One of the best lists to target is absentee owners. In preparing for my recent live seminar, I came across a “gold mine” while researching mailing list companies. I will share that with you but first…

What is an absentee owner?

These are property owners in you area who are not living in the property. It includes:

  • Landlords and investment property owners
  • Owners of second homes or vacation homes
  • Inherited property owners
  • Vacant properties
  • Homeowners unable to sell or occupy their property
  • Out of the area or out of state owners

Obviously this is a good list to target when you’re looking to get seller call you. As a bonus, we have found tons of equity and lots of free and clear houses with this list.

To build this list you choose the areas you want to buy houses. This is the property location. Then target properties identified as “non-owner occupied.” If this info is not available then you choose homeowners whose mailing  zip code is different than the property zip code. This is a simplified explanation.

Now I’ve found several mailing list companies who offer predefined“absentee owner” lists. Your ability to search and refine these lists vary, and the pricing varies. But I discovered one service I can highly recommend you try out as it offers more benefits than any other service I looked into. But first…

3 ways to get lists of absentee owners

There are 3 ways to get this list including direct from public records, monthly data subscription services and mailing list brokers.

Public Record: Many investors can get a lists of property owners from their county records office or through a title company. The cost is from free to whatever they charge. Getting a list  this way usually requires lots of manual sifting, sorting and cleanup. A great resource for get the phone numbers and web sites to your county offices is publicrecords.netronline.com. It is nationwide directory online. Choose your state and county and if provides info for your clerk and recorder, tax assessor, treasurer and more.

$250,000 Case Study:

A few eeks ago I got a list of 1,400 absentee owners from my county office. After a lot of cleanup we mailed my personalized “magic bullet” postcard online using Click2Mail.com. The results exceeded our expectations!

So far we have had over 60 calls, 32 property owner sheets completed, 12 phone taggers, and about 50 properties to make offers on… as some owners who called had multiple properties for sale. And most of these properties were free and clear!

Applying my “ultimate strategy” investing modeling of either “buying houses cheap all cash” or “offering top dollar for long-term interest free owner financing” our minimum profit per deal will be $50,000 each. I imagine we should get at least 5 deals bought with these numbers. Not bad for less than $1,000 mailing postcards. But next time I will order a refined list from a mailing broker. The list will cost more but it will already be narrowed down by very specific criteria and ready to use as I explain in a moment.

Data Subscription Services: There are a number of companies offering online search of public record data by monthly subscription. Some include Realist.com, RealQuest.com and DataQuick.com. But mailing list companies allow you to order lists on demand, only when needed…

Mailing List Companies: Many mailing list companies get public records and combined it with other data sources for more refined or specialized lists. Some include InfoUSA.com, MelissaData.com, UsaData.com, ListSource.com and Click2Mail.com mailing lists.

Why my top mailing list company is ListAbility.com

ListAbilty.com offer similar lists as everyone else but they excel in pricing, features and online search abilities. Their Master Absentee Homeowner List is especially impressive. Why? First, ListAbilty.com lets you choose both the owner location and property location online, an important capability which I did not find with other services. Next, their public pricing was the best I could find.

After I discovered this “gold mine” I called them and created a strategic alliance and got you added benefits and discounts.

The base price to the public for Absentee Homeowners is $65 per 1,000, less than most other companies. Using an affiliate link the base price is $40 per 1,000. But if that is not good enough, create your free account using our special link and you’ll get the price I’ve negotiated for the new National Alliance of Real Estate Entrepreneurs (NAREE) … only $35 per 1,000… and other discounts too.

1. Create a free account

This allows you to do online count research and save your searches. Use our affiliate link when setting up a new account to get our pricing and VIP service. You can explore their site at www.listability.com BUT to setup a new account use our link here or paste our link into your browser: www.listabilityonline.com/?ID=335

After you setup your account with this link they will manually apply the “Richard Roop” discounted pricing to it. If you do your first search at the same time you create your account then I suggest you save it and order only after you’re emailed a notice that our extra discount has been applied to your account. All orders through your account after that will get the lower pricing automatically.

For example, I created a free account and ran an absentee owner search adding market value range, loan to value range, property type and one time use. The count was 2,163 records showing a total online of $173. Then ListAbility staff saw the new “Richard Roop” account and applied the discounted pricing to it. Within a day they emailed me announcing the upgrade was applied my account. That reduced my total  to $151. The new pricing structure will now appear online on all future searches. Note that my cost is only $.07 per record for one time use! Two times use is $.09 and three times use is $.11.

