Did you get a We Buy Houses Postcard or Mailing

Why oh Why Do I Receive so Many We Buy Houses Postcards?

Does it seem like every day you are receiving a postcard or letter in the mail from all kinds of people who want to buy your house? And you are wondering why you are getting so many mailings and how your personal name and address got into the hands of so many different people?

We know you have a lot of questions so let’s see if we can’t answer most of them.

Why all these Mailings of We Buy Houses Postcards?

The “we buy houses people” are looking for houses to buy to either rent out or to fix up and sell. At the same time, there is a larger group of people who are looking to buy houses to sell to those who want to rent them out or fix them up to sell. There is profit to be made. There are even Realtors mailing out similar postcards trying to generate listings.

Why? Because the housing market is very tight. People have been buying houses to rent and to fix up and sell, we think since the people first started owning houses. As people needed bigger houses they sold the old ones. As people got older or passed away they sold them. As people got into financial difficulty they sold them or they were foreclosed on and the lender sold them. But that is not happening so much right now.

With record low-interest rates more people bought houses during the pandemic. Large institutional buyers bought up houses. And prices went up. With the high prices, some people can’t find a place to upsize or downsize in to, so they are not selling. And with all the moratoriums of the past few years, not many banks have been foreclosing. So anyone in the business of buying and selling houses are having to work harder, so they are sending out more mailings . . . and cold calling, and sending out computer-based text and messages. Some even go out and knock on doors. Or put up ugly yellow we buy houses signs.

Buy Why Are they Mailing on My House, it’s Not Ugly?

Most of these postcards are referencing a house in poor condition. There is a franchise out there that has branded the term “We Buy Ugly XXX”, so we can’t use the word houses as we would infringe on their trademark. But it’s not necessarily the ugly that we home buyers are looking for, but homes that are older and potentially out of date. These homes can typically be purchased and then renovated and modernized to look like all those homes on HGTV and presto chango, a profit can be made.

So while you may or may not have a home that is ugly, the house or you have some characteristics that make it more likely that it could be in need of a few updates and possibly a complete make-over.

What Houses are the Postcard Mailing Buyers Targeting

There are a lot of factors that go into picking an area of the city to mail a “We buy houses postcard”. Here are just a few:

• Homes that are at least 20 years old with our sweet spot being about 1950 to 1980.
• Homes that are more than 1000 square feet with at least 3 bedrooms, ideally 1200 to 2500.
• Homes that have not been sold for 10 years or longer.
• Homes that range in value from about $100,000 up to about $300,000

So if you are in a neighborhood of cookie-cutter houses that were built prior to 1980 and the values in the area are over $100,000, chances are your house is a target for a postcard.

But How did they Get My Name? Or Address as I Don’t Live There?

I know it seems really creepy. There is even software out there that I can drive by a house, type in an address into my phone and it will look up the owner’s name, and mailing address, grab a screenshot from Google Maps and send the owner a postcard with a photo of the house on it . . . CREEPY!!

But not really, it’s just that there is a ton of public information out there.

In just about every major metropolitan area, if I have an address of the house, I can go to the online ownership records, tax records, GIS map, or some other website, type in the property address, and find out the owner’s name and mailing address. Free, at no charge. And that allows me to send you a postcard.

As a Realtor, I have access to more private data or as anyone with a credit card I can access more data through sites like Intelius or Propstream and a multitude of other websites and find out your address and all the phone numbers, email addresses, past mailing addresses, and all your social media profiles, so if I wanted to call you on every number, send an email to every email address and reach out to you through social media, I could try, but 99 times out of 100 the data is old and does not work, so I don’t do it. There are people who plug all of that data into a computer and let the computer or a person from a 3rd world country try to call, text and email for that 1 time out of 100 that works.

But wait . . . there’s more. If I mail to you based on your tax recorded mailing address and you’ve moved. Often the post office will give me your new address or I can subscribe to the post office forwarding service to find out your new address or go to one of the resources listed above that might have a more recent address.

These sources also list your relatives, so I could potentially send your letter to a parent or a child or a brother or sister . . . or for that matter in the care of your neighbor.

Are there Other Reasons People Mail Postcards

YES!!

Some are targeting an area because of the age of the house or maybe they have already bought one or two houses in that area. Other times they might be targeting people that own their homes free and clear or that only have a small mortgage. They might be looking for people that are in financial stress and may be in bankruptcy or foreclosure, both things list services can look for and sell. They might be targeting people that are getting divorced or families where a loved one has passed away. Or perhaps the house is a rental and the tenant was recently evicted. Other times the house was listed on a list of homes with code violations.

Other times people just want to buy a house in a particular area and right now there are not a lot of houses for sale. So normal everyday people looking for a house to live in might send you a postcard too.

Does kcmoHomeBuyer Send Out We Buy Houses Postcards?

Not so much postcards, we are more of a letter mailer. We are generally looking for homes in neighborhoods that were built after 1950. That are at least 20 years old. With 3 or more bedrooms and 2 bathrooms or a way to add that 2nd bathroom. We are looking for homes that have not been sold in the past 5 to 10 years. This will usually find sellers with ranch houses and side-to-side split homes that have a lot of mid-century modern features and shag carpeting. Sadly there is no way we can specifically target houses with shag carpeting, we would mail every house if we could get that list.

So did you get a We Buy Houses Letter from Us?

If you are thinking about selling, give us a call or fill out the form below to tell us a little bit about your house and your situation. We would love to take a look at your house and make you an offer and discuss other options if listing it might be better for you and right now in our super hot 2022 market, the listing might be a better option.

And if you just don’t want to get any more postcards or letters from us, just let us know. If you are on a list that we will be mailing again, we will remove you from the list.

Just use the form below.

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