Home Improvement Contractor - Licensed Contractors

I am a painting contractor is it legal to do direct mail by sending my client private information?

I found this great site call netronline and u can look at private information like their deeds all I need is there street number and name and can look at their square footage and their whole name.... this is the question I am a painting contractor and work for a prestigious builder in the area and have done work around the area would it be appropiate to do my research on the square fottage and just make like a list of the houses that need some maintance and send them a letter describing what I can do and the services that I provide I plan to do this on a massive scale? but dont know if the customer would be like ? where did he get this information?

Public Comments

1. The homeowner information that you mentioned, owner's name, square footage and so on, is part of the public record maintained for taxation and other purposes. You can certainly use public information to conduct a mailing campaign. You can obtain this kind of information from many sources, even from list brokers who will provide the list in your choice of formats, such as labels or a computer file, and good brokers can let you select individuals by characteristics you want, such as geography (like zip codes) or income. Using a good broker can reduce the effort needed to assemble you list and help to assure that you are doing things legally. As for whether your prospective customer would like your using this information, I suggest you avoid putting anything in your letters that specifically points out that you know those details about them. Instead, use the information in a tailored way that does not seem nosy. So, if you are mailing to owners of homes of around 2000 square feet with 2 bathrooms, include a customer story about a home that meets that description in your letter. That way, the homeowners can see that you have experience that is relevant to them, without the distraction of wondering where you got all that information.
2. It is legal. "Meta" above made some outstanding points. A printing technology called "Variable Data Printing" will be able to utilize your information and create the type of "per customer customization" that I think your looking for. CHeck your local printers for their technology capabilities. Direct mail that is highly personalized or relevant like this gets much better response than most direct mail.