complimentary eBook - Pre Foreclosure Data

Marketing to Distressed Homeowners
A complimentary ebook by Homestead Data
It’s been said that knowledge is power. Armed with early, accurate
pre-foreclosure data, you can be the first to advise distressed
homeowners on their options and turn them into motivated sellers.
Yet it’s the application of that knowledge which is even more powerful.
This eBook discusses how to market your services to homeowners that
need your help in this turbulent real estate market.
www.preforeclosuredata.net | 1-866-490-3459

Communicating and Getting Through To
Distressed Homeowners
Homeowners that are falling behind on their mortgage payment are
oftentimes emotionally frozen, or at least in slow motion. Whether due to a
loss of employment, a divorce, illness or other calamitous event, they are
going through a tumultuous time and adept real estate agents and investors
that can help them through this difficult period will undoubtedly be
successful. The challenge for the real estate professional is to instill calm and
help those homeowners overcome the emotional roller coaster of
embarrassment, shame and panic. Yet while distressed homeowners are
eager for options and hope, a great number of them are leery of a stranger
and potentially, a vulture looking to swoop down and profit from their misery.
Remember, the entire media has been telling them for three years that if
someone offers their services to stave foreclosure, it is probably a scam.
All too often, we’ve seen marketing campaigns that talk
bumpkins about the agent’s credentials. The reality is,
distressed homeowners don’t care about you, your
credentials, or even your expertise. These are fine, but
they will not immediately earn the trust of homeowners
falling behind on their payments. Rather than appealing to
the homeowner’s intellect, it’s important to impact the
homeowner on an emotional level. Word-renowned sales
trainer Zig Ziglar explains, “People buy on their emotions
and then justify it with logic”. Sure, if you’ve saved 28
borrowers from foreclosure last month, that’s great. If
you’re a member of the Better Business Bureau, that’s a
sign that you are reputable. You might have specialized
training or a designation in working with distressed
properties which adds credibility. Yet these are all
intellectual features that will not galvanize homeowners
into action. They may come back to your credentials later,
but it’s emotions that are the gateway for those
mortgagors to make a decision to work with you. While
features are the language of intellect, benefits are the
language of emotion.
“People buy on emotions and then
justify it with logic.”
– Zig Ziglar
What would be a better way to sell diamonds?
“This ring features a 1.4 carat, pear-shaped cut white
diamond with a Sl1 clarity grade and an H color rating”.
Unless you are gemologist, this ad is gibberish. Here is what
might sell diamonds better:
“Imagine that special evening when you gently slip this on
your finger and stare intensely into their eyes. She peers at
this symbol of your devotion, the promise of your future
together, and tears begin to glisten. An adoring smile
spreads across her face, and at that moment your love is
sealed forever”.
While distressed homeowners aren’t concerned initially
with your breadth of expertise, training or track record – all
of which are features – they are more receptive to
emotional benefits that help them solve their problem,
make their lives better and most of all, how will you make
them feel good. Some examples of these emotional benefits
might be:
Move on to build better memories… Get a good night’s
sleep for the first time in six months… Relieve the
uncertainty… Let go of the loads of bricks on your
shoulders… Keep your children in their school… Stop the
harassing phone calls…. Help your family… Return to your
normal, day to day affairs, and so on.

