Written By: Karen Deis
Everyone can read the entire article.
Has your sub-prime river dried up? Your ship has been dry-docked? Fish are no longer jumping in the boat? Your wallet experiencing the drought?
My advice to you is stay away from the river of only one or two niche markets and consider creating different streams (i.e. niche markets) so that when one of the streams of income dries up, you still have money running into your income river.
Here are 5 niches to consider—pick any 3 of them and you’ll never be without water (income) again.
Marketing to Apartment Complexes – While a majority of first time homebuyers can be found living in apartment complexes, it may also be temporary housing for other people going thru a divorce, getting married or a job transferee. The beauty of marketing to apartment complexes is that once you have the mailing addresses, you can market to them forever, because the addresses never change, but the people who live there do, so you are constantly marketing to new people. Go to ApartmentToolKit.com for free sample post cards.
Marketing to Corporate Accounts – This is not the same as calling on the human resource managers. It’s targeting mid-sized companies with bundled discounts of over $1000, so you become the “endorsed” lender for all of their employees. Why mid-sized companies? Because they are the ones hardest hit with higher insurance premiums and retirement fees for their employees. Choose companies where you have done loans for their employees. Get them to endorse you. Create real, honest to goodness savings by asking your appraiser to reduce their fees; the title company to reduce their closing fee; free services from a financial planner; free income-tax preparation. I had 46 companies, with a total of 36,000 employees who distributed my brochures every single year. [You are not violating RESPA in offering discounts (by agents or appraisers or anyone else) because there are no kickbacks involved and the discounts are for the benefit of the consumer.]
Visit Consumer-Direct-Marketing.com for a free sample letter (corporate benefits introductory letter).
FSBO Marketing – No, I’m not talking about putting signs in their yard or asking them to refer their tire-kickers to you! These are the people who have literally put a sign in their yard and told you that they are selling a home and are ready to buy another one. You have 2 opportunities here. The main goal is to get them pre-approved BEFORE they sell their home. The headline on your letter should say:
Don’t Sell Your Home and Discover That You Can’t Buy Another One! Free report tells you why it’s critical that you get pre-approved so you don’t find yourself homeless and living under a bridge.
On average, FSBO sellers will attempt to sell their home themselves an average of 75 days or less (Stats from the National Association of Realtors Report: Survey of Home Buyers and Home Sellers). They get tired of the marketing and holding open houses and will end up listing their home. Opportunity number two is your ability to refer them to 3 real estate agents of their choice when they decide to list their home for sale.
Free Report Marketing – This is the way to add leads to your database—in fact, this is one of the methods lead-generation companies use. Some loan officers PAY big money for leads like this. You don’t have to because you can generate them yourself. You’ve seen the headlines. The offer to send a free report published in real estate magazines. But there are other places to consider offering a free report. The real estate classified ads (especially if there is a special section for FSBOs); your add in the yellow pages; bar association directories; radio, TV or a tool bar on your website.
Real Estate Agents and Builders – Begging for referrals is so last decade! Create a seminar series with ideas on how THEY can get more business. Offer to train rookie agents on the top 5 loan programs. Start a book club using business books as the basis of discussions. Refer your FSBO sellers and Apartment Complex leads to them. See if they want to be included in providing commission discounts for your Corporate Marketing system. Turn the table and create your OWN list of preferred agents. (Related article: Six Mastermind Round Table Ideas – link to article)
Blogs & Discussion Boards & Email Marketing - Be one of the first in your area to jump on this awesome way to stay in touch. View the online seminar with Dan Green called Blogging for Mortgages and read the interview with Daniel Martin in this issue.
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