Direct mail is a beautiful thing! People hold on to those letters for years, and sometimes we have done deals after a seller has called us one, two, or even three years from the time we sent out the mail.
In July 2022, a seller of a vacant lot in Hope Mills, North Carolina, responded to one of our basic white-letter direct mail campaigns. Three years later, in July 2025, our Acquisitions team revived this lead. We made them an offer on August 13th, which they accepted on the 14th, and they wanted to close within 45 days.
The Property and the Problem
This is a 0.68-acre wooded corner lot. It does have water and sewer, and the tax value is $27.5k. We originally got it under contract for $28k.
When we did our marketing for dispositions, we got a bunch of lower offers. We were marketing it at $35k, but the highest offer we had was $28k, which was basically what we were paying for it.
The Pivot- A Price Reduction
We went back to the seller and were able to get a price reduction down to $20,000. The basis for that was that even though it had water and sewer, the sewer line needed to come from the other side of the street, which was going to cost extra. I think they knew this was an issue. They were also just motivated to sell and to get cash out of the property.
Disposition- Getting the Lot Sold
To find a cash buyer for this, our primary marketing strategy was to do a text blast. We used a list of buyers that we searched in InvestorBase and also scraped from our buyer list in our CRM, Podio. Shortly after we got the price reduction from the seller, we went under contract with the buyer who had offered us $28k.
The Hurdles and the Close
From the time we went under contract with the buyer, we closed in under three weeks. There were a couple of obstacles and delays along the way–
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The buyer used his attorney, and the attorney didn’t like our contract (which is hilarious because we’ve closed dozens and dozens of deals with that contract). We edited it for them to make them happy.
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The buyer had some issues with his wire, which delayed the closing a day or two.
Despite these speed bumps, we closed this deal in 37 days—well ahead of the 45-day deadline.
Takeaways
We made $7,600 on a deal that we thought we might have to cancel because our contract price was too high. The moral of the story: You can’t always get the analysis right, even if you think you have good comps. You can’t foresee all circumstances, such as the sewer line across the road. Often the seller knows there’s an issue with their property and they will be willing to do a price reduction. It never hurts to ask.
Follow up is king! We followed up with the seller on this deal for 3 years from the time of first contact.
Also, direct mail rocks because people hold on to letters and call you a year or two later, sometimes, and you get inbound leads rather than having to chase people. More on direct mail: Direct Mail for Wholesaling and Land Investing- A great ROI, Warmer Leads
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