South Lake Tahoe, CA.  May 15 2009.  Leadsnet Inc., a provider of commercial mortgage leads reports that requests for commercial mortgage loan modifications has increased steadily since the company rolled out their commercial mortgage modification portal at www.commercialmodification.com.

“We have seen a steady increase in traffic on our commercial mortgage modification portal” says Ted Schmidt, President of Leadsnet, Inc. “Anticipating the commercial mortgage meltdown, we published the site in January 2009.  Since then, the volume of leads has increased steadily.  The average loan amount is about $2,500,000 and average LTV is about 80%.  Commercial property owners are using our service to find consultants that specialize in commercial loan workouts.“

The seizure of the commercial mortgage backed securities market has made it increasingly difficult to refinance loans that are coming due this year, next year and peaking in 2011.  This will lead to more defaults in the years to come as vacancies increase, rents drop and property values fall. 

Earlier this month Fitch Ratings reported that commercial defaults surged by 48 percent last quarter to $23.7 billion, and that this quarter will see even more delinquencies among commercial mortgages.   During the peak of the bubble, commercial underwriting standards were loosened to feed demand and now the lenders are paying for the relaxed guidelines.

As mortgage holders and servicers foresee the coming crisis with the inability to refinance, they will be more likely to want to negotiate a modification to avert greater potential losses through foreclosures.

The Federal Reserve is also making efforts to reduce losses on commercial mortgages by including CMBS in the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF.  It will take some time for this program to get off the ground since commercial lenders have not been making loans for the past year designed to be bundled into CMBS, since that market seized up a year ago.

For more information about participation as a commercial mortgage modification consultant, contact Ted Schmidt, Leadsnet Inc. at 530-387-3631 or visit http://www.commercialmodification.com

With the recent crackdown on loan modification companies that charge upfront fees and then do nothing, the government and press has painted the entire industry with a broad brush and labeled the business model as a scam.  This has resulted in a decline in lead volume and increased acquisition costs.  The vast majority of companies in this business are not scams and do offer a valuable and needed service to homeowners.

 
How can you, as a legitimate business distinguish yourself from these scammers and gain the confidence of the prospect?   Here are some suggestions.

 
Join and become accredited with your local Better Business Bureau.  Having a BBB link on your website and a sign prominently displayed in your office with let the consumer know that you operate a transparent business and they will know they have some recourse if things don't go as planned.

 
Use testimonials.  Ask clients that have used your service to write a short paragraph about their experience with you.  Post these on your website and also in your office.

 
Mortgage Lead and Loan Modification Lead Pricing Overview

Real Time Internet Leads - $20. These leads are sent to you instantly when a homeowner submits the form on our websites.  They are filtered by state, loan amount and behind in payments Yes or No,

Cherry Picked Leads® - $1 - $15 ea. (no minimum)
These are the leads that did not get sold 3X as a result of real time
delivery.  Prices go down over time.

Live Transfer Leads. - $55 ea. (10 minimum)
We call and qualify prospect and put the call and completed lead form through
to you.  Qualifications are - Must be 30 days or more behind, Must be
employed, must be aware there is a fee for service and must have a 1st
mortgage over $120,000. No BK

 

 

Ted Schmidt, President

Mortgage Leads Network Leadsnet Inc.

http://www.loanmodificationleads.org

http://www.mortgageleads.net

voice: 530-387-3631

 

People often ask me which leads are the best. The answer to this question depends mostly on you. A person working on their own has different needs than a person managing a sales forces of 10 reps. Most of my customers fall in to the first category. Someone who is new to the business has different needs than someone with years of closing experience.

If you are new to the business I recommend that you call the leads that are 6 - 8 or more weeks old. These leads are available in the $1 - $2 range. They all have a date and time stamp and have the web site that the homeowner originally went to. We never sell a lead more than three times, so these leads have not been "hammered". When you call I would say something like this. "Hello Mr Smith, I am calling to follow up on the inquiry you made on Jan. 27 at www.loanfix.us for loan modification". Did you get your loan modification completed? Is it in process? What has your experience been?

This will give the new person an opportunity talk to qualified homeowners without the need to burn up hot leads. These leads are also very productive for larger operations that have a few telemarketers that can call these to generate live transfers for their closers.

If you are working on your own and already have several closed deals under your belt then I believe the recent cherry picked leads offer the best chances for success. Managing your time may be your most important task. Our Cherry Picked Leads® allow you to log in and get a lead when you need one. I recommend buying lead one at a time. When you need to call someone, log in, get a lead, call that lead, repeat. Don't log in and buy 10 fresh leads - unless you have 10 reps to call right away.

If you do have 10 experienced reps then an order for real time leads and live transfers would work best. The real time leads are sent to you by email instantly after a homeowner fills in the form. These can be filtered by almost any criteria you can think of including minimum loan amount, minimum interest rate, state or behind in payments yes or no.

Pricing Overview

Cherry Picked Leads® - $1 - $15 ea. (no minimum) These are the leads that did not get sold 3X as a result of real time delivery. Prices go down over time.

Live Transfer Leads. - $55 ea. (Min 10) We call and qualify prospect and put the call and completed lead form through to you. Qualifications are - Must be 30 days or more behind, Must be employed, must be aware there is a fee for service and must have a 1st mortgage over $120,000. No BK.

 

Ted Schmidt, President Mortgage Leads Network

Leadsnet Inc. http://www.loanmodificationleads.org

http://www.mortgageleads.net

voice: 530-387-3631

I have had several people ask me about the different lead programs and specials we have going on now.  Let me go over the different types of lead delivery programs we have.

