Options for Buying Mortgage Leads

Mortgage lead generation services continue to evolve. For years, some of the most popular mortgage lead sources used outbound telemarketing, radio, TV, Internet and direct mail marketing, but in most cases the performance and financial risk for those leads always rested on the shoulders of the mortgage lender or broker. In recent years, mortgage loan leads are now being offered under Pay For Performance pricing whereby the lead generation company shoulders the performance and financial risk of the leads and marketing.

With the housing and refinance markets back on track, InboundProspect believes that now is the right time to actively seek out the best mortgage lead sources to access the large universe of potential borrowers looking to refinance. There are many options for obtaining the leads you need, including the sources below.

Outbound Telemarketing

This lead generation method uses very similar tactics to those that were implemented before the Internet became popular. The difference between now and then is the method in which the information is collected.

Outbound live transfer lead gen companies seek out potential leads with forms that are filled out on websites, co-registration leads, aged leads, phone lists and more. Those who fill out these forms are then passed through the Do Not Call Registry to remove all phone numbers that are on the Do Not Call List. The phone numbers that pass the Do Not Call List are then put into an auto dialer and called repeatedly. If a prospect shows interest the outbound telemarketing sales representative then live transfers the mortgage lead directly to the lender and broker.

The main downfall with outbound telemarketing is the limited number of prospects you can actually reach that meet the lenders criteria and dealing with the low quality of each call. After scrubbing the list against the Do Not Call List there will only be about 10-15% of the phone numbers you started with left. It is not a scalable or reliable mortgage lead source. Plus, many of those that you do reach won’t qualify, are busy going about their day and were ‘sold’ into speaking to you by the live transfer sales representative, and will be irritated that you called them. Loan officers lose motivation when they are continually being hung up on by irritated callers and call center morale goes into the tank, which has led to the downfall of many call centers.

Internet Mortgage Leads

These types of leads normally come from a variety of online campaigns, including Pay-Per-Click, organic traffic, social media, special landing pages and more. The challenge here is that lenders ultimately need accurate financial information about borrowers so they can determine a borrower’s credit worthiness and their ability to qualify for a mortgage loan or refinance product. These lead types don’t provide accurate information about a prospective borrower’s financial health simply because most landing pages only collect limited borrower information.

Mortgage lenders will likely only be able reach less than 50 percent of the leads they purchased from the Internet provider. Most of the time is spent calling leads that might not even be interested in purchasing anymore.

Direct Mail Leads from InboundProspect

Direct mail live transfer mortgage leads are inbound and are effective because the borrower was targeted because they met specific criteria before they were even marketed to. Before marketing to the mortgage borrower we know that they meet the mortgage lenders loan criteria based on their credit report, combined loan to value (CLTV), income demographic and that they statistically show a high propensity to respond and convert to a mortgage loan offer whether it is for a rate and term refinance or a cash out refinance.

Plus, the borrower receives a letter in the mail detailing the pre-qualified interest rate, APR, loan terms, loan amount, cash out amount and monthly payment so they can easily compare the information to their existing mortgage loan situation or cash out needs. The mortgage borrower has the chance to think about the offer, make a decision to pick up the phone and then dial the lender. The borrower is taking action and making the first move towards the loan product, whereas with most other mortgage lead sources the lender or broker must contact the borrower.

Unlike traditional direct mail marketing, agencies that only provide a service and require the mortgage lender to assume all of the performance and financial risk of the campaigns, InboundProspect works from a Pay For Performance pricing model, which means you pay for results.

InboundProspect only employs direct mail lead generation methods on a Pay For Performance basis and adds sophisticated methodologies to dramatically increase ROI results so that lenders can exceed their Cost Per Fund and loan volume goals:

• Pricing Models – InboundProspect’s pricing models are known as Cost Per Acquisition (Cost Per Loan or Cost Per Fund), Cost Per Call or Cost Per Lead, which allows the lender to pay only when they see results.
• Analysis – Instead of sending direct mail to an entire random universe, InboundProspect consults with lenders to determine what their business needs are and then performs extensive analysis on potential clients and how to obtain them. This analysis includes understanding the client’s available loan products, loan underwriting criteria, loan volume goals, CPA and revenue goals, and more.
• Results – Results are top priority, which is why we employ Cost Per Acquisition, Cost Per Call and Cost Per Lead pricing models, which is something most other lead generation companies don’t have a category for when it comes to direct mail lead generation. Our unique response and conversion models combined with proprietary database integration strategies will net you exclusive mortgage leads that have been qualified. Plus, borrowers will be highly motivated by your offer instead of some small chance of funding a loan after you’ve spent thousands of dollars in time and money grinding through other mortgage lead types.

The Best Option for Mortgage Leads in Today’s Market

Technology has changed, and so has mortgage lead generation. Statistics show that sales people are only able to talk to less than 27 percent of all leads that are generated through some of these mentioned methods. By using a combination of common sense and a Pay For Performance direct mail program with InboundProspect, you can have the chance to speak to 100 percent of your mortgage leads and help you reach revenue and loan volume levels that you’ve never experienced before.