I spent 1,400 on a list and mailed the wrong half of it
Fifteen weeks in, one closed deal, and I can now say exactly which 1,400 I set on fire.
I bought a list of 2,100 out-of-state owners for a three county area. Then I filtered it the way a beginner filters, which is by acreage only. Anything 5 acres and up got a letter. What I didn't filter on was zoning or whether the parcel had legal access.
About 600 of the parcels I mailed were landlocked interior pieces in an old subdivided ranch. No recorded easement to a public road. Beautiful acreage, totally unsellable to the builders and rec buyers I'd lined up. I got 31 calls off that segment, which felt like success for two weeks. Four went to contract. All four died, three because no end buyer would touch them and one because the title work turned up a road agreement that had never been recorded and the neighbor wouldn't sign a new one.
Cost: 1,400 for the list, roughly 900 in mail on the dead segment, two earnest deposits at 250 each that I got back, and about six weeks I can't get back.
The thing that stings is that access was checkable before I mailed. The county GIS shows the road network. I could have drawn a line from every parcel to a public right of way in an afternoon.
What I'd do differently: filter for legal access before postage, and treat the county GIS as step one instead of step four.