A few months ago, I wrote an editorial about my personal experience with making a mortgage refinance inquiry via the Internet. No less than 5 loan orignators called me. (Yes, the EXCLUSIVE lead was sold at least 5 times.) To update the story, this week, I received 2 calls from loan originators who got sucked into buying my lead AGAIN. Yes, my mortgage lead was sold again 3 1/2 months later. (One of the loan officers even told me that he bought my name!)

Within the last few weeks, I received no less than 22 email solicitations with titles ranging from:

However, I have seen a novel trend developing among lead generation companies.

And maybe the trend is a good thing! At least it might be a step in the right direction.

It's the trend towards niche marketing and specialization. Mortgage originators from throughout the country have told me that when they have purchased leads in the past, that it was like a box of chocolates - you never know what you are going to get. It could be A paper; BC credit with a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd mortgage; sometimes even a commercial building.

A new approach to lead generation is "market segmentation."

Here are examples of 4, distinct types of e-mail advertising that I received within the last 2 weeks:

• Reverse Mortgage Leads - if your business consists of Reverse Mortgages, they claim to be the #1 provider, with each and every lead "verified".



• Christian Lending Network - you many not know what type of mortgage lead you are buying - but supposedly you will be working with "Christian" homeowners. The ad does not say how they verify their religion.



• Realtor^TM Leads - this is a novel concept where instead of getting mortgage leads, the company guarantees that they will set up one appointment per month with a local Realtor^TM. It's kind of like a dating service - and that could be good or it could be bad. What you don't know is if they are setting up a meeting with a top producer or someone who just graduated from real estate school.

• IRA & Annuity Leads - the concept behind this type of lead is that they identify clients whose retirement assets are "under funded" and you approach them to refinance or take out a second mortgage to fund retirement accounts.

No, I'm not going to give you the website addresses or contact information in this editorial. Do a "Google" search and I'm sure you can find plenty of sources.

If you choose to purchase leads based upon a demographic group, I suggest that you create marketing materials exclusively targeting this group.

One word of caution!

One of the email solicitations gave me the option to call for references - so I did. I was given the names of 2 loan officers who supposedly are current users of the lead service. Of course, each one gave me glowing reports on how great the system was! However, after talking to each of them (individually), I found out that they were the "crash-test dummies" (aka - tested the program), who did not PAY for the service but were friends of the lead generation founder. And, by the way, if I signed up under them, they would earn $50 and I could too. Like an MLM scheme.

Please let me know what your experience has been with market-segmentation leads! Submit your comments or stories to Karen - deis4@aol.com

Karen Deis,
Publisher and Lead Generation Skeptic

Copyright, 2004, LoanOfficerMagazine.com

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