Working with distressed homeowners requires a whole
new mindset different than traditional sales. Your goal
should not be to sell, but to solve problems with real
estate loans.
I do not sell, but I can solve problems, says Ken Lawson,
JD, the owner of the Lawson Group Mediation Services. In
the minds of distressed homeowners, they have nowhere
to turn because their stereotypical thinking limits the
possibilities that you as a real estate professional provide.
They expect a lawyer to want them to file bankruptcy.
They expect an investor to rip them off. They expect an
agent to sell their home. In order to overcome this
stereotype, Ken Lawson, an attorney, advertises “Debt
relief without bankruptcy.” If you are an agent perusing
more short sale listings, why not offer a workshop on
applying for a loan modification?
Many successful subscribers to our data “lead in” with a
loan modification for free. While this flies against the
mindset of traditional sales, it is effective in building
rapport with homeowners hanging by a thread because
you are dispelling the stereotype of an opportunistic
REALTOR that is out for a commission. A staggering
amount of distressed mortgagors will not qualify for the
modification. For these disqualified borrowers, it is natural
to turn to the agent that started the conversation with a
loan modification. Having established the trust and
rapport with those homeowners by advising them of all of
their options from day one, the homeowner can lean on
you for advice on other options, including a short sale.
Mortgagors that have attempted a loan mod on their own
are especially appreciative of the REALTOR’s offer to
advise them on applying for a loan modification. Having
experienced the frustration of getting nine different
answers from their bank, getting lost in paperwork and
gaining ire from all of the other complexities and pitfalls of
negotiating with the bank, your message is a welcome
relief.
Enter the revamped guidelines of the HARP 2.0 program,
and the option of modification becomes more appealing
to the homeowner. An effective strategy is to educate
those borrowers on the new guidelines to the program
and offer to explore their eligibility.
It is this solution based, client centric approach that is
attributed to the success of Rick Geha, a partner in Keller
Williams Benchmark Properties that leads his team to
record-breaking sales. When talking in a YouTube video
about working with distressed homeowners, he says,
“When your whole life is spent making sure… clients are
well taken care of… that your reaching out to them, say
‘what can I do for you’, without regard to whether they
buy or sell real estate from you, your whole life will open
up, and people be throwing leads at you”.
With such a high inventory of distressed properties, the
real estate industry is changing, and it is incumbent for
real estate professionals to change with it. The traditional
message of “pick up the phone and call to list your home
with me because I sell so many houses” is increasingly
ineffective at best or at worst, falling on deaf ears.
The quintessential point to grasp from 40,000 feet is that
it is best to position yourself in this turbulent market as a
compassionate real estate professional that offers ethical
solutions to problematic loans, including a variety of tools
including but not limited to a short sale.
“To move people emotionally frozen in action
requires you, the agent, to stop selling and help
them solve a problem. They must see that you are
not after only the listing, but that you have a variety
of tools in your toolbox to help them.”
– Ken Lawson, Esq.

The Call To Action and
Two-Step Marketing –
Telling Distressed
Homeowners What To
Do NEXT.
Ironically, while the call to action is often overlooked, it is
arguably the most important component to your
marketing. Why? Once you’ve piqued the curiosity of the
homeowner, they have to be told what to do NEXT. You
want them to respond, period.
As mentioned in the previous section, many troubled
homeowners are on an emotional roller coaster of shame,
embarrassment and panic. Many of them will not
immediately warm up to a stranger. Your initial “touch
point” can grab the homeowner by their eyeballs, but
unless they take action, your time, energy and money
spent getting in front of them will be for naught.
Ideally, you want the homeowner to pick up the phone,
and so at first thought, you might craft the call to action
“Call for a confidential consultation”. This will lose the
homeowners that are gun shy and not ready to reach out
to you yet. Those leery homeowners that would not
otherwise call you may be motivated to download a free
report, watch a video, or listen to an anonymous hot line
where they can listen to a pre-recorded message on what
some of their options are.
In order to nurture distressed homeowner leads to
fruition, a two-pronged approach should be
employed:
1. Generate a lead by offering something of
value, such as a free report, in exchange
for something in return, such as the
homeowner’s e-mail address.
2. Provide the requested information and
then follow up.
Distressed homeowners need to take baby steps and be
guided along in an incubation process that nurtures the
lead until they are ready to use your services. While a
great number of distressed homeowners are not ready to
part with their homes just yet, they can be warmed along
until they trust you enough and the timing is right to list
their home.
What’s so great about this two-step process? It’s
much easier to spark an interest in learning about
alternatives to foreclosure (a lead) than it is to get
a homeowner to sign on the dotted line. You are
not asking them to sell their home with you – not
yet anyway. In this fashion, you can warm the lead
along and continue your dialog with those
borrowers that first contact began.

A non-threatening way for troubled homeowners to respond is to send them to a
landing page where they can download a gift-wrapped report that contains relevant
information. Some possible report topics might include:
« Five mistakes you should never make if you fall behind on your mortgage payment
« Now that your loan modification has been disapproved, now what?
« Checklist of what steps to take if you receive a certified letter from your lender
« How to stop annoying collection calls using the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
« Short Sale versus Foreclosure- The Consequences
In the homeowner’s mind, they are not saying, “I want to sell my house with this
agent”… they are merely thinking, “Geez, I better get that report because I don’t want
to make those five mistakes!”
Some Words of Caution
You don’t want to overwhelm homeowners with too many calls to action. There’s an old direct marketing axiom that
states too many choices paralyzes your prospect into complete non-action. Studies in supermarkets have shown that if
the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase. Distressed homeowners are no
different.
As a real estate expert, you have a wealth of information to provide distressed homeowners, but you should resist the
temptation to ask the homeowner to access too much information. If you ask them to choose too much, you guarantee
either they will do nothing, or avail all of your resources and close themselves without consulting you. Remember, you
are the real estate expert, not them.
Also, calls to action should be specific. For example, “visit my website for more information” is vague. What will they find
at your destination, and once on your website, what should they do? Here are examples of calls to action with more
specificity:
• If you owe more on your home than what it’s worth, visit my website to download my free eBook on how to get
fair market value for your home.
• Visit my website to watch a video with the answers to commonly asked questions on what a short sale is.
• Visit my website to get a free report on the five things you should never do if you miss a mortgage payment.
• To learn if you qualify for the revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program, download my free report with a
checklist of the new guidelines.

