Overview
Stacked lists often contain several prospects that share the same mailing address — most commonly one owner who holds a number of properties.
List Stacking has an option that removes those duplicates, so the same mailing address is not represented more than once.
This matters most before a mail drop, where duplicates mean sending several identical letters to one address.
Steps
Step 1: Open List Stacking
Go to the List Stacking section.
Step 2: Turn the option on
Click the button to turn on the remove duplicate mailing addresses option.
Prospects sharing the same mailing address are removed from your list, leaving one per address.
Important Notes
This deduplicates on the mailing address, not the property address. An owner with four properties usually has one mailing address, so all four collapse to one entry.
This is the right step before a direct mail campaign. Sending four letters to the same address wastes money and looks careless to the recipient.
Be deliberate about when you use it. For mailing, one entry per address is what you want. For working a list by phone, you may want every property, since each one is a separate potential deal.
Check the numbers before and after. The difference tells you how much genuine duplication your list held, which is useful for judging list quality.
Confirm the behaviour on a small list before relying on it for a large one. Understand exactly what happens to the removed entries before you apply it to a list you have paid for.
Troubleshooting
Your list is much shorter after turning this on
That is the option working. A large drop usually means one owner holds many properties in your list.
Duplicates are still showing
The mailing addresses may differ slightly — a unit number, an abbreviation, a formatting difference. Records only match as duplicates when the mailing address is the same.
You want every property back
Turn the option off.
You are unsure whether records are hidden or removed
Check the effect on a small test list first, before applying it to anything you cannot easily rebuild.
You want to keep the duplicates for calling but not for mailing
Turn the option on when you are preparing a mail drop, and off when you are working the list by phone.
Related
Smart Filters in List Stacking — narrowing a list by criteria
How to Import Properties Using List Stacking — where duplicates usually enter your account
Summary
You removed duplicate mailing addresses in List Stacking. In the List Stacking section you turned on the option, and prospects sharing the same mailing address were reduced to a single entry — which is what you want before sending direct mail to a stacked list.