13 Nov
Being able to generate mortgage leads is always a tricky affair as most home buyers just don’t shop for a mortgage. People shop for a house in the same way most people shop for a car and then get a loan as a means of paying for the house or car. This sequence is due to the fact that the house or car is what they want. No one wants payments so that is not the average persons’ initial focus. They have become accustomed to this process no matter how much we wish it were different. It’s not going to change and we shouldn’t try to fight it.
For this reason it is more difficult to generate high quality mortgage leads than home buyer leads, yet they are in most cases the same thing. The lack of understanding of this is what leads most loan officers to stop trying to generate mortgage leads and start buying them. Buying leads is a much easier process then trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t and becoming an internet savant. I have heard many loan officers tell me “I work by referral only” and that leads me to think to myself “Down to that are you?” These loan officers can be great at their jobs but they are lost online.
They have obviously gotten their fair share of crap from mortgage lead generating online companies that promise the world and leave the loan officer with a light pocket book and a bad taste in their mouth. Yet these online companies still survive and some thrive in this economic nightmare of a mortgage landscape. Online mortgage lead sellers are aware that building a referral network in the loan origination business is the slowest, most painful way to create a sustainable business.
Here is a trick to generating online mortgage leads:
- Associate with real estate not mortgages (USHUD.com , Zillow, Trulia all have programs for this)
- Stop trying to win the PPC game
- Find a reputable mortgage lead generator
Here are some things not to do:
- Continually improve your own site…it cannot compete with the larger players online.
- Give up
- Sign a large term contract
- Print advertising
People need your services and your services are valuable. They just cannot find you just as much as you can’t seem to get found. But always remember that mortgages come second in the minds of the buyers. They want a home and your function comes in after wards.
Matt Steinmuller is an experienced copywriter with a passion for great content, real estate, and fantasy football. He is a Towson University graduate with a degree in Marketing.
3 Comments
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Vince
December 20, 2012It really is that simple. Painful as it may sound, people by and large do not shop for mortgages. When young couples dream build of the type of house they want to live in, I seriously doubt mortgage payments enter into the conversation. My question is this. Is it a waste of advertising dollars for loan officers to advertise on their own? Should they buddy up with a realtor when advertising. The reason I ask is usually when a person goes to a realtor for a house, the realtor recommends “their” loan officer.
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Michael
December 20, 2012Piggy backing is great. Many of the loan officers on Qazzoo claim home buyer leads and then refer them out to the Real Estate agents that they work with as an incentive to generate more business from them. It’s a pretty clever way to serve the needs of all parties and we did’nt even think of it!
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Matt Steinmuller