Loan Officer Consultant

<!–[if !supportLists]–>1.      <!–[endif]–>Think like a winner. The first and foremost thing you can do is to get and stay motivated in 2011. The economy, the war, the bad news on TV…all these things get you down, but it’s more important to think about the things that keep you afloat. Focus on your past successes and future goals. Take a deep breath and go to work with the attitude that you are going to make things happen. Confidence is your main weapon in the battle against desperation, so don’t let yourself get down.<!–[if !supportLists]–>2.      <!–[endif]–>Focus on products that sell. There are a hundred or so niche markets out there right now that are absolutely flowing with cash for some people and dry as a bone for others. Sell what you sell best and don’t waste time on things you can’t move out the door. Expand your market for these products and watch your business grow.<!–[if !supportLists]–>3.      <!–[endif]–>Subsidize your cash flow with government spending. Obama has allocated a trillions dollars in funds to help bail our nation out. If you target the recipients of this money,  you have a great chance at getting your hands on a chunk of that change without filling out all the paperwork.<!–[if !supportLists]–>4.      <!–[endif]–>Keep track of your results. Measure response rates, evaluate your campaigns effectiveness and adjust accordingly. If you are careful about how much you spend and how you approach your marketing, you can save and make money in ways you never imagined. Eliminate non-performing campaigns and redouble your performing ones.<!–[if !supportLists]–>5.      <!–[endif]–>Connect with your customers. Employ a CRM or Customer Relationship Management package. This will keep track of your customers personal information, order history and other valuable details. Having this information on hand can help you build rapport and strengthen your relationship by showing that you know your customer. Face to face meetings show your interest, but a good phone call once in a while won’t hurt either. Keep a personal note or two about your client as well. If you are on the phone, and they say they are having a baby, jot it down in the notes section of your CRM. It might land you a sale later if you ask how the baby is doing.<!–[if !supportLists]–>6.      <!–[endif]–>Expand your market with new leads. There are a ton of great leads out there that haven’t been sold yet and they are waiting for YOU! Remember to use your leads wisely, also. If you buy a telemarketing list with address information, hit the same leads with a mailer. It will cost you a little more in the long run, but you’ll get an extra half to one percent return, which is well worth the added expense.

If you are looking for solutions to the challenges described above, be sure to visit our homepage http://www.bestratereferrals.com. We offer many direct marketing products and services including leads, lists, mailers, telemarketing training, live transfers and more. FQ2BS5VX9AKB

A lot of business owners are mystified and frustrated by direct mail marketing. The fact is, small and medium businesses can benefit so much from direct mail that they can hardly afford not to market this way. If you are looking to get into direct mail or are trying to increase your success rate with an existing campaign, this article is aimed to give you the tips you need to move forward and succeed in your efforts.

First, it is most important to understand the functions of direct mail. There are several things you can do with a postal campaign, such as lead generation, clearance of old product, broadening of your market base, creating repeat business with existing customers, branding and rapport building. Think about this when organizing your marketing and ask yourself, “How can I get the most out of a single mailing?”

Second, and almost equally important, is what your advertisement itself looks like. If you have a generic looking mailer that doesn’t stick out of the pile of junk mail the potential customer is bringing into their home every day, they’ll never even see your offer. The response rate for mailers is usually in the 1.5-3% range, but if your mailer is invisible, you can bet it will be lower. Use colors that contrast but enhance the overall message of the offer. Bold, sans-serif fonts are easy to read from a distance and really stand off a page. Find a designer who can create visually appealing designs that make sense to you. Before you print, show the proof to a friend or colleague and ask their opinion without giving yours first.

Third is information hierarchy. If you are selling a $10,000.00 product, it is not often a good idea to make the price the largest part of the design. Think about the order in which the user will absorb the information you are giving them. We live in an online era where short, relevant paragraphs separated by white space are the norm, and it is what your target audience will likely be accustomed to and expect from products they buy online all the time. Mimicking the web in your designs can assist in creating a comfort not often associated with print media anymore.

Finally, you must carefully choose your mailing list. If you aren’t targeting your leads right,  you won’t even get your foot in the door. Make sure you pay close attention to your demographics both at a regional and state level. Take into account local foreclosure rates and other financial factors in the areas you target. They may be in different shape than they were just a year or two ago, so know your mailing zones. Additionally, you may consider purchasing a dialer to hit your leads twice, once in the mail and once on the phone. Often, mailing lists include data such as email addresses and telephone numbers, so make sure to ask your broker if your records will include that info.

If you follow these guidelines, your mail response rate should increase in time. Best Rate Referrals has decades of combined experience in the direct mail industry, and we put these concepts into practice every time we do a mailing of our own. We want  you to succeed and see a great return on your investment, so we provide custom tailored direct mail solutions with hand-picked lists sorted and configured to your needs. Visit our homepage for more information on mortgage direct mail or to order leads, lists, dialers, mailers, telemarketing training resources and more.

Not all leads are created equal, and understanding this concept can save (and make) you a lot of money. First, it’s important to grasp the different types of leads you can expect to come across during your marketing campaign.

Real-time leads are generated within seconds of an opt-in, which greatly increases your chance of closing a deal. When the idea and desire for your services are still fresh in the consumer’s mind, it is much easier to sell something to them. This, of course, makes real-time mortgage leads some of the most expensive leads available, but with one of the highest returns on investment.

