Archive for December, 2009
Being Honest DOES Work for Loan Officers!
Posted by: | CommentsHonesty and marketing..oxymoron or what? Well, I can’t speak for everybody else, but in the six or so years that I’ve been practicing mortgage marketing, I can honestly say (no pun intended) that honesty has always worked out very well for me. In this article, I’m going to tell you a true story that just happened to me. You can take what you want out of it.
I recently got an email from a prospect asking for some advice. In the email, they mentioned a few possible mortgage programs that they were looking into. One of them was mine and another was from a lender who I happened to know pretty well and also know has a good reputation. This lender’s program, while I didn’t know too much about it personally, was a little cheaper than mine on both the rate and fees. The prospect wanted to know what I recommended.
Now, here is where honesty can actually work to your advantage. I told the prospect that I wasn’t familiar with this particular program by this other lender so could not personally recommend it. This of course is the truth. However, I was able to tell the prospect that this other mortgage broker was somebody who I knew personally and could honestly say that from what I knew, they were respectable and most likely their product would be of a good value. I even went as far as to say that because of the low price point, it would probably be a good idea to at least explore it a little further.
I haven’t heard back from the prospect yet, but I can say from past experience that whenever I have done something like this, the prospect almost always came back, thanked me for my honesty and sometime in the future became a paying customer, either because what they tried out didn’t work for them, wasn’t complete enough or simply because they trusted me enough to ask me what product of mine would help them with a certain problem that the other product didn’t cover.
Case in point…being honest can go a long way in mortgage marketing…and get you TONS of rebound clients!
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Common Mortgage Advertising Mistakes to Avoid!
Posted by: | CommentsAdvertising plays a prominent role in many mortgage companies’ mortgage marketing efforts to find new borrowers. As your customers get bombarded by more and more advertising messages, the urge to create an advertising piece that will stand out from the crowd becomes more urgent. This sense of desperation leads many mortgage lenders and brokers to create promotion pieces that cross the lines of permissible advertising. Good mortgage training can show you why this can be harmful. Make sure you don’t make these mistakes that can lead to costly penalties.
1. Don’t lead consumers to believe the government or their existing lender is sending them mail.
Many mortgage brokers use direct mail to solicit new business. Companies have distributed solicitations that use names of mortgage lenders in such a way that consumers believe it was sent to them by their lender, leading consumers to also believe, based on these solicitations, that their private financial information has been shared with another entity. These actions are a violation of the regulations of HUD and of the various states that regulate mortgage brokers and lenders. In addition, they can lead to consumer complaints to the regulatory agencies. The number of complaints the agency receives about you impacts how often you will be examined.
2. Do not omit the APR when advertising an interest rate.
No matter what state you are conducting mortgage activity, all lenders and brokers are subject to the application of federal Truth-in-Lending laws, specifically Regulation Z. The statute requires, among other things, that if a lender or broker advertises a particular interest rate, they must also quote the Annual Percentage Rate, or APR. The APR is correctly defined as the “cost of money borrowed, expressed as an annual rate.” The APR takes into account the note rate, which is the rate a borrower’s monthly payment is based on and any and all lender fees and finance charges. Yes, most borrowers don’t understand APR but you are still required to use it in your advertising and be able to explain it to a potential customer.
3. Do not use terms that indicate unlimited access to credit.
Advertisements that contain terms such as “bad credit no problem” (or similar phrases) or language that implies that an applicant will have total access to credit without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the material limitations on the availability of credit are prohibited under many state laws. In most states, lenders and brokers need to list any limitations to getting the advertised mortgage, including income requirements, limitations for consumers with bad credit (such as a higher rate), and that restrictions as to the maximum principal amount of the loan offered may apply.
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Beware False Claims from Mortgage Lead Providers!
Posted by: | CommentsIn today’s environment of information it seems people have become human lie detector test. It’s true we have all been callused by the gimmicks and scams that are all around us. They are on TV, radio and even the roadways are full of ads marketing their own form of the old bait and switch. Buy one get one free, free wristwatch with purchase and even the classic free steak, which normally applies only if you can eat your weight in red meat 
It’s no wonder this scum has worked it’s way into the mortgage leads industry as well. Almost every lead provider is offering free mortgage leads to reel unsuspecting customers in the door while they hit them over the head with a two thousand dollar invoice. This is not the way mortgage marketing is supposed to be!