Real Time Internet Leads - $15 ea.(no minimum)
We can deliver 100-200 per day depending on the filter.  These leads are
delivered by email or post in real time as the consumer fills in the form.
They may be sold up to a total of three times.

Cherry Picked Leads® - $1 - $15 ea. (no minimum)
These are the leads that did not get sold 3X as a result of real time
delivery.  Prices go down over time.

Live Transfer Leads. - $50 ea. (Min 10)
We call and qualify prospect and put the call and completed lead form through
to you.  Qualifications are - Must be 30 days or more behind, Must be
employed, must be aware there is a fee for service and must have a 1st
mortgage over $100,000.

Live Call In TV Leads, - $40 - $50 (min 10)
The live call ins are produced by advertising a toll free number on the
Internet ($40), TV and radio ($50).  When a caller dials the number it is
instantly routed to your call center, the call is recorded and you have a
limited time to qualify the homeowner and continue or terminate the call with
no charge.

 

A cram down is when a bankruptcy judge reduces the amount of a debt in a bankruptcy proceeding, often at the objection of one or more creditors.  Right now, cramdowns of mortgages on primary residences are not allowed in federal bankruptcy cases but proposed legislation will make the practice a legal remedy that judges can use to modify mortgages on a primary residences.

If you have filed for bankruptcy contact your attorney and ask him or her how the proposed regulations will affect your case.

 "the first offer they make, may only be designed to lock you into a longer term loan often with teaser rates and negative amortization"

If you want to avoid bankruptcy and modify the mortgage on your primary home, you may be able to ask your lender to change the terms of your original note,  Often they will flatly deny you if you are not at least 60 day behind in payments.  If they are interested in a loan modification , the first offer they make, may only be designed to lock you into a longer term loan often with teaser rates and negative amortization. 

Many loan servicing companies, who collect payment and pass them on to investors often have no incentive to modify loans and also risk being sued by investors if they do.  Before you agree to any modification, have the documents reviewed by a loan modificaiton attorney .

 

 

Leadsnet Inc offers websites that homeowners visit to request free consultations from attorneys and loan modifications companies.  Attorneys, CPA's and licenced mortgage brokers can register for service at www.loanmodificationleads.org

 

 

Originally posted in October 2008, I felt it was worth posting again.  Our politicial and economic leaders continue to feed us more of the same.  They believe an expansion of the money supply and re-inflation of the housing bubble is what can lead us out of the coming depression, they are wrong.  Only deflation of the bubbles (housing and next treasury bonds) will bring us back into equilibrium where the demand and supply of housing sets the price.  Government can't do much to stimulate demand for housing.

 

First we get an economic stimulus package of $150 billion, then there is a $300 billion housing bill passed in July followed by the nationalization of Fannie, Freddie and AIG.  Next we get a $700 billion rescue package.  What's next?  I think the next one will start with a capital "T" as in trillions.  I wonder what they will call the next bailout?  The $2.3 Trillion "mother of all bailouts" or the "Save Capitalism Bill"?  The next one will be probably be another emergency rescue package / economic stimulus designed to mitigate the recession.  Then later down the road we will see another bill designed to address social security and medicaid which include the $45 trillion we have in unfunded entitlements.

I see a pattern here.  First there is the dot com bubble of 2001 which led to a recession which the federal reserve tried to derail by lowering interest rates.  This precipitated the housing bubble.  Now instead of letting that bubble naturally deflate the government intervenes in the market to prop it up. Now we are in a recession again. The recent rate cuts by the fed and other central banks will not do anything to address the long term problem and root cause - easy money.  Market forces will prevail and unintended consequences of government intervention will cause inequities and massive wealth redistribution.  Government bailouts only prolong the agony.

 

Ted Schmidt

I started producing loan mod leads in May of 2008 and decided I would try to do some loan mod deals myself with the help of an attorney.  I was producing an extra 50 leads per day or so that did not get sold and figured I could just cherry pick my own database, open 5 new cases a day and make an extra $25,000 per month. What a life.  To my utter shock after about a week of calling very interested and motivated prospects I was not able to close a single deal!  I decided I was better off doing what I know and trust and can believe in.

A loan modification is not an easy sale.  If anyone thinks that this business is some kind of bonanza like the gold rush. trust me, it is a lot harder than you think.  Operating this business is just like most others, many hours of hard work with commensurate pay.  That is not to say that people don't make good money.  They do.  They have a very well oiled machine with sufficient capital to sustain them since they can't really spend the money collected from the homeowners until after the modification is completed, this can take months.  If you do use the money collected to fund your operations, then you risk being called a scammer that takes peoples money and does nothing - regardless of how many hours you worked on the case.

I support the loan modification industry 100%.  It is a business that requires many hours of hard work and is by no means an easy money proposition for anyone contemplating getting into it  There are plenty of companies that are profiting and those were mostly in business and profiting before the loan mod boom hit and they will still be here when this is all over.

 

Ted Schmidt

With the economy in a prolonged recession, more and more business are having trouble meeting their obligations on commercial real estate loans. They are turning to a specialized group of negotiators targeting commercial loan modifications.

 

This just in...

Fannie Mae to suspend foreclosures through the holiday season.

Leadsnet Inc. has released www.Hope-For-Homeowners.us a consumer portal designed to help take the confusion out of the loan modification process.  The site offers a quick form for consumers to complete that will match them with a loan modification consultant.  Hope-for-homeowners.us also offers descriptive information and links to goverment programs from Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac the FDIC and the HOPE for homeowners loan program from FHFA.

For more information contact Ted Schmidt.