Calling an Absentee Owner List: First-Call Script, Follow-Ups and What to Log

Absentee owners don’t live in the house, so a phone call often reaches them faster than a letter that sits in a pile with their other mail. The call has one job: find out, politely, whether selling is on their mind. Everything else waits for the second conversation.

Before the first dial

Lists come with names and mailing addresses, not phone numbers. You’ll need skip tracing to get phones, which Acquired Data offers. Once you have numbers:

1. Step01

   Scrub every number

   Check each number against the National Do Not Call Registry and your state’s list, plus your own internal do-not-call file. Remove matches before anyone dials.

2. Step02

   Pick who to call first

   Phones cost time, so start with your strongest rows. Sort by the number of entries in signals, then by equity_pct. An absentee owner who is also free and clear or tax delinquent goes near the top.

3. Step03

   Set up the log

   Build the log before the first call, not after the tenth. The columns are listed further down.

The first-call script

Say who you are and why you’re calling within the first two sentences. Ask permission to continue. If they are open, ask four questions and stop. You are qualifying, not negotiating.

Keep voicemails short: your name, your company, the street name, your number, and that you buy houses there.

A follow-up cadence you can keep

There is no single right schedule. The one below is illustrative, a starting point to adjust once you see how your own list answers:

1. Day1

   First call

   Call once. Leave a voicemail if you get one.

2. Day3

   Second call, different time

   If you called in the morning, try late afternoon. No second voicemail if you left one already.

3. Day7

   Third call, plus a letter

   One more try by phone, and a short letter to the mail_address so they have your name in writing.

4. Month+1

   Rest, then a light check-in

   After three attempts with no answer, stop calling. Check in once a month or so after that, and only on rows that are still on the list after the next monthly drop.

Anyone who said “not now” gets the callback they agreed to, on the date they gave. Anyone who said stop is never called again.

What to log

One row per call attempt, keyed to the property so you can match it to next month’s list:

• apn and county_fips, the property key
• Owner name and the number dialed
• Date and local time of the call
• Outcome code (below)
• Notes: occupancy, condition, timeline, asking price
• Next action and its date