Sending Homeowners to a Landing Page
The purpose of your initial marketing message
should not be to close the homeowner. For
example, a post card by itself normally won’t lead to
a listing. What it can do is serve as a “teaser” by
piquing the curiosity of the distressed borrower and
send them elsewhere for more information, where
the dialogue can be continued. A landing page is an
excellent next step for the homeowner to learn
more after you’ve gotten their attention.
Unlike your initial advertisement – it’s randomly
received by the homeowner and they didn’t ask for
it – a landing page is a destination that the
homeowner got to proactively. Think of a golf
course – a landing page is the putting green that
you drive the ball (prospect) to. Once on the green,
the goal is to get the ball in the hole. Likewise, the
goal of the copy and design of your landing page is
incite the distressed homeowner into taking a
desired course of action.
You wouldn’t ask someone to solve an algebra equation in order to view the content they came for on your website. Nor
should you ask a distressed homeowner to find the page that is relevant to them. A typical agent’s site is busy, with a lot of
links to information that speak to entirely different audiences. For example, your site might have a section geared towards
home buyers, while another section is devoted to homeowners selling their home, and there may be other links sprinkled
about the benefits to moving to your community, tips on moving, etc. If you have a section on helping homeowners stave
foreclosure, rather than sending a distressed homeowner to your home page where they have to work to find the page
relevant to foreclosure help, you should have a separate domain that takes them right to the information they want. For
example, if your main page is bobsellsrealestate.com, you should have a URL dedicated to helping distressed homeowners,
such as BobCares.com, DenverForeclosureHelp.com, BobStopsForeclosure.com, and so forth.
It is critical to capture the contact information of your web visitors using clickable
engagement points that asks the user to take action. By obtaining the contact details of
your web visitors, you can follow up and continue a conversation with the distressed
borrower through e-mail or over the phone using a “drip” campaign. In other words, a
homeowner that volunteers their e-mail address is a “lead” that can be converted in a
sequence of a pre-written set of e-mails sent to them over time. It’s the first rule of
negotiation – “I’ll give you X if you give me Y in return”. If you have rich content to
provide those homeowners that are falling behind or owe more on their home than it is
worth, don’t give it away without the quid pro quo of the homeowner’s information, at
minimal, the homeowner’s name and e-mail address.
In agriculture, drip
irrigation is the process
of watering plants or
crops using small
amounts of water over
long periods of time.
Using the same principle,
you can send timely,
relevant e-mail messages
to distressed
homeowners that have a
demonstrated need for
your services.

Caution should be exercised, however, when asking a distressed homeowner
for too much information. People don’t like volunteering too much information about
them and if they are prompted for too much information, they are likely to hit the back
button.
We’ve seen some forms that ask the homeowner to fill out the property address,
percentage of equity, source of income, how many days late they are, how much they
owe on other bills, how many loans the homeowner has on their loans, and other details.
Besides being overly prying, who has the time to fill all of that information out?
It’s also a good practice to tell the homeowner that their information is confidential and
perhaps even include a link to a privacy policy for extra assurance.
It’s important to stay focused in your calls to action – too many of them and the visitor feels overwhelmed. Distressed
homeowners need to take baby steps, and by limiting the number of choices they have once on your landing page, you reduce
the amount of mental effort. For this reason, in our view, it is better to offer a singular report or a small number of reports,
than to provide a cornucopia. All of your content can be great and empowering, but the homeowner should be guided along
step by step. Do you have multiple calls to action? To indicate the relative importance of a call to action with respect to other
actions, you can vary their sizes. The size of an element relative to its surrounding elements indicates its importance; the larger
the element is, the more important it is. For example, maybe you want the homeowner to download an eBook, but you also
want them to view testimonials of other homeowners that you have helped avoid foreclosure, as well as subscribe to your
blog. Which call to action is more important? If downloading the eBook is a more important step that you want your visitor to
take, make it more prominent. It’s not just the position or size of your call to action that matters. It’s also the space around it.
The more space around a call to action, the more attention is drawn to it. If your call to action is cluttered with surrounding
content, it will be lost in the overall noise of the page.
Here are some sample elements we’ve come across that attempt to galvanize the homeowner into action:

