Marketing In A Large City
I really need some good advice here. I am thinking about picking out a neighborhood in Brooklyn that potentially has a high % of forclosures and doing a carrier route mailing (postcards or letters). This is the only way I can think of nailing people that are motivated but have not had NODs issued and thus bombarded by investors.
The questions is: In a city like NY, does this work? Or do these homeowners receive dozens of these postcards and letters from newbies like me that think they're reinventing the wheel? 
If you have a good marketing message and you make it easy for the prospects to respond (such as a website or a recorded info line), then it is certainly worth a test.
Suggestion... You can call a local printing shop and ask them to print oversized postcards----betchya most other "newbies" won't be using those.
What I am talking about is taking an 11" by 17" sheet of cardstock (65 pound works well for me) and having it cut into thirds so that you end up with 3 postcards from one sheet, each at about 11" by 5.5". This is a very large postcard that you can fit an entire 2 page sales letter on. If you are going to do a saturation mailing (where you hit every resident on an entire carrier route), then you can get the postage rate all the way down to 15.2 cents per piece. This is the lowest rate you can get so it has to be everybody on an entire carrier route and presorted.
I have just began using this technique and I have high hopes for it. The reason I like it better than a letter is because a letter has to get opened, the postcard doesn't. If you are going to do a saturation mailing, I feel that over-sized postcards is the way to go. I usually have about 9000 cards produced at a time (which is 3000 sheets of 11 by 17 cardstock) and it costs me about $350 for the paper and printing. Then I purchase my saturation mailing list from Melissa DATA at about $9.50 per thousand addresses (Cheap!). Then I take the cards and the list to a local mailing house and they transfer the list to the cards, presort them, and then take them to the post office. My total expense for all of this, including production and postage, is only 24.5 cents per piece. That's a whole lot better than folding letters, stuffing envelopes, hand addressing them, and attaching 37 cent stamps to them. This is cheaper, easier, and hopefully... more effective.
The only thing I will add is you should be getting your postage rate down to 12 cents each or a maximum of 12.6 cents each, with the technique you are describing.
12.6 cents a piece, you say? How do you get that? I had trouble finding a mailer that knew they could do it for 15.2 cents a piece.
As a side note, I just finished reading the Donald Trump thread and I have to agree with you about him. I think the man is an a whole other league.
Brad - are you familiar with the post office terms for the delivery units?
When you take your mailing is taken to the post office they fill out a form 3602-R, on the back you have to fill in what rates you qualify for. Under ECR you would see -
None (which is BMEU -Bulk Mail Entry Unit) - 15.2 cents
DBMC - Destination Bulk Mail Center - 13.1 cents
DSCF - Destination Sectional Center Facility 12.6 cents
DDU - Destination Delivery Unit - 12.0 cents
Depending on where you take the mailing to you will qualify for those rates. You could actually mail for 12.0 cents if you do what is called a drop ship, which would be paying for your mailing at your post office where you have your bulk mail permit and then taking the mailing to the post office where the carrier routes are actually located at.
If your mail house is charging 15.2 they are either marking it up or not even taking it to the DSCF which should be a no brainer.
As you probably realize the discounted rates that you are getting are based on the more work the mailer does and the post office doesn't do the better the discount. By doing the ECR you are doing more of the work for them, by having a bar code you are doing even more.
If your mailer is droping off at the BMEU the post office is forwarding the mail along to the DSCF and finally to the DDU so they (the Post office) is still doing some of the work you could do, so you aren't getting the full discount.
In the very least your mail house should be taking the mail to the DSCF.
Go to the US postal site http://www.pe.usps.gov and take a look at some of the documents about bulk mailing. Especially "A Guide to Mailing for Businesses and Organizations" and "Quick Service Guide". Very easy to understand guides for people like us. Even has pictures!
If your mail house can't qualify for the discounted prices it is probably because their bulk mail permit is not held at the right post office for you to benefit fully.
You might consider getting your own permit. $150 set up, $150 a year fee. If you are doing a lot of mailings 3 cents a piece will add up pretty quick. Plus I'm sure your mail house is charging you $25-75 just for the delivery to the post office each time they do a mailing. All you would do is have them do everything but mail them, you could pick them up and drop them off yourself if you had to.