A company that does not get mentioned here as frequently as they probably should, for what ever reason, released their bi-annual benchmark study last week. I was going to cover it as soon as it came out, but I was actually going to make an effort to try and acquire the study, but did not have any luck, so this post isn’t as timely as I would have liked, but better late then never.

That said, many of you have probably already seen the press release, if not you can download it here, MortgageBot Benchmark Study. First, I love the fact that MortgageBot puts the time and effort into putting a report like this together for their clients. They have the data, so why not share it?

Read the full story

Guest Post By Adrian Huth, friend and “good guy” in the industry.

Allow me to introduce myself…. I am an individual who has been in the lead generation industry going on 10 years.  I have seen the industry involve from the early days of the mortgage boom to the now recent collapse and repositioning to new verticals gaining increasing value such as loan modification and debt consolidation leads. I have seen the evolution of the search engines and SEO marketing and was there in the beginning of cost per click marketing.  I have witnessed how lead generation and lead quality was affected by the rise of the affiliate networks, display advertising, email marketing and incentivized leads.  I saw first hand how all these different types of marketing caused lead buyers to cancel and how some increased closing ratios.  Even back 4 years ago with all these types of lead generation I began to suspect that people are playing a game of buying and selling leads to each other and that everyone is becoming the enemy of the other.  Lead generation has now evolved into screwing people over and this has now become the de facto business model and state of the industry.

Read the full story

Last post I gave a brief synopsis of the original complaint submitted by LG Technologies and also picked a few statements from Edwards Shin declaration.

One of the bigger complaints or allegations made by LG is that Shin purposely diverted payments into his own personal bank account that was supposed to have gone into LG’s account. They also claim that it is possible that LeadPoint or Marc Diana were involved with the misdirection of payments. Both Shin and LeadPoint refute these allegations in their declarations.

Read the full story

I am going to come clean from the outset and say that, “no,” I don’t have the stones to make the call that we have indeed hit a, “bottom,” in the housing market. But I have seen a couple of things lately that lead me to believe we are at least close.

One revelation that I had recently was that consumers may have finally moved on from hoping that we will again see the market conditions experienced during the ref-boom. This dawned on me after a conversation with a client who was having particular success with a mail campaign. They attributed that success to the timing of the drop in conjunction with Bush signing into action the Housing Bill. I don’t believe that there was any correlation because if there was, we would have likely seen inquiry volumes spike in the Internet lead gen industry. But things have remained relatively flat and I think this is a good sign.

Read the full story

It is funny how often times the simplest, most often overlooked, things are what can make us the most successful. Lead management is one of those things. Sure, some of the details can get complex, but the concept is simple. And lead management software has made the processes a snap to implement.

At the end of the day an effective lead management system is one that solves the much researched problem of efficient supply chain management. Read the full story

I don’t know about you, but I can feel the pressure building around the industry in more ways then one. Since Bush signed the H.R. 5140 stimulus package last week people have been waiting on the side lines for the new loan amounts to kick in. As a home owner in Southern CA I can benefit from the increase and yes I am waiting until the increase happens. It could possibly save me a few hundred dollars a month. In some instances though I feel like I am playing a craps game in Vegas.  Every week that goes by it seems property values decline more and more. Hurry up FHA!

Read the full story

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see lead buyers making with their leads. An Internet leads, if generated with any level of integrity, is not a cold call. It is an initiated, hand waver!

Think about what a quality Internet consumer lead implies:

• There was a need
• They have done some level of research (i.e., did a search, read an email, had a discussion)
• They provided private contact information

They are asking to be called so don’t treat them like strangers–complete the experience. Read the full story

This went under the radar a few day’s ago and I have finally got around to talking about it here.

On the 27th, the Detroit Free Press announced that Quicken Loans and RockBridge Equity Partners purchased two California companies. The first was TransUnion Title and Escrow, which will help Quickens affiliate, Title Source to increase its reach to all 58 California counties.

Read the full story

The Internet sales environment, which most of us are increasingly operating within, is demanding a redesign of our salesforce. This redesign is going to focus in on key new expectations of Internet consumers:

• Immediacy
• Responsiveness
• Follow up/through

Read the full story

It’s definitely that time of year again. The NFL is drawing close to an end and my baseball stats sheets and forecasters are arriving in the mail–that’s right Fantasy Baseball is in the air!

This time of year gets me all excited about stats and predicative indicators. So, this weeks best practices post and whitepaper is in tribute to Michael Lewis’ ode to Fantasy Baseball–”Moneyball.” I am about to show you what ROI, %contact, %app, AttAR, AttCR, and many more quintessential key metrics and indicators can do to optimize your loan production. Read the full story

Are you feeling the market constricting around your neck? Is it harder and harder to find borrowers you can actually help? Have you shaken down every real estate agent in the tri-county area and found their pockets empty too?

Welcome to the crowd, but don’t panic.

The first step is to admit you have a problem. Stop saying, “I get all my business from referrals” and believing it. Take control of your success. Build a marketing plan to get fresh referrals, Internet referrals, and create a business that is bigger than you!

That’s right we are building a bigger vision here.

STOP! Before you run out and slap down a couple grand on a random lead provider, a recipe for 0% conversion and some pissed off loan officers or worse owner/manager, get a plan.

Here is the 10 step plan I used back in my lead buying days.

Read the full story

Welcome to 2008! Time to reassess all your assumptions and set blockbusting goals for the New Year. I am guessing, if you are visiting Lead Critic to start your year, that smarter lead buying and higher lead conversion rates are centerpieces to these new goals.

I thought I might lend a hand by taking a deep dive into what makes an Internet lead and why you should buy them. Read the full story