When designing reports, consider that most newspapers and
magazines are written at the 8 th grade level. Some of the
more popular fare, such as People and US Weekly, are written
more towards the 6 th grade level.
You might be an expert on the housing market and have a huge vocabulary of
foreclosure terms, but your audience is the distressed homeowner. You are not
writing to a real estate economist. We’ve seen many reports that provided excellent
information, but reads more like a college textbook.
Does your report speak to the BENEFITS?
One final tip we have when generating content is to ask yourself, “Does this information help distressed homeowners
solve their problem, make their lives better, and most importantly, help them feel better?” Some content, in our view,
doesn’t past that test. For example, many reports center around the credit consequences of a foreclosure versus a short
sale. This might be a consideration for some people, but how vital is it? Most of the homeowners in our credit bureau
database have low FICO scores. If their credit score is already marred, they simply don’t care that much about what the
credit consequences of a foreclosure are. If their credit is atrocious, a less adverse mark on their credit by doing a short
sale just isn’t much of an incentive. Sure, a homeowner may be denied a job with secret government clearance, but how
many distressed homeowners are actively seeking jobs with Top Secret clearance? The task is to provide relevant content
that helps them visualize the future and provide them with something that they desire more than the fear of the present.
Using Online Video to Make a Connection
In today’s online culture of instant gratification and information on demand, it is easier to press
“Play” and watch something, than it is to read. Consider YouTube, a mass medium where over 35
hours of video is uploaded every minute. It’s “always on” and you can watch just about anything
imaginable on demand, it’s free, and you can watch it anywhere. In today’s fragmented media,
younger home buyers and sellers aren’t flipping through the newspaper or watching television,
they are zipping through cyberspace and congregating on YouTube, where you as the agent can
communicate with them on their own turf.
Unless you have a piano-playing cat or a sneezing baby panda, it’s unlikely
that your video will go viral. But nothing can establish trust, empathy and
rapport between you and the struggling mortgagor that visits your site, than
a video. In the course of a 2 to 3 minute video, the homeowner can
experience your voice, hear your tone, and develop a connection in a
“fireside chat”. You have the ability to introduce yourself as someone that
cares, someone that is a real person and one that is likeable. In order to
agree to work with you, the homeowner has to like you and trust you, and a
video is the perfect media to create this personal feel. Have you yourself
experienced tough times? Mention this in the video. An agent in Oklahoma,
for example, experienced tremendous hardship when the drilling industry
was wiped out in the 80’s, and she capitalizes on this opportunity to relate
her personal story and tell those distressed homeowners that she
understands their difficulty because she was in the same boat.

10 Tips on Producing and Editing Video for Your
Landing Page to Distressed Homeowners
1. Your camera doesn’t have to be expensive.
Cheap is fine. As an agent, you likely have a
camera that can produce video. If not, chances
are you know a kid that can lend you their
camera.
2. Get an external microphone jack. Sound is
absolutely critical in an online video, and the
internal microphones on cameras are normally
poor. You can greatly improve sound quality by
investing in an inexpensive external
microphone jack for as little as $20 at Best Buy.
3. Avoid windows. Windows look great on the
late night airwaves with a sprawling
background of LA with fake tinted windows and a zillion lights, but not so good for the layperson.
4. Stay away from barren rooms or tiled floors. You want to avoid any echo.
5. Short is sweet. We recommend a video length of no more than three minutes, otherwise you risk losing your audience.
Studies from eyeviewdigital.com, a technology solutions provider to advertisers and ad agencies, show that the
attention of your viewers will significantly atrophy as your video goes on.
6. Get a tripod. Positioning your camera can be cumbersome. By getting an inexpensive tripod, you can place your
camera seamlessly in the right place and hold it steady, without calling on other people to hold the camera for you.
7. Import, edit and save your video using free software. If you have Windows, you probably have Movie Maker already
installed on your computer or if you are a Mac person, IMovie.
8. Camera shy? You can use screen recording which marries your voice to your web navigation. Cam Studio is an open
source program you can use to capture what is on your computer screen and convert it to video. You can also record
audio using an inexpensive set of headsets and add background music using Audacity, a free, cross platform software
for recording and editing sounds.
9. Don’t get bogged down in file formats. Videos can come in .wmv, .mov, .mp4, Flash and other formats, but you can
upload to sites like YouTube, MetaCafe, Blip.TV and other video hosting sites that will convert your video file for you.
You can then embed these videos into your website.
10. State and amplify your call to action in the video. What do you want the homeowner to do NEXT? The distressed
homeowner may find your video informative and leave your site. To retain your visitors, spell out in specific detail
what steps you want the homeowner to take next. A video can be a great mechanism to fill out a form that is placed in
close proximity. For example, you can say in your video, “Type in your e-mail address on the form above (and point to
it) to discover how you can…” (complete the sentence)