If there is one place where free anything should be offered it’s the mortgage leads industry and the reason why is because it is so hard to find a good lead source that you can trust spending money with and free mortgage leads would take the risk out. There have been an influx of lead companies praying on the mortgage industry like vultures circling a dying animal. They know that mortgage brokers need leads and they need them fast to survive this downturn. Most mortgage brokers know this and have dedicated a budget to invest in quality mortgage leads but with a one-out of-ten shot of finding a good company they could deplete their budget quickly and be left with no deals closing that month and their thumb in their assets. This being said, offering free mortgage leads might be a good way to pick up a new customer and if they are happy with the quality they might just stick around and increase their order next time. Bottom line is the mortgage broker takes a big risk because not only can he loose valuable marketing money but have to float expenses due to no loans being funded as a result of a bad purchase.
“Free” Mortgage Lead Companies
The problem for the lead provider is that generating mortgage leads is not free at all and rather a quite expensive process. Quality mortgage leads have become much more difficult to generate due to the laws of probability. It’s simply like squeezing blood from a rock. It would take a page and a half to break down all the numbers so I’ll just explain it by saying that there is only a small percentage of people left in America that have good a enough financial standing and still can benefit from refinancing their home. You can see how offering free mortgage leads to the public with no return could would be unattainable. No one is in the business to give free stuff away and if they were they wouldn’t last long. Therefore, mortgage lead generation should be left up to YOU and YOU alone. It’s just too easy to generate your own, exclusive leads online!
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Why SEO is WAY Better than Buying Mortgage Leads or PPC!
Posted by: | CommentsThe day has come for your new website to go ‘Live’. After tweaking this and changing that you are finally ready for the herds of potential clients to bombard your website with promising loan applications. While you sit by your email program for a few hours waiting for that first application to come through, you realize that you just saved LOT of money and frustration by optimizing your site all by yourself.
The first step that should be taken is setting your short term and long term goals. This can be as simple as writing two sentences on a sheet of paper. Try to determine what would be a realistic number of leads to achieve per day and what that number of leads would cost you if you where to purchase them from a mortgage lead company. Take in to consideration that the leads from your site are not only exclusive, but also in real time making these leads as good as gold. Try purchasing exclusive live leads on the Internet and you will see that they can range in price from $50.00 to almost $75!
Lets say that your company spends anywhere between three to four hundred dollars a day in mortgage leads. If it cost you only $50 less in advertising to obtain the same amount of leads per day, you are still ahead of the game. You may find that you can cut your cost of leads in half, it all depends on how you use your marketing budget. Two exact websites with the same marketing budget can achieve two very different results.
I had a fellow LO co-worker who decided she was going to start her own mortgage lead generation website. I wished her well on her venture and off she went. Several weeks later I received a somber and humbling phone call from my gal pal who told me that she put up a website and was spending $200 a day in advertising and was only getting 1 or 2 leads a day. I was almost in tears at that point. I asked her what form of advertising was she doing, she replied with “Keyword advertising with a well known company”. At this point I was still confused because I strongly recommend keyword advertising (PPC) as a primary source of exposure. She told me that she was paying close to $11.00 per click for the term “refinance”. For those of you whom do not YET know what that means, every time someone clicked over to her site, it cost her $11 Bucks. So for her $200 she would receive only 18 visitors to her site! Now figure that only 1 or 2 of those people actually applied.
The point of my story is not how much you spend but how you spend it.
Your long term goals should focus on such things building link popularity, Getting a good position in search engines and creating some good public relations with your site. This is the SMART and SIMPLE way to elevate your mortgage marketing to new heights.
Chris Hallmark – http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish
Mortgage Lead Providers…What are You Getting?
Posted by: | CommentsWho is the person trying to obtain the mortgage? Are they serious about their purchase, or are they looking to buy six to eight months down the road once their lease is up, and they save some money?
Look for lead companies that weed out these types of leads, and will send you only potential customers looking to purchase within thirty to forty-five days.
What exactly is it that they are looking for? Are they looking to purchase, refinance, obtain a construction loan, or purchase land?
Make sure the lead companies have parameters on their applications to make sure the potential customer can be specific about what they want.
