Paul

Internet lead generation generally has a real shrill ring in most loan officers, brokers, and bankers ears. Most of this reputation is diserved. But, is there a better way?

A post at Lead Critic may be interesting to you if you are a Web 2.0 junky and you have always thought there was a better way to generate Internet leads. Or, perhaps you already do if your blog, but wonder if the model could be scaled.

Is there yet another new lead provider on the horizon? Is there really a better way to generate mortgage leads? Maybe the Web 2.0 way? Lead Critic explores what a new mortgage lead generation business plan might look like. Would you buy into this model?

Technorati Tags:
Internet leads, lead critic, lead generation, leads2007, social media, social networks, Web 2.0

Listen, I’m gonna make this quick, cause quite honestly this might be my final post here on Lenderama. After the Head Honcho sees this la la la title, there’s a good chance I’ll be fired and if that’s the case then it’s been nice knowing all of you.

OK, so I know where Todd’s coming from on the “freak out or take it in stride” attitude and I totally agree. What I wanted to share with all of my mortgage broker friends [and what I’m willing to risk my job over] is the fact that there’s also a great opportunity here. Believe it or not, this Alt-A Shakeup & Takeaway makes it a great time to be a mortgage broker! Think about it. Some of these companies retail departments have lost Alt-A altogether and others still have some programs. The landscape is changing as we speak. Yes, everyone is seeing this on CNN, but no one knows what to make of it. Seize this opportunity to gain market share and educate your referral sources that mortgage brokers fund loans with the greatest number of sources. If it exists, then we can fund it! If XYZ Bank lost all Alt-A programs then I’d be making contact with the real estate office that XYZ Bank retail sat in.

All right, I wrote an article called Alt-A Judgment Week and I created an account with ActiveRain. By the way, ActiveRain looks like a great real estate networking site. After Todd fires me, you can find me there. Adios!

Posted by: Paul - Broken Credit

I renewed 350 domain names in bulk last week with GoDaddy. I like the internet. It’s that great frontier of the Wild West West and it’s presently available for you to stake your claim. Incidentally, Business.com sold last week for $345M and, unlike the dot-com blowouts of Y2K, the company is profitable with $50M in revenues. So I think there’s something to this whole World Wide Web thing and I’ll offer a few of my thoughts and encourage any of you who might not be involved as of yet to get involved and watch your mortgage business grow.

First and foremost, thanks to Todd for the work that he does here on Lenderama, REMBEX, and all of the other online projects he leads which are geared towards the mortgage/real estate community. He makes it easy for an originator to get involved. One simple way to build a web presence is to create a free blog with blogger [in about five minutes], and use that blogger user/pw to post comments to Lenderama. Go ahead, try it – post a comment. Also, you don’t have to agree with the author. Personally, I think it makes for more interesting and truthful reading when people with divergent opinions clash in a friendly way and everyone grows as a result. So go ahead, post a comment - I’m not made of paper.

In February of last year, I created a blog on the subject of credit repair and responsible mortgage lending. Today it is the #1 credit blog in Google out of over 100M sites. The site generates 150 to 200 leads per week every week. More importantly, the site helps people improve their lives. That’s what makes it worthwhile for me. As a LO, I’m sure you’ve seen credit reports with stellar credit and then one $100 collection that drops the score 70 points. The collection agencies of the world provide a never-ending supply of subject matter for the Broken Credit Blog to write about. The website is my persona, but I’m not the only author, as brokencredit.com has over a dozen ghostwriters. By the way, that’s what I believe it takes to make a site [or anything in life] successful for the long-term - cooperation and teamwork. That’s why I’m encouraging those of you who are committed to this industry to get involved. We are in an unprecedented time and the internet breaks down barriers in ways it hasn’t done before. Last week presidential candidates faced questions sent in via YouTube!

OK, so maybe this is a little daunting for some as it may seem as though being found through a search engine for whatever search terms is about as likely as being spotted on TV in a crowd inside the stadium during the Super Bowl. Let me tell you about an amazing website that is providing a most excellent service free of charge for the mortgage/real estate community. It’s a networking site with around 11,000 members; it has a great vibe and powerful PageRank. How would you like your page to be in the top fifty sites for a Google search for ‘your city + real estate’? Now is your chance; that is, if your city and state haven’t already been taken. WannaNetwork is looking for mortgage or real estate professionals to write a one-page description about their city and state. This is a great opportunity for search placement, so hurry up, before your city is taken. Heck, if you can’t write [or don’t want to], then pay a professional writer $100 to write the text for you. Imagine the leads you would get from Google searches for ‘your city + real estate’ over the next few years from simply writing one article.

So, there you have it. An invitation to create your website and grow your mortgage business. For those of you who’ve already been doing that, I’m hopeful it’s a positive message you’ve been promoting all along. For everyone else, the environment and timing are right to begin building a presence on the World Wide Web. I can’t guarantee you’ll end up selling your domain for $345M; but, if your investment is in people, you’ve already shown a profit.

Posted by Paul - Broken Credit

How can I help you to help our client? There have been times in my real estate career where I have felt like I was on a different team than the mortgage guy was on. Were we both working for the best interests of our client?

But hey, he may very well have been on the other side of the transactions asking himself what the heck he had to do to get the REALTOR to cooperate. As usual, I always think I’m right. But I also realize I’m human and that can’t possibly be the case.

So I thought we might have a little fun here. I’m really looking for your comments and input on this one. I’d like to take those comments and move them over to my BBQCapital blog to share with other real estate agents, and quite frankly, my clients.

Here are 5 things I, as a professional real estate agent working in the Kansas City area, am looking for from my clients’ mortgage provider;

1. Excellent communication.
2. Promises made, promises kept.
3. GFE’s that closely resemble Settlement Statements.
4. Settlement Statements 48 hours in advance.
5. “Situations” dealt with swiftly and professionally.

Alright, now it’s your turn. What are you expecting from your real estate agent?