Using Direct Mail
Direct mail is a tried and true method to
generate new business. During an age where a
lot of marketers are zipping Tweets across
cyberspace and pulling in fans for Facebook,
direct mail can seem decidedly old school. Yet
direct mail should not be dismissed as too
pricey or passé, and can be combined with
online marketing to create synergy. It also
creates a more personal touch and is a snap to
measure.
Postcard Advertising
When reaching out to distressed homeowners, postcards
have been a popular vehicle. After receiving two of our
lists, Andy Waldo, a Certified Distressed Property Expert in
Winchester, Virginia, landed 10 listings by sending
postcards. Countless others have had success with
postcard marketing because they are cheap to print,
cheap to mail, and they don’t have to be opened – they
stare homeowners in the face. Yet there are some
potential pitfalls when using this “tiny billboard”.
Postcards should not be meant to close the
homeowner. You can’t fit much information on a
postcard. Your objective with a postcard, then, should not
be to get the homeowner to commit to working with you,
but to drive them to other outlets where they can obtain
more information, such as a landing page. Your postcard
can be a “teaser” that prods the distressed homeowner to
learn more and continue the dialog that the postcard
started.
Repetition is key. If you send one postcard, one
time, to one list, hopefully it will generate a response.
But it is repetitive mailings over time that creates big,
predictable results.
Instead of a logo of your real estate company,
how about a map to your office? In our view, a
logo isn’t as important as a brick and mortar
address. People want to see a real place and this is
especially true for distressed homeowners that feel
vulnerable. Having a real place for the homeowner
to see and visit will go a long way to establishing
credibility.
Postcards should speak about benefits. In many
postcards we have seen, the limited canvas space was
squandered with large portraits of the agent and a list of
their credentials. As discussed earlier, the only question
the homeowner has is “What’s in it for me?” The
homeowner is compelled to respond if you focus on
emotional benefits. Here’s a postcard that does a good job
mentioning tangible benefits.

Sending Letters
We’re often asked what is better to mail to a homeowner falling behind on their mortgage payment, a postcard or letter?
Our experience has shown that there is no silver bullet that is a clear winner in terms of a marketing vehicle. The biggest
determinant of success is the number of “touch points” you make with the homeowner, using multiple vehicles and
channels. Having said that, we believe that when sending letters, it will take less mailings to achieve an impact, relative to
postcards. In other words, two to three letters will create as much results as sending four to five postcards. The reason is
the intimate nature of a letter. In today’s fast-paced society, no one seems to take the time anymore to write a letter. It
strikes of personal correspondence that is hard to ignore.
Yellow Letters
A hybrid of the traditional sales letter is the “Yellow Letter”, a handwritten, usually
brief message written on yellow rule paper. Its magic lies in its personal touch, look
and feel. Since the homeowner sees that you took the time to handwrite the letter,
the Yellow Letter smashes through the clutter and commands their attention. It’s as
if receiving a wedding invitation or a birthday card from Uncle Tom. The drawback
to the Yellow Letter is the amount of time required to individually write each piece.
While there are computer programs you can use to simulate hand writing the best
results come from authentic human handwriting. If you don’t want to get Carpel
Tunnel, you can rely on our staff to do the handwriting for you.
« You can view PDF samples of Yellow Letter here.
The Envelope
Studies show that recipients spend split seconds deciding whether to open your envelope.
Regardless of how many time and work you invested in creating your mail piece, you can
go from hero to goat in these mere seconds. Let’s face it – we all judge a book by its
cover, and distressed homeowners will judge your direct mail by the envelope. Getting
your envelope opened is half the battle, and today’s savvy consumer will often zone out
anything that looks commercial. Want to guarantee that your mail piece is opened? Hand
addressing your envelope will ensure that your message is read.
As discussed in the first section of this eBook, distressed homeowners may have a
preconceived stereotype of what you as a REALTOR does, and for this reason, consider
eliminating your company logo and even your company name in the return address. By
including only your name in the return address, it strikes of personal correspondence.
A Word About Postage
Postage is expensive and keeps rising. Since everyone wants to save coins nowadays, a postage
meter can be tempting to shave marketing expenses, yet first class postage gets the highest open
rate. Live stamps typically more than pay for themselves because it looks non-commercial. While
first class postage creates the impact of personal correspondence, consider using unique, attentiongrabbing
stamps with animal, seasonal, or holiday themes on it.

