Resources · Outreach and follow-up: the contact strategy that closes
Direct mail vs SMS vs calling: what converts
Updated July 11, 2026 · by the LowBaller team
The channel debate has a data answer, and it starts with who you can even reach. In our July 2026 measurement, only about 26 percent of hard-distress properties traced to an individual owner, and after Do-Not-Call filtering just over half of those had a legally callable phone. Reach decides your channel mix before preference gets a vote.
Cold SMS: skip it
Start with the elimination. Texting cold leads without prior consent sits on the wrong side of TCPA rules, carrier filtering now kills bulk cold SMS anyway, and penalties run per message. The investors still doing it are borrowing risk to save effort. Text people who have already replied to you through another channel, and nobody else.
Calling: highest conversion where it is legal
A live conversation compresses weeks of back-and-forth into ten minutes; you learn the timeline, the debt and the motivation in one call. The constraint is reach: about 56 percent of individual owners had a callable phone after DNC filtering in our testing, which means calling covers roughly one in seven properties on a raw hard-distress list. For those, it is the fastest path to a signed contract that exists. Manual dials, 8am to 9pm local, DNC-filtered before you start.
Direct mail: the only channel that reaches everyone
Every property record carries a mailing address, which makes mail the one channel with 100 percent coverage, including the roughly 66 percent of distressed properties owned by LLCs, trusts and estates that no skip trace can call. Response runs low per piece, typically fractions of a percent, but every response is warm and the follow-up letter in month three routinely outperforms the first. Mail is also the channel that survives compliance scrutiny with the least worry.
The mix that wins
Route by reachability instead of debating channels: call the individuals with callable phones the day they hit the list, mail everyone else the same week, email where the trace returned one (89 percent of matched individuals in our testing), and reserve SMS for people already in conversation. One list, three lanes, no dead leads.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to contact motivated sellers?
Route by owner type: call individuals with legally callable phones, mail entity owners and DNC-flagged individuals at the county mailing address, and email where a trace returned one. Cold SMS without consent violates TCPA rules and gets filtered by carriers anyway.
What response rate does direct mail get from motivated sellers?
Typically well under 1 percent per piece, but responses are warm and compounding: repeated touches to the same distressed list outperform single blasts, and the month-three letter often lands the deal the first one seeded.
Is cold texting sellers illegal?
Texting cold consumer numbers without prior express consent runs afoul of TCPA rules, with penalties assessed per message, and carriers aggressively filter bulk cold SMS. Text only people who have already engaged with you through another channel.
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