New homeowners offer a great source of remodeling leads
During the boom, Sherman Webb was busy remodeling hotels. Once everything went south, we reinvented ourselves, says Webb, whose Dawg Construction, in North Hollywood, Calif., began to focus on residential projects. To find good prospects, Webb turned to Homeowners Marketing Services, which specializes in new-homeowner lists.
A New Homeowner, especially of an older home, has immediate needs, is in remodeling and spending mode, and is loaded with credit. They’re a perfect audience, says Homeowners Marketing Services vice president and sales manager Laura Friedman.
Set Mailing List Parameters
Homeowners Marketing Services updates its lists daily and puts out a fresh list each week at the close of escrow.
As a compiler, not a reseller, Homeowners Marketing Services does all the research.
Clients determine their list parameters, e.g., selecting a whole county or several Zip Codes, or focusing on specific home types or the highest home value.
Homeowners Marketing Services covers 1,200 U.S. counties and 105 SIC codes. We provide about 50,000 new homeowners [nationwide] a week, Friedman says. If someone subscribes to El Paso, for example, every week they get a list of New Homeowners in that area. They don’t get the same names duplicated.
First to Market Wins
List buyers pay a monthly fee. An area serving up about 20 to 40 new homeowners a week costs $49 per month; 100 new homeowners a week costs $98; and for an area with 300 new names a week it’s $196 per month. Homeowners Marketing Services makes an effort not to allow more than two companies that offer the same services to buy the same lists.
Webb gets about 120 names each week. I put the names on my mailer and send it out, he says. There’s no better audience than someone moving into a new area. He gets three to six calls per week based on the leads and did three projects from them in 2011.
The strategy here is reaching the right person at the right time; that’s the only time marketing really works, says Homeowners Marketing Services president Barry Weiner. It’s all about timing. You’ve got to get there first.
appeared on Remodeling Magazine , 2012 by Stacey Freed