Think inside the box.
Also referred to as “lumpy mail”, dimensional mail is mail that takes on any form
other than your typical flat piece of mail. Although it can come in many shapes
and sizes, all dimensional mail has one thing in common – it is practically
guaranteed to be opened like a little kid opening presents underneath a
Christmas tree. People love opening up packages and almost always pay
attention to what’s inside.
While dimensional mail costs more to produce and mail, the return on
investment is superior. A real estate investor in Corpus Christi, Texas sends a
fortune cookie to distressed homeowners on our list. The recipients open the
fortune cookie and are greeted with a slip that says, “What’s in your home’s
future? Save your home, call me”. This innovative campaign yields a double digit
response. How clever is that?
Snap Pack Mailers
The easiest way to picture a snap pack mailer is an IRS refund check in the mail. The pressure sealed snap pack mailers is
perforated on three sides for easy and official opening and is designed to look important. The recipient tears the perforated
strips off the side and bottom of the mail piece in order to open it and see your message.
Because of its official looking, urgent, time sensitive format design, snap pack mailers have an extremely high open rate.
The snap pack mailer is familiar to the mortgage industry that promotes government sponsored refinance initiatives. Enter
the new guidelines of HARP 2.0 and the listing agent can harness the official look of the snap pack mailer to grab
homeowners by their eyeballs and start a conversation about their eligibility to lock in historically low rates under the
revamped Obama guidelines. In terms of a lead capture system, it is easier to “hook” distressed homeowners on learning
about their eligibility for the HARP 2.0 program, than asking them to list their home. When the homeowner doesn’t meet
the requirements, you can now educate them on the other options at their disposal.

Knocking On The Doors Of Distressed
Homeowners
How many ads can pull a football fanatic out of
his chair, during an exciting football game, to
see or hear your advertisement? The answer is
none. Delivering your message of hope and
solutions in person to a captive audience at the
doorstep can make the most indelible
impression.
Here is some sample verbiage we’ve come across that has worked well for other agents when door knocking:
KNOCK KNOCK. “Hi, Mr. Smith… my name is Bob, I’m a local real estate/short sale expert, I provide ethical,
compassionate solutions to problems with real estate loans and I’m visiting the neighbors this evening… I
hope I’m not interrupting dinner, I just want to get a couple of these in your hands and get out of your
hair…. (hand them a card, flyer or other collateral with a link to your free resource).
This is a book I put together and I’m not sure if this applies to you or not, Mr, Smith, but I’m sure you
know someone here in Maricopa County that is having a hard time making their mortgage payment or
owes more on their house than what it’s worth, and if you give this to them, they’ll thank you, I know
they will. It’s not about me, I wish they would call me, but they’ll thank you for this. This book will show
them how to avoid foreclosure, it’s got all the tools they need, resources to pull it off. Maybe they want to
sell their house for free – short sale – deed in lieu of foreclosure, maybe they just want the bank to
foreclose, maybe they’ve been trying to modify that loan for six months now and it’s just not going
anywhere. This book will talk about that, too, and what to expect. So can I leave you with a couple of these
and you can download it and get a free copy and you can send it to whoever you might know, maybe a coworker,
someone at the gym, family member, friend, that is upside down on their primary residence – or
investment property – it doesn’t really matter, this book will help them out, it will show them the way out,
well, out of the woods. I appreciate your time, have a fantastic evening”.
The key component to this is “I’m not sure if this applies to you or not, but I’m sure you know someone”… this
verbiage disarms the homeowner because you are not singling them out. If you are using our list, you never want to
profess that you have inside knowledge that they are falling behind on their mortgage payment – it will be the
quickest way to get thrown off the porch.

Some Pointers When Canvasing In Person
Have a Script Prepared
When you are face-to-face with a distressed
homeowner, your goal is to make an
emotional connection. In theater, all actors are
scripted because they are trying to build
emotional excitement with the audience. In
the same way, you should have a script
prepared instead of “winging it.” Whether it’s
our example or another script, you should
know what you are going to say before you say
it. You have a small window of opportunity to
introduce yourself as someone that genuinely
cares about their plight. Many agents and
investors mistakenly blurt the first words out
of their mouth and never recover.
Ask To Come Inside
Many novices think that the deal is going to be
made right on the front porch. If the
homeowner is receptive to learning more, try
to face them on the turn they feel most
comfortable in – their kitchen table.
Nobody Home? Leave Behind an Overnight
Mail Package
Obviously, the homeowner will not always be at their
residence when you visit, but rather than squander the
opportunity by moving on to the next house, drop off an
Express envelope with your material. Some people insert a
door hanger, but door hangers look commercial. Many
homeowners will not even bother to read what is on the
door hanger and just assume it is from Dominos Pizza.
Not Up To Door Knocking? Hire someone else
to do it.
Let’s face it – it takes a special kind of person to knock on
doors, and not everyone is cut out for it. Still others that are
not averse to knocking on doors say that they are simply too
busy to go up and down the street. If this sounds like you,
you can still harness the power of door knocking by paying
someone else to perform this task.
Modesty is Important – No Bling
Image isn’t everything… unless you want to
succeed. If you pull up to the homeowner’s
address in a fancy car with a suit and
expensive jewelry, you look like an opportunist
that stands to profit from the homeowner’s
misery. Conservatism is key.
Look Non-Threatening
First impressions are key. When the
homeowner looks out to see who is knocking
on their door, you better look nonthreatening.
Keep your hands in plain view and
stay a sufficient distance from the entrance. If
you hear the homeowner coming to the door,
perhaps back up and turn sideways, as if to
leave. This will convey that you are not a
threat.

