Blog

Warm up to Cold Calling

It’s hard to stand out in the lending marketplace. If someone does a quick search online for mortgage brokers or loan officers, they’ll go dizzy from all the options they find. While you’re potentially one of the better options in town, it only matters if your prospective business partners connect with you — if and when they find you.

We’ve said before that one of the best ways to develop your business is to nurture your network, adding business development partners be they realtors, construction execs or whomever. It’s one of the best ways to grow your business. We’ve highlighted some ideas on this before, but there is one tried and true method that still delivers. It’s a very effective use of time and effort, but it’s something almost everyone hates: cold calling.

The reasons not to like cold calling are so common, they’re almost cliché: I hate talking on the phone, I hate getting rejected, it doesn’t work. All this is true (with the cavaet: if it’s done wrong). But done right, cold calling can keep your pipeline filled with valuable prospects and connections.

It all starts before you dial

Be confident. No other quality or trick will benefit you more than this. If you have any doubt that cold calling is acceptable in terms of business etiquette, remember this: by calling a qualified prospect, you are doing business, during business hours, with other business people. You’re offering something that they need for their business, and you are competing for their business.

Have your list of calls ready. By having your list of qualified prospects ready with the proper information, you will avoid delays. Delays inevitably lead to distractions, and both result in wasted time for you. Cold calling is about setting goals for quality calls: a number of calls in a set amount of time. focus_cold_calls

Focus your call. This is another key element that you need to develop. Call it a script, a process or a modus, the point is you need to know what to say to introduce yourself, the reason for your call and the value of your call so it will result in your goal.

Jeremy Forcier is a loan officer in California who has a really positive mindset on the idea of cold calling. Here are some of his points from a discussion he had with Dave Savage from Mortgagecoach.com:

“When calling a Realtor, your goal should be one of three outcomes in this short 2-minute call:

1) Schedule an appointment (at their office, a neutral location, or at an event they will be attending for example)

2) Invite them to something (like a mutually interesting event, a promotional event you are hosting)

3) Ask them a question, and then give them information on the question you asked (this is a chance to follow up and deliver value)

Here is a tidbit from Jeremy’s discussion with Dave from one of Dave’s Coaching Calls:

You can listen to the whole episode here.

And finally: Don’t take yourself too seriously. Look, no one wants to hear ‘no’ all day long. Getting rejected is tough to handle. But remember, ‘you’ are not being rejected. They may not have time, they may be closed minded, they may just blown a deal before you called and are in no mood, but those are all things that aren’t ‘you’. So give yourself a bit of a break, not every call is a winner. What you can’t do is give up. You may get a ‘no’ once, twice or even four times, but yes’s happen.

And if you’re not generating new prospects, you will fall behind. Cold calling is one of many first steps that can result in face to face meetings with great people like yourself. You need to work at maintaining the company of great realtors, bankers and current clients. Cold calling is a valuable tool when done right. Doing it right is effortless, just listen to Jeremy’s call, it was fantastic. But Jeremy isn’t a rookie, and learning to do it right takes practice and dedication.

Are you cold calling the kinds of realtors you want to work with?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

Social-Media Trends: Predictions for 2015

Well, it’s that time of year, folks! Old trends will be pushed to the back of the line as new and exciting ones take the spotlight. Keeping up with new trends and social-media platforms is essential for all businesses. You don’t want to be left out and behind in the new year. We’re going to go out on a limb and make some predictions about what the social-media trends will be this year!

Content Marketing

Content marketing will continue to dominate in 2015. Many companies are realizing once again that posting vague and insignificant information on their social-media sites is no longer working, people want more. Not only will it dominate, but the trend towards visually appealing content will continue. Pictures and videos receive approximately three times more likes and shares compared to text posts, and that trend is expected to increase over the coming months. Short, informative, and specific posts will also generate more traction compared to past lengthy posts. We have a primer on content marketing, to help you get started effectively.

