clever and slightly unsettling. Does the neighbor then tell the owner someone was asking about their land?

mitchell_ray4 · Answer

Voted knock. I've spent fifteen years knocking on doors to look at people's furnaces and the thing I'd tell you is that it's a skill and it's not about courage. It's about the first eight words and about standing back from the door rather than on top of it. If you open with the condition of their house you'll get the reputation you're worried about. If you open with "I buy houses on this street, is yours something you'd ever consider selling," it's a normal conversation and half of them say no and mean it.

60 addresses sitting for two months is the expensive option, @ehernandez74. Two of those are probably listed by now.

sonia_alvarez · Answer

Mail, and the reason is documentation. If you ever want to work with a lender or bring in a partner on these deals, a mail campaign is a record. You can show what went out, when, to whom, and what came back. Calls and knocks live in your head and in whatever you remembered to type afterward. That is a lending side view of it, admittedly. But the rules on unsolicited contact are moving, and the channel where you can produce the exact thing you sent is the channel you would rather be able to explain later.

After logging an address, is knocking ever the right first contact?

5 replies