In the past year, I have tried it all. I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on various lead sources and marketing efforts. Some were decent while others were just a waste of money. There were a few things I learned throughout the process, and thought I would share them with you in my first ever blog.
Internet lead services promise you the world. I have dealt with 4 separate ones within the last year. The sales rep tells you just how easy it is. “Prospects go online looking for a mortgage. They supply everything but date of birth and social. You will know exactly how much they owe, the interest rate, the value of the home, the bedrooms, baths, when they purchased, etc. You get the lead real time and call them and take an application. If you have a program for them, it is as simple as a sold loan. Check out this site and see how we are ranked number 1 on this site, and number 2 on this site, blah, blah, blah”
Then you fill out the contract and reality sets in. All the perfect leads that you were expecting are no longer on these sites. If anyone is aware of a 150% LTV loan, stated, with a 3 month residence history, and a bankruptcy within the last year, please let me know. I have a ton of clients that fit into this box. You can't blame the consumer....most of these people thought they were clicking on a site to find out what current interest rates were. Instead, they are being inundated with calls from the 5 different companies the leads were sold to. Once they have their credit pulled, now that creates a "trigger lead" which is sold to another 5 or 10 companies. So, when you finally talk to the client after calling 8 times, they simply hang up because all they wanted was to see what interest rates were that day. Would you blame them? A "good" lead gets so fed up with the process that they stop answering the phones. Some have even changed their number. This is why I like to call these leads 30 days out once all the calls have stopped. If you shop around, you can find some good "dated" loans for pennies on the dollar. This has been a pretty good investment for me.
Telemarketing companies really make things sound easy. Pay this dollar amount, and you will receive live transfers from borrowers that are double certified to do business with you. I think what they mean by double certified is that they have a house, and they own a phone, because none of the other filters I requested were met. I realize that people don't want to believe that there home value has declined (I understand, I am in the same boat), but most of these leads are well above 100 LTV. The kicker was that instead of getting live transfers, I was getting paper leads because nobody wanted to be transferred from the telemarketer to the loan officer. I basically sat by the phone for 3 hours every night waiting for a live customer, only to find 10 paper leads the next morning that I had to telemarket and resell. 216 paper leads and transfers in two months....1 loan! Money well spent? Yeah, according the telemarketing company that told me a longer contract and a bigger financial commitment would get me more customers. What? Have you heard of the DNC list? Hey Sparky, telemarketing is dead!
On to direct mail! This one can’t miss. I will target customers “currently in adjustable rate mortgages, that are about to adjust within the next year, with less than 80% LTV, more than 10,000 in credit card debts, and have been in the home for more than 5 years. The list has been compressed, compiled, scrubbed, sanitized, mesmerized, scrubbed against the national do not move list.”
Huh? I think you are now making this up! Regardless, this is WAY TO EASY! I will be helping everyone I talk to. Just spend $2800 on 5000 mailers and my phone will ring off the hook. “Great! How quickly can I get these mailers sent out because I want to help everyone today?”
“What do you mean you only sent half of the 5000 mailers out? The other 2500 will be sent the last two weeks of July when everyone and their families are on vacation?” Hopefully, they will realize that they spent too much money on vacation and will have to refinance in order to get their debts in order. Maybe if I sign another contract for another few months, that will get me the better list of customers that really respond?! Nah, I know sucker is stamped on my forehead, but I don’t need you making it any darker with another stamp.
The funny thing is when I spoke to all of these sales reps for the various companies; they all made everything too good to be true. I know that rule, but I didn’t believe it. The same reps that kept in constant contact with me prior to the contract being signed, are now nowhere to be found. Is it possible these companies can stay in business if this is the return each one provides? Maybe they are all telling me the truth….”Tim, this never happens man. I can’t believe how low the response rate was. I just don’t get it. I think if we sign up for another 3 months we will more than double your response!” Dude, 2 x 0 is still 0!
I know you are all probably thinking that this guy must be the worst loan officer in the world and couldn’t close a screen door, but I have to say, I am pretty darn good. I can also say, the people that work with me aren’t too shabby either, yet we all had the same result. So, I am on to my new project.
So this is one part of my new project. A new website (www.tmmortgagegroup.com ) and a new blog. I will keep you posted on my success or failure of this venture. I am ahead of the game so far. I didn’t drop a cent on active rain!!!
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