The Marketing Secret Every Child Knows
“Don’t expect results after one
call, mailing or door knock. The
foreclosure process can take
months, and many distressed
homeowners will refuse to face
the reality of their situation
until their time has run out.
As with any effective outreach
campaign, follow the “Rule of
7” which states that the
majority of prospects need to
be contacted a minimum of
seven times before they notice
your message. Distressed
homeowners, who are often in
denial of their situation, may
require even more touches.
Stick with it; persistence is
key”…
Article from the February Issue
of the Distressed Property
Newsletter
You probably tell your clients Location, Location, Location. We
tell our clients Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.
If you are a parent, you know how hard it is to refuse repeated requests for an ice
cream or a desperately wanted toy. If you are not a parent, you probably
remember asking, even begging for a toy, a treat, or permission to stay up past
your bedtime, until your parents finally gave in.
Distressed homeowners are similar.
They need to be asked repeatedly, too.
The reality is marketing has never meant
to be and will never be a one-time shot.
It’s a well-established marketing axiom
that any communication is most
effective when it is repeatedly brought
in front of your target audience. It may
take multiple “touches” to create the
trust and rapport necessary for
homeowners to give in. Familiarity
builds credibility, which in turn builds
trust.
This rule of repetition is even more important when contacting homeowners that
are late on their mortgage payment. In ordinary mailings, the intended recipient
may have been away, lost or misplaced the mail piece, been distracted with more
pressing tasks, or a myriad of other possibilities. When mailing to financially
distressed homeowners, these homeowners are oftentimes facing major life
events such as a divorce, loss of a job, and other tumultuous circumstances that
compete with your message for their attention.
We're often asked what the best marketing vehicle is to generate a response. Is it a
post card, a phone call, a letter, a knock on the door, or is it best to drive them to a
website? The answer is all of the above. There is no silver bullet. Rather, it is
constant exposure to your service that is the biggest determinant of success.
Consider the marketing of Publishers Clearing House. Here is a company who sells
magazines with great flare… “Win 10 million dollars in the Publishers Clearing
House Sweepstakes!” You’d think everyone would jump at the chance to win all
that money and get their magazine of choice, right? Of course not – we all know
it’s not that easy. They get people to buy its magazines through an absolutely
incredible marketing campaign. The center point of that campaign is repetitive
mailings over an extended period of time.
Follow this principle and you will have a smile on your face just like the child with a
belly full of ice cream that they convinced mom or dad to buy.

The Mailbox versus the Inbox – the ultimate boxing match, right?
Actually, smart marketers know that it’s not about choosing one corner. Rather, you can
integrate both mail and the Internet into your media mix to create synergy. One plus
one isn’t two, it’s four.
For instance, your postcard can drive distressed homeowner’s to a landing page where they can enter their e-mail
address in order to access a video or free report. Rick Lemmons, an agent in Ohio, understood the marriage between
direct mail and the Internet when he sent a letter to distressed homeowners. It’s a surprising fact – a staggering 4 out of
5 people read the P.S. of a letter first, because it’s viewed as a more intimate message. In his P.S, he invited the reader
to watch a YouTube video that had an interview format that defined some key foreclosure terms. « Watch the video
here. Upon last check, this video generated over $800,000 in new listings.
Provide Something Extra
A free gas card or gift card may be the extra incentive
necessary to unfreeze homeowners into action and get some
face to face time. There’s something magical about the word
“FREE”. Let’s say your mail piece drives a homeowner to your
web site, where they enter their e-mail address to download a
free report. You can then e-mail the homeowner with
additional information and inform the homeowner they will
get a free $50 gas card by coming in to your office for a 20-
minute consultation to figure out the best option legally
available for their situation.
Times are tough, especially so for a delinquent homeowner. For this reason, a free gas card or other promotional item can
be the extra prod it takes to get in front of borrowers that need your help. This type of promotional marketing strategy is
commonplace with other products and services, but rare in the distressed property industry. You can provide the best
solution for the homeowner and with a gas card, you put your money where your mouth is.
Put an Expiration Date on Your Offer
We've all received pieces of mail that want us to do
something. And they're typically covered with act now,
supplies are limited, this is a limited time offer, this offer
expires soon, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and so
on. Why do people still do this? Everyone knows that the
limited time offer is probably twenty years. The answer is
because it works. In the above example of offering a free
gas card in exchange for a face to face meeting, you can
create urgency by telling the homeowner they have to act
by Friday in order to get the gift.