Mobile Use Will Continue to Increase

Seems hard to fathom, right? People live on their mobile devices as it is, but it’s going to get worse…or better. As self-employment increases and the on-the-go lifestyle grows, the need to be plugged in all the time and everywhere will follow suite. It’s expected that by the year 2018, more than 90% of all social-media users will be using mobile devices.

Make Room for LinkedIn

While the site has grown significantly over the last few years, we expect it to blossom fully in 2015. The professional networking platform added a publishing platform made available for users that will aid in brand building and engaging followers and influencers. Ready to get started on LinkedIn? Here are 5 LinkedIn Tools For Business.

Say Goodbye to Google+

OK. Perhaps it won’t go away completely by the end of 2015 — Orkut (Google’s last social networking site) peaked at 120 million users in 2011, and it just got shut down this year; with Google+ at over a billion, it won’t be turned off anytime soon. However, it just isn’t working. You might have thought the site was making a comeback when it introduced “hangouts”, but it just was not enough. Even Vic Gundotra bowed out earlier this year after realizing the site offered nothing unique when compared to other social-media networking sites. The only question now is, does Google let Google+ wither and die, or will it see some radical new changes and features in 2015? We’re predicting the former.

And last but definitely not least….social-media will become the number one form of advertising. Marketers realize it is the most time and cost effective way to market with an endless audience. This change will take one more step towards outsourcing traditionally marketing techniques in the U.S. like newspapers and radio.

We look forward to seeing how good our crystal ball is, and yours too! Let us know in the comments what social-media trends you predict for 2015!

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

The CFPB wants to get rid of you in August

August 2015 is shaping up to be the month you’ll be out. And by out, I mean leaving the office. Yep, vacation, baby! Sun, sand, waves and more. This year, the CFPB is helping Loan Officers across the country to select the dates for their vacation.

The CFPB is set to require lenders to use new forms that will take the place of a couple of current forms. The Good Faith Estimate disclosure and HUD-1 settlement statement created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be fazed out as of August 1. Both of these forms are regulated by RESPA. They both carry penalties for incorrect information, but pale in comparison to the potential penalties from TILA. With TILA, the CFPB is adopting a hard line approach to the settlement fee estimates in the newly introduced Loan Estimate form. They’re also taking a tough stance on delivery of the new Closing Disclosure form to the borrower three days before the loan closing.

Anne Canfield, Executive Director for the Consumer Mortgage Coalition says, “Most of the disclosure items, some of which had been subject to the RESPA regime, now are under TILA and, therefore, carry very significant potential liabilities for even minor errors.” Additionally, lenders, not the settlement agents, will be held accountable for the accuracy of new closing disclosure as of August 1.

Tim Anderson, Director of e-Services at DocMagic (a document prep company) commented, “lenders are going to try to really push to get as many loans as they can closed by July 31 so they can reduce the pipeline of loans that carry over after the new regulations take effect.”

These changes to procedure will cause some pain and there are going to be some hiccups in the short term. We previously mentioned that eClosing is promising to change the industry by increasing transparency and comprehension of agreements for consumers, and reducing costs for loan originators. However, no matter what the end result is, the new forms can’t be used until the implementation date, meaning lenders potentially will have a period where they have two different disclosure processes.

That makes August look like the right time to get out of Dodge, and avoid the transition with as many loans closed as possible. So, get planning for your vacation! When you get back, you can start closing with new forms!

Aloha!

Tell us how you plan to take off in August!

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

How do you generate mortgage leads in a small town?

How do you generate mortgage leads in a small town as a loan officer? Your town is where you live, it’s your neighbors and friends, people who know you, or know of you. It’s a small town, and it’s a nice place to live. So how do you ‘make it’ in places like Seymour or Clarkesville, Madison or Marquette?

Marketing in a small town is an entirely different animal than marketing in a large city. People are more aware of their neighbors, their successes and their shortcomings. Working in a small market can feel like being under a microscope, and that might be a good thing, because great things happen in small towns.

