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Whenever I acquire a new property and want to sell it quickly, one of the first things I do is send out neighbor letters to all the surrounding property owners.

What’s a Neighbor Letter?

A neighbor letter is a simple, straightforward message I send to the nearby landowners. It lets them know a few key things:

• I’m the new owner of the property next to theirs (or very close by).
• I plan to sell it soon.
• If they’re interested, I’m giving them the first shot—either with a cash deal or seller financing—to make the process easy.

Why Do I Do This?

More often than not, the neighbors would LOVE to buy the property next door—whether it's to expand their lot, protect their privacy, or just keep it in the family. But most of them will never get the chance… unless someone reaches out and offers it to them directly.

That’s exactly what the neighbor letter does. And in my experience, it’s one of the most effective strategies for selling a property fast—sometimes before I’ve had time to list it anywhere else.

This has been a stunningly successful strategy because, in many cases, the neighboring properties are eager to buy the property next door to them if they were only given a chance.

Why Neighbor Letters Work

In my case, I am almost always buying properties free and clear at a fraction of their market value, which makes it easy to give my future buyer a great deal.

Because I'm buying properties for such a low price, I usually have a large profit margin to play with, which allows me to sell the property for a very low price AND pocket a nice sum of cash in the process.

Of course, it helps if I can offer seller financing as an option, which significantly increases my profit and the types of buyers I can work with. If the buyer doesn’t have immediate access to funds, I can become their bank (and I will earn a lot more money in the long run).

Putting all these things together makes for a compelling selling proposition and generates a lot more interest in the properties I’m trying to sell.

Why BuyerFinder.io?

Neighbor Letters do perform quite well, but for many years, finding the property owner's information, writing letters, printing, stamping, and mailing them to each neighbor was a rather laborious process.

BuyerFinder.io has made this process WAY easier. It’s a powerful tool that lets you identify all the neighboring property owners around your parcel and instantly generate professional mailers using proven templates. No need to dig through county records or format letters from scratch; it handles the heavy lifting for you. Whether you’re targeting neighbors or nearby cash buyers, BuyerFinder.io is the most efficient way to get your property in front of the right people.

BuyerFinder.io is a service from SuperCharged Offers, which can help with many other aspects of a real estate investor's daily marketing operation.

Note: BuyerFinder.io is also a great way to find and reach Cash Buyers, which can be a great way to build your buyer list and take a ‘buyer first' approach.

How to Find Out Who Owns a Property

What was life like before BuyerFinder.io? How much more work is involved if you're doing these tasks the manual way?

If you're writing your letter from scratch, you won't be able to contact your new neighbors until you know who they are and how to reach them.

Since your goal is to send each of these people a letter, you'll need to start by finding their names and mailing addresses (and remember, some of these people might be absentee owners).

There are many ways to obtain this information (including their phone numbers and email addresses) if you know where to look.

If you need to find this information on your own, I'll show you how to do so with The Land Portal.

Try The Land Portal!

Once you have the mailing address for the surrounding property owner(s) you want to contact, you can prepare your letter.

How to Write a Compelling Neighbor Letter

Since your goal is to motivate your recipient to say yes, you need to be sure your message incorporates a few key elements of communication and persuasion.

Basic Layout of the Neighbor Letter

• Introduce yourself
• Explain your intentions
• Provide the property information
• Explain why they should take action
• Lay out the consequences of inaction
• Reiterate why this is a deal they can't refuse
• Call to action (give them your contact info)

When I started writing these kinds of letters, this was the layout I used…

Note: To avoid stifling your creativity, the examples below don’t contain the exact wording of my letters. You can download my templates at the bottom of this blog post if you want the exact wording I use in my letters.

Version #1 (click to enlarge)

I used this format for about three years, and it did a pretty good job of informing each recipient that the property was available to purchase (and I can only assume it gave people a feeling of “exclusivity” since they were one of a select few to receive this notification).

While I never kept the exact stats on this particular letter, I would estimate that I got calls back about 20% of the time, which resulted in actual sales about 10% of the time.

Also, keep in mind that this letter technically consists of two pages. Page 2 would be a parcel map and/or other property images if available. Parcel maps effectively communicate where a property is situated (including the size, shape, and boundaries relative to neighboring properties). A good parcel map will help your recipient understand precisely what you’re offering them and where it lies relative to their property.

A few years into my investing career, I created a new and improved version of this letter, which you can see below…

Version #2 (click to enlarge)

This template was a big improvement from my original letter because it did a better job of identifying the specific benefits of the decision to purchase. It instilled a sense of urgency by identifying what the neighbor stands to lose if they don’t take action.

Of course, neither of my examples are as visually appealing as what you'll get from BuyerFinder.io, but if you want to do this job the cheap, manual way, this is another way it can be done on a shoestring budget.

Remember, this is not a place for lying or scare tactics. The idea is to list some possibilities and reasons why YOU would want the same opportunity you’re offering them. The benefits of purchasing (and the downsides of failing to act) should be 100% legitimate, realistic factors you don’t want them to overlook.

I haven't kept any precise stats on how these letters perform, but overall, I would estimate it generates closer to a 35% call-back rate, which ultimately results in about 20% of sales.

Luck Is a Factor

It goes without saying that neighbor letters are NOT a magic bullet, no matter how pretty they are or how well they're worded. You never know the situation of the person you’re contacting. You could be offering them exactly what they’ve always wanted, or they might not care at all.

The key is consistency. Send well-crafted letters to every neighbor every time. If you seize all possible opportunities, you will eventually get results.

Is contacting these people worth your time and effort, even if there are no guarantees that it will result in an immediate sale?

Well, I can’t speak for you… But after the first few sales it generated for me, I thought it was a no-brainer. If I can generate a faster sale, even 5% of the time, why not take that chance?

Considering how laborious it can be to sell some properties (and considering how much faster and easier this could make my selling process, all without the help of a real estate agent), these letters have become the #1 action on my priority list.

Before I do anything else, I reach out to the neighbors.

Want to Use My Neighbor Letter Templates?

Similar to my blog post about my postcard templates, the examples above are only meant to show you the format of my neighbor letters, not the exact wording.

You may very well be a better writer than me. With this in mind, I don’t want to dictate how you compose your written communication. Remember… my letters have evolved quite a bit over the years, so I don't want to imply that my letters have the best copy ever written.

That being said, I know from experience that it requires A LOT of time and mental energy to compose a well-written letter. If you don't have the time or desire to develop something on your own and test it for years to see what results you get, Iunderstand where you're coming from.

For that reason, I'll make this easy for you. If you'd rather cut to the chase, you can purchase my exact, word-for-word templates below for less than the cost of a roll of stamps.

BONUS!

I will also give you two additional templates that can be used if/when you're trying to BUY from a neighboring property owner. These take the reverse approach and can be particularly useful if you're trying to expand the footprint of a property you already own (rather than the other way around).

Either way, I think you'll find that all of these templates are nice tools to have at your disposal when the situation calls for them.
Note: When you sign up as an REtipster email subscriber, you’ll get instant access to these templates for FREE (along with a truckload of other free tools, calculators, video tutorials, and more as part of the REtipster Toolbox). No pressure, of course; I just want to make sure you're aware!