Written By: Karen Deis
If you are one of the thousands of loan originators who purchase mortgage leads - listen up!
Recently, a FOX news anchor (in the Minneapolis area) decided to do a report on spam and junk e-mail. They started with a "clean" new computer (no cookies), a fake email address. They answered junk and spam emails, and traced where their name ended up.
You will be shocked and appalled where their e-mail journey took them - and you may never buy another lead again.
It all started with a click to a link that took them to a webpage offering to sell a list of Minnesota women who wanted to cheat on their husbands: Paying $1 (via a credit card) for the list - no list was received.
The website was traced to an island in the Caribbean. Immediately, they began to get solicitations for mortgages. Upon filling out a "mini" loan application, the so-called mortgage site was traced to a website registered in Istanbul, Turkey. They received an instant message that said, "Congratulations - your mortgage loan has been approved".
Within a day (yes, less than 24 hours), the reporter received no fewer than 13 phone calls from mortgage companies offering to refinance. Now remember, they answered spam which started in Turkey.
Upon further investigation, one of the loan officers admitted that she purchased the name from a lead generation company in Maryland. Calling the company in Maryland, they claimed they purchased the lead from a wholesale name broker in California.
Of the 13 loan officers who called, 2 of them were willing to talk. One L.O. paid $500 for 20 leads and another said she paid $5 per name. (Doesn't it make you wonder that the less you pay for the lead, the lower you are on the food chain?)
From the Caribbean to Turkey, from Maryland to California - my point is before you spend your hard-earned dollars to purchase leads - investigate the source of the leads yourself. Just don't take their word for it.
Or better yet, develop your own niche market and generate your own leads. There are literally thousands of ways to get business - as evidenced at the recent Share and Tell Session at the Turn On Your Million Dollar Brain Workshop held in Florida. Check out the Santa Monica, CA workshop being held March 2-5, 2005.
Here are just a few of the ideas shared (which we will write about in greater detail in future issues):
- Home Inventory Reduction Sale
- Free Report on 33 Ways to Sell Your Home Fast
- Marketing to companies who sell supplies to the handicapped
- Video Business Cards
- Magnetic Dining Guides
On second thought, maybe a list of women who WANT to cheat on their husbands means that they need to refinance to get money to buy new clothes and afford to go out on the town. Or maybe they are thinking about divorce. Or maybe...you could speculate on the so-called "connection" for days. It's a stretch (on my part) trying to determine how the "cheating" list has anything to do with "mortgage leads".
Karen Deis
Copyright, 2005, LoanOfficerMagazine.com