How to Stand Out as a Loan Officer in a Small Town

Know who your target audience is – a growing number of your potential clients will be young and new to the game. Millennials are the largest generation in the United States and they are expected to take the housing market by storm starting next year. Their entry into the market will inevitably change the dynamics of your marketing message. They expect to get that small town personal touch, but in a tech savvy manner. Make your marketing efforts personal, aiming it squarely at their specific needs. One size won’t fit all. These new entries into your pipeline want to know that you care about their needs, understand their motivations and respond to their input.
Get out there! – The places you go and the things you do shape the person you are. Make sure your face is well known and that people are aware of your job title. Small towns are great places to mingle as you can easily make long lasting contacts and new friends. Make sure you understand who your potential clients are and make sure you go where they go.
Advertise – This might seem like a contradiction, since ‘social’ is the direction of all marketing in this era, but traditional media is not out of the game yet. Local newspapers and weeklies have a long reach in the community and can be a valuable use of marketing budget. Smaller publications might be even more valuable, such as high-school news papers and year books, church newsletters or PTA announcements. Sponsoring a Little League® team or a scout troop will get the attention of all the parents involved and will get your office solid exposure on a regular basis.
Get the word out: Word of mouth has always been one of the most reliable forms of gaining clients. In smaller communities, it can not only be reliable, but critical. Every client with whom you work, whether or not they qualify for a loan, can act as a referral. Ask them if you can use them as a reference. Neighbors helping neighbors can ensure that your good name means good business too.
Get involved: Smaller communities have an inordinate amount of opportunities to get involved. Being involved by working with local groups, charities or organizations can introduce you to a greater slice of your commuinity. It gives you common ground and face-to-face time while increasing your brand and public persona. Mike McCann, a real estate agent, volunteered at a church picnic. The priest who organized the event worked with Mike, and a short time later, bought a house through him. That’s bang for the buck!

Small towns are the backbone of the country. Working in and with your community can be great for you and your family, as well as successful and fulfilling on a professional level too.

What ways have you found to generate mortgage leads in your community?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

Where do you get reliable mortgage regulatory compliance information?

[su_youtube_advanced url=”http://youtu.be/TGgMsLPeKak” showinfo=”no” rel=”no” wmode=”transparent”]

In this video, Rich Leffler from AxSellerated Development discusses the current state of mortgage regulatory compliance requirements. Rich focuses on the importance of keeping yourself up to date on all regulations due to the reality that the responsibility falls on individual loan officers to be aware of the regulations that govern their work. The main point being that, like driving, ignorance of the law is not a defense against not following the law.

In many cases, the sanctions and penalties for failing to follow the guidelines not only affect the company, but also the individual loan officer. And the enforcement of these regulations is only going to increase as more regulations come online. Mike Piwowar, a commissioner at the SEC said “Four-and-a-half-years later, after Dodd-Frank was passed in July of 2010, we’re still only about halfway done implementing”

Regulatory compliance

As mentioned in the video, there are some agencies and regulations that are always evolving and changing, and you should keep current with them. Below are links to each of the agencies mentioned. There are newsletters, update and news pages and other helpful links that will keep you informed of the changing landscape of mortgage regulatory compliance issues.

HUD:

For updates from the department of Housing and Urban Development, check out their main email subscription page:

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/subscribe/mailinglist

On HUD’s Mailing Lists page, there are number of regular update options. The above link is separated into:

In the above sections you can find some other links that might be interesting such as:

FHA Homeownership Update – This is for real estate industry professionals to receive email alerts to policy and procedures updates, training and events, MLs, etc. You can also access FHA Info Email Alert Messages.

Webcast Notifications – Audio and video broadcasts from SuperNOFA training to classes on our web-based business processes, this will keep you up-to-date on all HUD webcasts.

HUD-VASH Listserv – to stay up to date on veteran issues related to mortgages and housing

HUD News – to stay up to date on press releases to the media and the public.

There is also a State Mailing List that you can subscribe to as well.