Pre-screened leads are prospects that have been pre-qualified by a lead company’s in-house call center before they can be sold. These leads are great because the chance of getting bad lead info is virtually eliminated, saving you lots of time that you would have wasted with bogus information. Additionally, these leads are usually guaranteed to meet the criteria for a sale, and this can increase the chance of landing a deal. These are sometimes referred to as “verified leads”.

Aged leads are time stamped data that is usually sold as 30, 60 or 90 days old. These leads are much less reliable than the leads above, but are also cheaper, allowing you to tap a broader demographic without breaking the bank. Often, lead companies will recycle these leads, having purchased them for a few pennies cheaper than they intend to sell them. When this is the case, there is often not a time stamp associated with the information, and these leads have generally been contacted several times already.

Exclusive leads are sold only to one or a very limited number of clients, usually under 3. Some lead companies twist their verbage, however, to allow them to sell these “exclusive” leads up to 10 times in some cases. Be sure to ask your lead broker what their policy on exclusive leads is, because it is not often a good idea to call a customer who has already received several similar offers in a short period of time.

Be cautious about dealing with larger lead companies, as they oftentimes have fine print allowing them to sell you short on what you are buying. Be sure to deal with a trusted company that puts a lead buyer’s interest first, rather than relying on bulk business. When your broker treats you well, be sure to stick with them, as a good lead broker is hard to come by these days. Sometimes, it is a good idea to look for companies that offer more than just leads. A well rounded direct marketing company Usually, these types of businesses practice what they preach and won’t sell you leads they wouldn’t use themselves. Still, it may be a good idea to start with a smaller sampling of leads when you are trying a new company to see what the quality of their data is like, but remember that small campaigns, especially in direct mail, can generate false positives in your marketing reports which could cost you down the line.

Best Rate Referrals is a direct marketing company based out of Las Vegas, NV. They are partnered closely with giant Leads360, and are a full featured direct marketing firm complete with an in-house call center, print & mail department and internet marketing division. Best Rate Referrals’ owner, Ray Bartreau, has created a proprietary lead generation and verification system that harvests high-quality leads from trusted and internal sources. The conversion ratios for leads used in correctly targeted marketing campaigns are generally higher than most other lead brokers due to this system being in place. They offer free leads with many purchases and run regular specials for new and repeat customers. Visit Best Rate Referrals’ mortgage leads page for more information, or call 1-800-811-1402 for more information.

With the idea that starting a family might not be such a good idea right now, many people are settling for rentals and leases rather than outright purchases of property. American’s simply don’t want to follow in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents with such an unstable economy and volatile global political environment. A recent study showed that 9% of women with incomes less than $25,000 annually said they were likely to postpone childbirth, while only 2 percent of women earning more than $75,000 a year said they would put off having children. This can seriously defer the desire to purchase real estate, if not eliminate it completely.

For the first time in history, there is a generation of US citizens who have not seen real estate as an investment, but rather they have learned from experience that it tends to go down in value. The apex of home ownership peaked in 2004 at 64%. This was due mostly to billions of dollars of toxic assets being filtered into the mortgage industry via the Wall Street “Bubble”. Many of these products have still not been eliminated and there is much evidence of this on bank balance sheets, despite banks posting record profits this year. Nearly 20% of all loans fall into the Alt-A or subprime category, which are considered to be potentially toxic assets. As far as loan modifications are concerned, nearly half of all modified loans re-default after 90 days. This is almost to be expected, however, due to the fact that over 17% of the population is unemployed or significantly underemployed.

People are turning to new means of living in the new millennium. More and more Americans are moving in with friends, living with family, consolidating households and getting roommates. Over 1 million households have disappeared since the recession has started. This means that you can expect a lag in the housing industry and household formation in the coming years. Recent annual housing starts have seen a jump since early 2009, but homebuilders are not optimistic about trying to fill the need for new inventory. Most people will agree that there are plenty of houses to go around at the moment in the existing supply. This increase in demand is a passing phase, as it is generally regarded as “cheap money” trying to do something quickly before the next dip.

Short sales are still a big factor in today’s market, but not so much that they will affect the housing industry in a major way. Short sales simply put more inventory out, but are ultimately dominated in numbers by foreclosures. When you begin to see the foreclosure numbers stabilizing, the industry as a whole will follow suit. Option ARMs are still rampant throughout the country, with over half a million still out there. Unfortunately for lenders, nearly 35% of these adjustable rate mortgages are non-performing, leaving a big problem for banks until 2010 when many of them are set to hit their recast periods. Judging by past performance, there is little reason to believe that these loans will come through and not just turn out to be bad deals themselves. The shifting of a loan’s category is one tactic banks use to keep the number of non-performing loans off the books, but this only buys banks time and doesn’t actually improve anything.

Mortgage rates are predicted to rise in the near future due to the insanely low rates that currently are in place. Over $1 trillion dollars in mortgage back securities have recently been purchased by banks at this artificially low rate of 5%. The historical 40 year average for mortgage rates has been 8.5-9%. This is making many American re-evaluate retirement plans, opting to stay in one place and settle down rather than move around a lot like past generations. With no new home building and move up buying stagnant, it is obvious that the housing industry is in for a struggle which may affect our children quite dramatically, and could last more than a decade. Unless Wall Street is the subject of some serious reform, there is little that can change about our current situation.