For instance, if a customer wants to refinance their home to purchase a new roof, because their existing roof has caved in, chances are, the appraisal won’t come in. We all have compassion, but this is not a good situation for a loan officer spending their hard earned money.
Where are the leads coming from? If a lead company is buying their leads from other companies, then these leads are considered old or recycled. They will however be very cheap, but remember, quantity is not always as good as quality. Where do they do their mortgage marketing?
When is your customer looking to purchase? If they are looking to purchase thirty to forty-five days from now, great! If not, then you might be waiting a long time for your ROI.
How many other loan officers have contacted your customer? Most lead companies sell their leads up to four times if they are being sold non exclusively. Make sure you find out the amount of times your lead company sells their leads to loan officers, and if they recycle them to other lead companies.
Why is this person applying for a loan? When you receive a lead from a lead company, there should always be a comment section where the potential customer can state the purpose for the loan and ultimately describe their needs. This way you can do a little research to discuss the programs you can offer that would be suited to their needs.
It is important to do as much research as you can about mortgage lead companies before you start investing your hard earned money.
Visit their web sites, and check out their return policy. Call and speak with a representative, and ask if they will allow for a free trial.
When you are ready to commit to making an investment, do it with a lead company you are comfortable with that has a reasonable minimum deposit to start with.
The more research you do, the better return on investment you will receive.
Chris Hallmark
Three Super Simple Ways to Generate New Leads!
Posted by: | CommentsHere we go…
Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip # 1. Join an Association
People join associations for one of three reasons:
Social – they want to build or maintain friendships and influences that may have taken years to build;
Promotional – they want to offer their own products or services to others in in a cost effective and positive way; awesome mortgage marketing!
Educational – they want to see what their competition is up to, and find out about the latest developments within their industry
Grow your network and your database by joining groups of already established people. By socializing with people who have something in common with, it makes it easier to generate business. People like to do business with people they like and trust. Most people like others who have the same interests as they do.
Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tip #2: Use Book Stores
One of the questions I keep asking all my LO cohorts is “How can you tell if someone is getting ready to need a mortgage? What do they do? How do they act?”
This is the million dollar question. If you can answer this question, you can easily be rich in the mortgage business. By being able to identify that they want a mortgage before they start looking for one, you can get a jump on all the other loan companies. This is one area of our business that still annoys me. Most other businesses, have a way to identify when someone will need their service and can market to them accordingly. Like when someone buys a new home, they most likely will be buying furniture, blinds, home accessories, etc. So if we were selling any of these items, all we need is a list of new homeowners to market to. And that list is easily available. But how the heck do we figure out who is “thinking” of getting a mortgage?
The answer one of my dear LO friends came up with was that they might go to the bookstore or library to read books on home buying, or mortgages, or real estate in general. And that’s true. Every bookstore has a real estate section. And most of the books are for consumers who are buying and selling real estate.
So my next question is, “Now that we have identified what they do, how do we get our message in front of them?”
And my buddy came up with this simple method: Go to the bookstores and libraries and insert a business card into each book.
After doing it for a couple months, he came up with some simple observations:
First, he learned that the best place to put the card was somewhere in the front. Try for the first chapter because not everyone reads the whole book.
Second, pick the books with the best covers and graphics inside- they sell the best.
Third, not all books sell and some are sent back to the publishers.
Fourth, having a USP on the card helps boost response.
Fifth, it takes about 10 minutes per bookstore.
Sixth, he averages 3-4 calls a month, and one loan per month.
Seventh, he now has his assistant do it. And she goes once a week.
Eight, the people who call are in search of more information, so offering them unbiased advice and more resources really turns them on.
If you have the time, and are brave enough to be seen doing it, try it and see what results you get. I wanted to test it in my market. So I went to three bookstores and put in about 120 cards. I got 2 calls, and one of them is a very serious prospect. If I do it more often, I have no doubt that it would work for me as well.
Cheap Mortgage Lead Generation Tp #3: Orphan Files
When a loan officer leaves a company the clients he/she brought to the company are called orphans. These clients now belong to the company. Ask your manager to see if you can contact any orphan files in your office to see if they need any mortgage or real estate help. Be nice enough, and they will allow you to add them to your database.
Chris Hallmark
