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Mortgage Leads
I received a call from a guy yesterday who found my info on another forum, and he gives me his sales pitch. I'll have to say, it was a pretty good pitch.
I haven't bought any leads before. My company has bought some for us brokers, and they are ok. But, I would like to have some of my own. I am a little hesitant on the cost of the leads, at $1700 for 50-65. They say that they are good leads, and that I should be able to close 6%-12% of them.
I'll give you the company name and a little more info after a few people have chimed in. But, I want to know if anyone has had good to great experiences with certain lead sources.
The best lead source one could possibly have are self generated ones---
Do yourself a favor and spend your money on creating lead generation systems of your own...
Regards,
Scott Miller
Gee, that was a pretty helpful reply. :roll:
Ok, I have purchased leads once in my tenure as a lender from Lending Tree----I spent 6 figures a month to purchase leads for me and the others in my office---I learned shortly after engaging Lending Tree that they had there own lending division (lending tree mortgage) and I suspected that they were "cherry picking" the leads and distributed the rest to their customers (Although these leads were semi-exclusive, all of the clients had been contacted by "somebody" else [or several somebody elses]).
Lending Tree spends million a year in advertising to bring in leads---they are supposedly best in class in this industry---I wouldn't buy another lead from them or anyone else EVER...
My moral---Don't buy leads, generate your own...
Regards,
Scott Miller
Originally posted by "07SCREW":
There you go! That's what I was looking for. :D
I do understand what you are saying about generating your own leads. I am doing a lot of things to do that currently. I brought this topic up because of the phone call (sales call) that I received from this person. I am sceptical of most of these pitches to buy leads, that is why I asked for input. My thought process is/was the same as yours about the "exclusive" leads, etc... Usually, if it's too good to be true it probably is.
But, on the other hand. The lead source that my company has purchased for the LO's in our office has been pretty fruitful for me, not really our other LO's, but I assume that is because I am better on the phone then they are. [/bragging] :mrgreen:
The issues that I had with the experience were:
- Semi-exclusivity meant nothing...firstly they had picked through them, then they released them for resale---by the time they got to me, people were changing their identities to get away from the 30-50 lenders that had called before me (honestly)...even in the best case scenerio (when the lead provider is being ethical), they still and shouldn't promise exclusivity...because they have no control over what sites the client had visited before and after theirs...
- All about price...it got so ridiculous towards the end, that I was just pricing it out at overhead (so that I could breakeven and then break the contract)---even the subprime borrowers were beating the sh*t out of me (when they are normally appreciative & cooperative)...
- Bogus leads: I don't like paying for crap---missing or wrong email/phone numbers was a common occurrence---I was expected to pay for it regardless of quality or validity.
This was quite a few years ago, and in my opinion, it's worse (from the horror stories I hear---for every 1 good experience, there appears to be 100 negative ones)---until they eliminate trigger leads, buying leads is a risky proposition IMHO...
You might be the rare exception---but in my case, self generated is the only option.
Regards,
Scott Miller
Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with your points. Was that the only service that you have used, or did you try a few different lead sources?
On another webboard (broker's, LO's, and AE's only) that I am on, they have some good things to say about some of the lead sources and a lot of bad things to say about the majority of them. The bad things are very similar to your statements.
I guess it just comes down to, YMMV. And, as you have said all along, the best lead source is your self. :groovy:
I'm an ex-engineer, so it was a huge leap of faith to begin with---that being said, I have never returned to that well for a drink...
I'm probably in the same forums you speak of and I probably know the lead sources you refer to---Adjustable Rate Markeing one of them that you are referring to?
Regards,
Scott Miller
There are a few different ones that some swear by. I don't know any of them specifically off the top of my head. I really haven't even looked at leads in depth.
The lead source that contacted me, the one that prompted me to start this thread, was a guy from Money Tree. He explained that I would be the only LO to have access to these leads in Colorado (yeah, right. How do I know that?). And the close percentage was 6-12% (again, how can he substantiate that?). Anyway, he sent me the information via email. As it turns out the company that he works for isn't Money Tree Inc it is MoneyTree Funding. I emailed Money Tree (the large company), and they told me that they had no affiliation with said MoneyTree Funding. So, that ended any possibility of me buying anything from this guy.
I'm curious too. never bought leads before but open to trying if anyone knows a good source.
I used to buy leads from HouseValues when they first started. They were good clean leads and I made a ton of money. Their current leads are nothing but garbage, consumers on the dole and bogus..... in my opinion.
The best leads are self generated, closed in markets and referrals.
QAZZOO gives you a bundle package but I had a hard time getting ahold of customers===but you can return your leads!!!
I am hearing all the comments and I think everyone is right in having some caution on all of this. I am a marketer and I understand where the guy that reached out to you is coming from - but I am personally not a fan of having a business that is CLOSE to sounding like it is connected to another well known business.
The basic principle is this - many LO's do not leverage the right marketing strategies when looking for leads. Organic leads will always be better, but having a strong SEO site can take a long time for those LO's trying to grow their businesses.
The kind of marketing your call guy is referring to is what I do - we target qualified, warm leads (people who are reaching out to us through our marketing strategies) so that we can bring a GOOD value to LOs. This style brings exclusive leads (what that means is that we are not sending those leads to 4 other LO's like lending tree, or zillow does) that have good FICO scores, valid information and they are looking to purchase. We also can personalize any information a loan officer wants to have.
Because they are targeted leads, the turn around we have seen for these leads has been consistently 8-15%. That is true (so his estimate of 6-12 is very probable).
We are guys who have spent a LOT of time learning targeted marketing, facebook marketing, PPC, Bing and many others to connect people who are searching for "something" to those who are selling "something". And honestly, we like to get paid for it too :)
What I have seen is the 8-15% that has typically turned into 2-4 apps. AND because of our scrutiny in targeting leads - those apps are at least 50% closed... soooooo at the end of the day we are seeing our LO's make quite a bit of money on leads they didnt have to work for.
A win-win for everyone.
This is not for everyone, but I wanted to at least come to the defense of the validity of true marketing (not mass marketing like we are seeing most use). And - I know the rules of this forum - so please do not hear me "covertly" trying to land marketing deals.
I am a marketer and this forum is a way for me to learn more and more!
Be blessed
B
Just buy Quality Mortgage Leads online. It's easier :)