Fees To Mail Carrier Bird Dogs?
Hi!
Was considering direct mail to MAIL CARRIERS to solicit their assistance in locating vacants, junkers, etc. Want to offer $$ for leads. Is this illegal? Has anyone tried this before?
Thanks,
AllCash
Great question!
Hope we hear from someone with experience in this area. Perhaps a stop at the post office distribution center for the geographic area you are targeting is an idea.
Pass out a leaflet at zero o clock dark morning as they are leaving for the day . Provide a list of your requirements on the leaflet.
Of course a pocket full of "half torn Hamiltons" for when they return with your information.
Once the info is verified, give them the other half! If you close, MAKE SURE to get back in touch with them to again compensate them! Word will get around! These will be your ants.
"The less you do the more you will get paid!"
Eventually get them to start filling out a property information sheet and taking photos of the vacant homes, front and back.
Let me know what happens!
Yea baby!
Michael
[ Edited by videla on Date 09/03/2004 ][ Edited by videla on Date 09/03/2004 ]
My question is this. Does anyone compile a list of mail carriers? If so, I'd love to know who.
As long as you're not affecting the delivery of the mail, or asking them to divulge how many collection notices they deliver to a particular residence etc. Why Not? I don't believe that this would be a problem. But I haven't looked into this before. Excellent suggestion though.
Jeff
I am a mail man....(was one for this summer) and if its def somethign that I would agree on if somoone had asked me. And if you do it without making a big scene no one would care
thanks for the input ralphes12.
i'm actually composing a letter right now.
we'll see how it goes...
take care
What a fantastic idea! Those guys work hard for very little money and benefits - this kind of windfall could be an excellent motivator!
Did you ever find a company that distributes mail carrier addresses within a specified geographic area? I bet usadata has something like that...
OPM (Minds, in this case) rocks!
well you can get FREE list of carrier routes in a given zip code, along with the number of residences and businesses within each carrier route at www.melissadata.com.
they also have carrier route maps for $40 for each zip code. kind of expensive, depending on how many zips comprise your farm area.
i'm thinking of picking up a couple of maps and then just strategically leaving letters one or two each in each route to hopefully ensure the carrier gets the letter.
better to leave them on the route i think than to risk exposure to mail carriers' management by leaving them at the central mail station! 8-)
allcash
I'm in the process of figuring out my game plan in this aspect as we speak. I have a nephew who is a cable guy, I want to make him one of my birddogs, I want to meet the mailman, garbage man, etc all in my target areas. I've heard of people offering fees from $250, $500, 1% all up to 3% for a good lead on a house that they actually close on. Greg Pinneo was actually the one that offers 3%, he said if he can't afford to pay that it really isn't that good of a deal. He has people bringing him deals everyday, and I guess so! 3% will really get you a serious birddog!!! I need to figure out how much of a finder's fee I can pay for a wholesale deal vs. an actual purchase and make that clear to my birddog (I'll probably be doing more wholesaling in the beginning). About this being illegal - I've heard its perfectly legal unless you are a licensed real estate agent (at a seminar Robert Shemin said this was the main reason he let his RE license lapse, he couldn't pay finder's fees)
Good luck!
Ginnie
You can also get county level or radius carrier route maps from www.maponics.com .
I have serious doubts you are going to get any mailmen to do anything like this. USPS = federal job = highly regulated, thousands of regulations involved in the mail, I think there will be few to none mail carriers willing to jeopardize their good for something like this.