2) Understand pricing and database options

You have several databases to choose from, all with Richard Roop discounted pricing per 1,000:

  • Occupant List $12.50
  • Consumer List $32.00
  • Absentee Homeowner List $35.00
  • Business List $40.00
  • Real Estate & Mortgage List $40.00

These are base prices. As you select more specific criteria and options the cost goes up. Here are common additional selects and the added cost per 1,000 records:

  • Loan to Value Range $15.00
  • Home Value Range $10.00
  • Property Type Detail $10.00
  • Length of Residence $10.00
  • Lot Size Range $7.50
  • Home Size Range $5.00
  • Year Built Range $5.00

“Public verses Richard Roop pricing”

How you’ll save up to 50% enrolling free with our link:

Absentee Homeowner List – Public

  • Order minimum $200
  • Internet delivery $35
  • Base Price $65 per 1,000
  • Owner Type $5 per 1,000
  • Purchase Date $10 per 1,000
  • Adult Age $7 per 1,000

Absentee Homeowner List – Richard Roop

  • Order minimum $95
  • Internet delivery FREE
  • Base Price $32 per 1,000
  • Owner Type $3 per 1,000
  • Purchase Date FREE
  • Adult Age FREE

3) Walk-thru Example for “Absentee Homeowner List”

  1. Login or create account
  2. Click “Start Here!” for Master Absentee Homeowner List
  3. Read the instructions for selecting owner location verses property location
  4. Click “Owner State” button, check “All US States” box and click “Add Auto-Fill States” button. This selects owners in all states.
  5. Choose “Property” area by county, zips or zip code range
  6. To select by county, use “Look Up” button to add county codes
  7. Click “Additional Selections” tab and narrow list as desired.
  8. Click “Demographics” button to narrow list by owner “Age”
  9. Click “Household” button to narrow by “Length of Residence” or “Purchase Date”
  10. Click “Loan” button to narrow by “Loan to Value Range”
  11. Click “Property Specific” to narrow by “Property Type Detail” or “Home Market Value Range” as well as home size, lot size, year built, etc.
  12. Click “Recalculate” button anytime to update list count displayed, especially before this next step.
  13. Click “View Pricing” button, then select the “Estimate Pricing for my Count” tab

Until ListAbility staff manually applies the “Richard Roop” pricing to your new account,
your online  total will be displayed without your full discount.

4) Then, to order your list:

  1. Click “Place Order” button
  2. Select number of records and how many times to use list.
  3. Choose internet delivery and file format
  4. Choose “upper/lower case” if merging data into letters or my personalized postcard templates.
  5. Continue from there to complete the order

Ordering other types of lists

Free and clear:
ListAbility is also a source for creating “free and clear” high equity lists using the criteria I teach in my programs for targeting owner occupied properties. Start with the “Master Real Estate & Mortgage Database” of 100% homeowners with mortgage info, extensive property details and owner demographics. The basic search is for loan to value of 0 to 49%. You can further refine it with owners aged 55 plus, property owned 10 years or more, homeowner type, etc.

For Sale By Owners and Expired Listings
New leads emailed to you daily plus access to 6 months of older leads, useful for FSBO targeting. Click here fore full details.

Inherited Property Owners:
This exclusive list costs more then most lists but the counts are small since it is very specific, plus the benefits of using it are well worth it. Read this report now to learn more. Great list!

30-60-90 Days Late on Mortgage:
Karen Collingwood offers distressed homeowner late payment model, absentee homeowners, 401K data, tax lien data, renters lists, free and clear and high equity model and numerous other premium databases for helping real estate investors reach viable prospects for short sales, owner financing and more. Minimum order about $350. Call Karen at (818) 470-3581 and ask for Richard Roop pricing.

Create your free ListAbility account today!

National Alliance of Real Estate Entrepreneurs

NAREE members get lots of benefits, support and “done for you” services for building a highly successful and profitable real estate investing business. One benefit is a rebate program of affiliate commissions we earn from our strategic alliances. Use our links for discounts and VIP treatment. Then whenever you decide to enroll as a Alliance member you’ll have the opportunity to earn back commissions paid to us from your orders.

Click here to join the NAREE notification list