May 9, 2013 | By RGR Marketing Blog

RGR Marketing vice president Silas Ellman shares his #1 tip to lenders: Engage in a program of consistent leads contact. This is what will make or break your closing ratio.

Where a refinance lead can close immediately, it can take 6-12 months before a purchase lead is ready to close. It’s rare that mortgage companies stay in touch with the consumer for that long.”

How persistent are most lenders? One of RGR Marketing’s Lead Management Partners, Leads360, conducted a study that found only 21% of mortgage lenders attempted to call customers within 24 hours of the initial inquiry

This is a very low rate that you can take advantage of with persistence! It shows that few lenders have an organized, persistent sales approach in place which will make it easier for you to rise above the pack.

This is not always the lenders fault, they are busy, we get that. Except people are looking to buy homes, so if you want to be the lender that closes the deal. Persistence pays.

From a Lead Gen Point of View:

Many lead generators have not been as enthusiastic about generating purchase leads because lenders have not been willing to pay enough for purchase leads.

The cost of generating purchase leads is the same as the cost of generating refinance leads. Meaning there are only so many spots online where one can effectively advertise mortgage related products. Both new purchase and refinance leads would fall into that category. Given this, it is difficult to justify for new home purchase buyers when return on investment is so much greater on a refinance ad.

Also, the same inventory of consumers means buying the same ad space for a lower selling product.

Purchase Leads are growing in value for mortgage companies. There are a number of reasons for this:

Mortgage rates are going up again! As the Wall Street Journal reported at the beginning of April, as rates rise and refinance demand drops, capacity constraints on lenders will recede. Banks will begin to compete for more purchase loans. The upturn in prices will boost lender confidence.

By the time rates increase again, many who qualified to refinance will have done so already, so it won’t make sense for those consumers to refinance again. It will be too late for everyone that wasn't in a loan – waiting for rates to drop! There will be fewer refinance prospects out there.

Lead generators and lenders can work together to increase conversion rates:

Methodology of successful lead generation companies has become highly sophisticated. Even so, it can be difficult to differentiate between a serious buyer and someone who’s simply browsing.

For Lenders, there are a number of useful steps you can take:

Lenders can put into place procedures to stay in touch with the consumer through the entire 6-12 month shopping/buying process. This means immediate follow-up as well as continuing contact through the twelfth month with a consumer who’s still in the process of making decisions.

• Once the consumer finds a real estate agent, that agent will recommend a loan officer to work with, and most consumers will simply go with that loan officer.

• Divide loan officers into two teams: purchase and refinance. This workplace strategy will boost efficiency. You will increase conversion rates.

• Lenders working closely with real estate agents will increase positive contact with high value leads.

An infrastructure centered on continuing contact with potential buyers results in more closings. Persistence pays.

 

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