Opened with 'I saw your default filing.' Nine seconds later the call ended.
For anyone new: a notice of default is the document a lender or trustee records at the county when a borrower is far enough behind for foreclosure to start. It's public. That's how investors like me build lists, and it's the whole reason I had this woman's name.
I mailed 240 of them across three counties, roughly 1.05 a piece with the list, so call it 300 all in. Nine people called back over three weeks. One of them was a woman in her sixties in a 1980s three bedroom, worth around 280, owing about 196 by her own account. Real equity, real motivation, an auction date eleven weeks out.
She called me. I had her on the phone, she was already talking, and I opened by explaining myself. Something close to "I saw the default filing on your property at the county and I help people in that situation." I thought being upfront was the respectful move.
She went silent, said "so everyone can see that," and hung up. I called back twice, left one voicemail, never heard from her again. She closed with another buyer about three weeks later.
The mistake wasn't the mail. It was the first sentence after she called me, when I told her exactly how much of her private disaster was on a public website. She hadn't asked. All I had to say was that I buy houses in her area, I can close fast, and would she tell me what she's dealing with.
What I'd do differently: never explain where the name came from unless asked, and if asked, answer in one sentence and move immediately to what I can do about her situation. I'd also stop calling back twice. Once is a follow-up, twice is pressure on someone who already feels chased.