The “Original” Yellow Letter

The One That Started It All

Your instant tool for rapid response from motivated sellers

http://flippinghouses.club © Copy Write Protected

I’m Bill HawthornReal Estate Investor & someone

who has mail thousands of yellow letters

The Yellow Letter Campaign

Types of letters Each letter has very subtle variances for maximum effectiveness depending

on the mailing campaign

Use this letter when you know the homeowners name

A Personal Letter

The Dear Friend Letter

Send this letter when you don’t have the homeowners name instead of using dear homeowner or dear occupant, etc.

Use This Letter When You Have The Name

• The content of this letter is placed lower on the page.

• You can always fill in personal information if you have it or just send it as is.

The Out of Area Letter

• Send this letter to homeowners whose name you know but are not occupants of the home or are out of the area.

• Good to use for properties that you know are rentals or for lists of “out of area” homeowners that you have obtained from the county.

Who do I send it to?

Lis Pendes

Pre-foreclusures

Foreclosures

Bankruptcy

Expired Listings

Without a listing

For Sale By Owner

House for Rent

Divorces

Out of Area Owners

Vacant Homes

Zip Codes

The person who is writing the letter should be the same person who will fill in the blanks on your printed letters & address the envelopes.

If you’re hiring someone to address the envelopes and fill in the blanks have them write the letter that you’re printing (or, taking to the print shop)!

How Do I Speed This Yellow Letter Process Up?

1. Place a blank sheet of unlined white paper on top of a yellow lined sheet of paper.

2. On the blank sheet of paper, using BLACK INK, you are going to write a copy of the yellow letter by hand. Don’t forget to use YOUR name and phone numbers

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for each version of the yellow letter.

4. Once you have your copies made (see below), you then go back with the same pen and fill in the blanks (name & address).

Take the blank paper you wrote the letter on. Put it in your copy machine so it may be copied. Then put the blank yellow paper in the tray to be copied. And run off as many copies as you need.

• Work with a print shop that understands your needs

• Show them the sample letter you created

• You want the print shop to print your letter on lined yellow paper with red ink.

• Have the print shop match the red ink on the letter to the red ink pen you will use to fill in the blanks.

• Minimum quantity & pricing varies by print shop.

How do I work with a print shop?

You can use any local print shop if they understand what you want.

Good ones are Alphagraphics, UPS stores, Staples, or Officemax

How Should I Mail the letters? The Envelope • Addressing envelopes by hand works

the best.• I use an ivory colored 4 ⅜ x 5 ¾

Invitation size envelope• We use commemorative stamps like

the Hollywood Stars, Flowers & Seasonal Stamps. Some of my favorites are Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and of course, the DUKE himself, John Wayne.

The Return Address • Place on the back, top middle of the

envelope. • Don’t use any names, like your name

or your business name, on the return address label.

• Use a clear or decorative return address label that only includes your Street, City, State & Zip Code.

• Your return address should not be a PO Box, an easily recognized business district address or business street. It should be a mail pick up store that uses an actual address and not a PO BOX.

How Should I Mail The Letters?

Example . . .

Note: I mailed this letter to myself so both addresses are the same intentionally.

Hiring an envelope stuffer • If your paying someone else to hand write & stuff the

envelopes for you supply them with the stamps, red pens, envelopes, letters & of course, donuts! We pay between .25 & .35 cents per letter depending on how many letters and how quickly we need them done.

• Make sure to count the number of supplies (stamps, envelopes, letters) that you give to them. Have them return the finished letters to you for you to mail out yourself.

• Always send one envelope to yourself so you have an idea of when your sellers will be getting your letters.

How Should I Mail the letters?

• Most callers will say they found the note you put in their mailbox.

• They may ask you why you want to buy their house. The easy answer is I like that area

• This is the opportunity for you to let the seller know that you will not be an owner occupant and that you buy and sell houses.

• This call should be handled in the same friendly manner that you would use with any other seller.

My phone’s ringing off the hook! Now what?

• Don’t use pre-printed mailing labels• Make you or someone you’ve trained is there to answer

your phone in days following your mailing.• Don’t use a professional answering service. • Do make the seller feel like they’re calling an individual

and NOT a company.• Do use your personal answering machine with a simple

message like I’m not home right now and I’ll call you back.

• Do NOT use bulk postage.• Don’t send out more letters than you are prepared to

respond to in a short period of time.

Simple Do’s & Don’ts