We’ve decided to do something we haven’t done since 2010! A live round of Loan Officer Unleashed!

Yep, this is a rare opportunity to get step by step marketing instruction for loan officers who want/need to get Realtor referrals ASAP!

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/599784274

When: Tuesday, February 28

Time: 1:00 Central (11:00 PST/2:00 EST)

After you’ve registered, I recommend you download this spreadsheet and save it for use on Tuesday. If you’re ready to take action, then you’re going to need it. See you on Tuesday!

Download Simple Marketing Action Sheet

I’m going to break from tradition and post my opinion on something… (Oh no! Gasp!) Sure, this might be a bit controversial to some, but my goal is to open more eyes to new ways of looking at your own career as a loan officer – And what often goes wrong with the marketing efforts. We’re not talking “technique” today – Nope… Today we’re talking about obsession. (Anyone else who still thinks of a fragrance when they hear that word?)

Are you ready for the controversial part of the post? Good, because here it comes: “My assertion is that many loan officers are not successful with their marketing efforts because they are not obsessed.”

Wait, wait wait… Before you leave this blog and delete it from your favorites for making such a crazy statement, let me explain where I’m going with this. How many success stories have you read about, or watched on TV? We’re talking professional athletes, Olympic contenders, amazing musicians – Or really anyone who absolutely excels at a particular skill. What do they all have in common? Read More→

I’ve been talking a lot about how important SEO is, marketing online, having your own website (That is properly structured and marketed) for quite a while now. Many times I like to throw impressive statistics out there on my webinars for loan officers to consider as well…

But today I’m going to take another approach. I’m going to post straight from the source undeniable proof that if your mortgage marketing does not include a well structured website, SEO, and additional web marketing – Then you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage.

See the slides I posted below? The National Association of Realtors does a great job of surveying home buyers and sellers throughout each year. At the end of each year (They’ve been doing this since the 90′s) they compile all of the surveys and put them into a book that you can purchase that provides a veritable X-Ray of how buyers and sellers shop, make decisions, use tools, etc… In other words, it’s a book that tells you (We are in a purchase market right?) exactly what you need to know about your prospects.

I posted a slide-show of the first 40 or so pages so that you can see what’s happening with your potential borrowers these days. Keep scrolling to see a list of the most important slides:

Let’s look at some of the more important slides:

Slide 11: This statistic reveals that 81% of home buyers viewed the internet as “very important/helpful” to finding their home/making a decision. That’s an impressive number all by itself, but consider the fact that it perfectly matched that the same percentage of buyers (81%) viewed their real estate agent as “very important/helpful” in the process… In other words, the internet is every bit as useful in the eyes of home buyers as their own real estate agent!

I’ll just let that one sink in for a few moments… This is big news that needs to be taken seriously. The message we’re being sent is that if we market to buyers (The people that need home loans) then we NEED to be online! Comparatively, only 15% of buyers found the web important, and only 17% found billboards important. Yard signs? 41%… Open Houses? 39%. None of these came close to the web. Traditional marketing strategies don’t carry the same weight they did even 10 years ago.

Slide 15: the main take-away here for me was the fact that 64% of buyers used the first agent they spoke with. 64%! So if we already know that 90%+ are going to the web to search, and that 91% of web users don’t bother with page #2 of the search engines… Are you seeing what I’m seeing? That’s right! If you have a search engine optimized website that is on page #1 of Google, then you stand a good chance of capturing these leads and borrowers before anyone else! Sure, you’re not a real estate agent – But these are people who are not paying cash – They need loans!

The leads are there for the taking for loan officers who are pro-active!

Slide 30: This slide showed the stats on how frequently home buyers used available resources for home shopping. The #1 spot? The internet! 74% of home buyers stated they “very frequently” used the internet. 69% stated they “very frequently” used their Realtor… Open Houses? Just 12%… Print media? 9%. These stats are coming right from the horses mouth here, and the picture being painted is quite clear: The web is where all the home buyers are going on a very regular basis!

Slide 34: 45% of home-buyers who used the internet took action and physically toured the home, another 21% drove by the home in question, and 29% found their Realtor this way.

Do you see the importance of a web presence now? These stats have grown from year to year as the web continues to absolutely dominate this mortgage/real estate market as the key lead generator. If you haven’t taken action yet to get your own free website installed, here’s that link again:

http://samplesite.freemortgagewebsite.com

It’s time to claim a piece of that marketing pie for yourself! See you there!