Directing Distressed Homeowners to a Hotline
Many delinquent homeowners are cautious and would prefer the
anonymity of listening to a recording that presents your message of
hope and solutions.
One way to overcome a distressed homeowner’s inaction and lack of trust is to send them to a pre-recorded hotline
that makes an introduction and provides an overview of what some of the homeowner’s options are. Many
homeowners that are otherwise hesitant to call you, would call a hotline to hear a recorded message. This is a nonthreatening
call to action – there is little perceived risk on the part of the homeowner. A hotline also provides the
opportunity to add a human element – the homeowner gets to hear your voice and tone. You can enable your hotline
to be patched through to a live person. If the homeowner is comfortable with the message and/or messenger, they can
dial 1 to start a conversation.
There are many affordable technology providers such as Voice Nation that can set up your hotline. We recommend
keeping your message relatively short, perhaps two to three minutes long so as to not lose the listener’s attention. The
goal with your hotline should not overwhelm the homeowner with too much information, close the homeowner, or
provide every detail on what their options are. At this stage, the objective should be to start a “heart to heart”
conversation with the listener that establishes trust and rapport with a calm voice of reasoning and empathy.
“I started mailing to the pre-foreclosure list in 2004. The most effective mail pieces for generating immediate business have
always been the toll-free Recorded Messages. I find that a six-piece sequence over 3-4 weeks to around 400 homeowners gets the
phone ringing immediately, averaging a couple calls per day for 2-3 weeks”
- Ross Kilburn, Seattle Short Sales, Inc.
“Sellers in distress are looking for solutions, but are very cautious as there is so much info/mis-info going around. By providing
low risk, low or no exposure information to these folks gives them the ability to anonymously shop for a solution provider who
they feel comfortable with. Whether it be websites, recorded messages or chat – no matter. The more media types, the larger
your potential audience. Once size doesn’t fit all ” - Steve Mallires, Real Choices Realty
The added benefit to using a pre-recorded hotline is that the phone numbers of incoming calls can be logged so if the
listener does not eventually take action, you can call them back to follow-up.

Tracking Your Results
The reality is there are myriad variables that influence the success of your campaign to distressed homeowners. Your
headline, your copy, your call to action, the frequency of contact, even the day of the week and colors are just some of
the factors that play a role. Our advice is to TEST, TEST TEST again to see what works – and what doesn’t work.
For example, let’s say you want to know which a more compelling
report is. You can send 1,000 postcards that are identical except for
the free report offered.
You send 500 postcards to delinquent homeowners which prompt
them to download a report on “The five mistakes you can’t afford to
make if you fall behind on your mortgage payments”. You sent 500
postcards to another set of homeowners which asks them to
download a free report “Are you eligible for the Home Affordable
Refinance Act under the new Obama guidelines?”
You can clearly discern which report is more alluring. If 13 people download your report on the mistakes they
shouldn’t make and 7 people download your report on the HARP program, you can say that the first report generated
nearly a 50% better response and thus, promote that report more heavily.
When conducting this A/B or “bucket” testing, it’s important to keep other things equal besides the specific element
you want to test. For instance, if you are testing the report offered, the two different report s should be on landing
pages with the same design. If they are on pages with unlike designs, you can’t conclude that more people
downloaded “Report A” because it was more interesting than “Report B”. Perhaps Report A was placed higher on the
page, with big bolded text and/or arrows that prominently directed attention to download the report, whereas Report
B was placed lower in the page with less attention-getting callouts around it.
Conversely, let’s say you want to test the design of your landing page, you would keep the report constant – you offer
the same report but with different page designs. In this case, you can determine which is the more compelling design
because more people downloaded your report on “Page A” than they did on “Page B”.
If you are not tracking your marketing to distressed
homeowners, you are not marketing. The results of your
marketing should not be left to chance. Rather, it should
be a deliberate, calculated and methodic approach of
testing what works, and what doesn’t work.
Significant improvements can be seen through
testing elements like copy text, layouts, images
and colors. However, not all elements produce
the same improvements, and by looking at the
results from different tests, it is possible to
identify those elements that consistently tend to
produce the greatest improvements.

The Most Important Component of Your Marketing Is The List.
At Homestead Data, we provide early, accurate and exclusive pre-foreclosure data for real estate professionals. In the short
sale business, nothing increases profits more than being the first. Unlike the vast majority of other pre-foreclosure sources that
compile their information through public records, our “soft” credit data is not yet public information, as illustrated in this time
chart:
For expert consultation, fast counts and custom quotes, call us at 1-866-490-3459, or visit www.preforeclosuredata.net.
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