I get about 10 calls a week from my direct mail marketing and almost with out fail the callers have been nice. I’ve counted myself lucky so far as the harshest of calls has been the person who asked me “what kind of scam I am running“. Another not so pleasant response was a guy who mailed back my letter with large words written in sharpie saying “Get a Real JOB!”
Sending out letters to people going through probate can be a little dangerous because you are dealing with people who are very emotional. That is the reason I wouldn’t send the letter until 8 weeks after the probate case was filed. This gave the heirs time to get through the grieving process. With Out of State owners you’ll pick up a few kinds of owners from Landlords, inherited properties, people who moved and are paying two mortgages or someone’s second home. For the most part these people are reasonable and call because they are motivated, wondering what you are about or to take their names off my mailing list.
Driving for dollars however you can step on some land minds! This is what happened to me last week from one of my recent mailings. All the calls that come in are handled by my Google Voice mail and then Lance or I will call them back (mostly Lance). This one gentleman called up irate! He had just come back from the funeral of his father-in-law and found my letter that was mailed to the father-in-law. I only read the transcript and refused to listen to the message because I felt so bad. The guy continued on saying he would press charges if I tried calling or sending anymore letters. I know he can’t press charges for anything I did, but it still made me fee terrible that I caused someone this much distress. I know it was just a terrible coincidence and that is what is going to get me past this, because I know I didn’t nothing intentionally wrong.
On top of that, another member of the family called about 2 hours later and left an equally upset message. It was apparent that these people just lost someone who meant a great deal to them and I feel for them all. They also must have thought I was laying in the weeds and just waiting for the house to free up and then pounce. Not the case as you all know. It was just a house we picked out while driving around the area.
This type of thing is going to happen again I promise. So for those who have yet to deal with someone like this or have already just fight through it and know that you did nothing wrong. If this happens repeatedly, then maybe adjust your marketing strategy.
Does anyone else have any stories like this? And if you have, did you actually speak to the person?
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My very first probate call was like this. It leaves a very sour taste in your mouth. Yours just happens to be coincidence. Just make sure you remove that house from your mailings. Who knows though, they may actually call to sell in 5 months. Emotions can make for very irrational decisions at any time.
Scott – I have only had two callers in 3+ years that were upset with me. Probates are by far my best source of leads.
Scott – I have only had two callers in 3+ years that were upset with me. Probates are by far my best source of leads.