Direct mail is the most expensive channel per piece but often the highest-converting for warm-cold real-estate outreach. Done right, it pays for itself many times over. Done wrong, it's $0.99 per coaster.
The economics
- Cost: $0.99 per piece, flat. Includes printing, mailing, USPS postage.
- Expected response rate: 0.5%-3% for cold lists, higher for absentee-owner skip-traced lists.
- Break-even: One deal closed pays for thousands of mailers. Even at 0.5% response, a 1,000-piece campaign that produces 5 conversations and 1 closing deal generates a strong ROI.
1. Design the mailer
Go to Direct Mail → + New template. Every mailer is a 6" × 4" postcard: your design on the front, and the printer adds the address side. There are two ways to make one:
- Choose a design. Pick a ready-made postcard: house sellers (We Buy Houses, Cash offer, Thinking of selling?), land sellers (We Buy Land, Unused land, Selling your land?) or a specific situation (Tired landlord, Inherited a house, Vacant house). It opens already filled in with your business name and phone number. Change the headline, message, the three check-mark lines, your phone, website and business name, pick a color, and on photo designs pick a house or land photo. The preview updates as you type, and what you see is exactly what prints.
- Upload my own. A PNG or JPEG you made in Canva or another design tool, 6" × 4" landscape (1800 × 1200 pixels is ideal), up to 10 MB.
Every recipient gets the same card. Words on a postcard can't be filled in per person, so the designs refuse [ ] and { } brackets — they would print exactly as typed. If you write more than fits, the editor says which line to shorten instead of shrinking the text too small to read.
To change a ready-made card later, click Edit on the template: it reopens in the design editor with your words.
The headline that works
One specific, scannable line that answers "why am I getting this in the mail?":
- "We buy houses in Wake County for cash."
- "Selling your land? Quick close, fair offer."
- "Own a vacant house? We're buying."
Generic stuff ("your trusted partner") gets thrown out. Specificity gets read — so if you mail one county, put the county in the headline.
2. Build the list
Direct mail only ships to contacts with a complete mailing address (Street, City, State). Most property records include it — a Full import from Find Leads → Property Records adds the owner's mailing address — or import a list that already has them.
Best list types:
- Absentee owners in your market
- Tax-delinquent properties
- Recent inheritance / probate
- Vacant property owners
- Out-of-state landlords
Filter to these in the CRM, then go to Direct Mail, pick the template, and select the filtered contacts.
3. Set return address
This goes on the mailer's return-to. Use a real business address or PO box. Returned mail (bad addresses) comes back here — useful intel about list quality.
4. Confirm cost + send
Direct REI shows the total cost before sending. Confirm. Pieces print + ship within 1-2 business days. USPS delivery typically 5-7 business days.
Mail new leads automatically (continuous sending)
Tick Continuous sending under the campaign filter on the Direct Mail page and every person added to that campaign from then on — from the CRM, an import, a website form, the API, Oliver or an automation — is mailed the campaign's mailer automatically. It needs a mailer template on the campaign and Auto-send mail switched on for the account (the card at the top of the page, which also sets your daily spending limit). Only people with a complete mailing address are mailed, nobody the campaign already mailed gets a second piece, and pausing the campaign holds their mail until you resume. People already in the campaign aren't affected — select them and send as usual.
5. Track the response — across every channel
This is where Direct REI shines. When someone gets your mailer and either calls, texts, or emails back, the system ties that response to the mailing campaign automatically.
Check the Direct Mail dashboard for:
- Reply rate: % of mailed contacts who responded via any channel
- Reply channels: breakdown of how they reached out (📞 calls, 💬 SMS, ✉️ emails, 📬 return mail)
- Per-campaign performance if you ran multiple mailings
Mailing cadence
For absentee-owner / probate lists: 3-touch sequence with 30 days between mailings. First piece is generic, second is more specific to their situation, third is a soft break-up ("haven't heard back — call if you're ever ready").
For builder/developer lists: typically a one-shot mailing as a follow-up to email outreach, not a primary channel.
What's next
Once mailings are landing, check out Reading cross-channel attribution to interpret the results.