FDIC:

News updates, subscriptions and special alerts are all available from the FDIC from a single starting point:https://www.fdic.gov/news/

This page lets you sign up for different alerts, including news releases, Financial Institution Letters, statistical publications and others. Just sign up for the FDIC alerts by entering your e-mail address. If it’s your first time accessing the system, you will be asked to set a few e-mail options before viewing a list of 54 different subjects to which you can subscribe.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

The CFPB has an active page with updates and archives at http://www.consumerfinance.gov/regulations/

The page features updates sorted by date as well as sections for:

You can also learn about implementation, add your voice, read about guidance issues, check their blog and see their archives.

Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry

The NMLS has a number of places to get updates as well as an RSS feed here: http://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/news/Pages/default.aspx

They also have an ongoing educational portal here: http://nmlseducation.wordpress.com/

And a list of state agencies for questions about licensing regulations of specific jurisdictions: http://mortgage.nationwidelicensingsystem.org/slr/resources/Pages/default.aspx

Keeping up to date with these regulations is entirely the loan officer’s responsibility. Companies that want to reduce their exposure to risk are investing in education for their LOs, but many still fall short of providing all the information that one may need in their day -to-day work . Even if you are getting training from your company, the long and short of the story is that you are responsible to know the rules, and vigilance is the best defense.

So where do you get reliable mortgage regulatory compliance information when it comes to regulatory requirements?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

How replying to negative reviews can turn detractors to supporters

Replying to negative reviews can turn a detractor into a supporter, if done right. And the right way might depend on where the review is, who wrote it, when it was written, how it was written and why.

Reviews are often the most important thing a business relies on in defining its image and reputation. And good reviews go a long way in helping them to do that. But what happens when a bad review comes along? What can you do when a service you provide is reviewed poorly in a public forum? What are your options to ensure that the damage of that review does not overshadow the positive work you do on a regular basis.

The best way to deal with a review of any kind is to know it’s out there. Reviews, when done right, are provided for free by the people with whom you have interacted. Whether they are good or bad, reviews submitted to you, or to sites that cater to reviewers, or to general boards, are a source of information that you can use. They are an open invitation to engage and they have value.

So where do people put up reviews about Loan Officers?

First, you need to know where reviews are. Here are some of the likely spots you will find reviews about your work:

Yelp! – Yelp! is a free review site that allows consumers to rate your businesses or you as a professional Loan officer on a 5-star scale. All businesses and professionals can set up a profile on this site for free. Yelp! also places ‘relevant’ reviews at the top of your review feed. The site offers LO’s a place to gather reviews, tell about their background and company, provide contact information and upload a picture. (here ‘s an example of an LO on Yelp! – Way to go Fiorella!)

Angie’s list – This site is a member only site and does come with a fee. Angie’s list is also only geared toward service-based businesses. Reviews are based on an A to F scale; they are typically very well-thought out due to the consumers investment into the site. The site does not allow anonymous reviews, helping to reduce the amount of fake negative reviews created by the competition or by unsavory individuals. You do have to have a membership to view and post reviews. Memberships run around $29.00 a year and with that you can describe your mortgage company, tell about your background as an LO, and read and respond to reviews.

Google reviews/local/places- Anyone can leave a review for your business on this free review site and is based on a 5 star rating. Consumers can leave written reviews, post pictures and share the review profile page with their google+ circles. The site does not allow personal pages, only business. If you own your mortgage company, this is a great option to keep records of your overall company reviews.

Insider Pages – This is a local based review platform that is free and allows consumers to share reviews and is based on of a 5 star rating as well. They’ve been around since 2004 and have generated millions of viewers. Their results get indexed in the SERPs. This site is used to review businesses only and while the site is a great review platform very few loan officers are present.

Better Loan Officers – This is a free site that is made specifically for loan officers and professionals in the mortgage industry. Better Loan Officers is based on a 5 star rating and is for individual professionals and businesses. The site also provides access to the mortgage industry’s best training, tips, practices and coaching techniques available in it’s “learn” tab.

You might also want to search less likely spots where your name is mentioned. Googling your name on a regular basis is always a good idea, but you may want to check out additional specialized search engines too like Pipl or the paid service from Spokeo

How To Properly Handle A Bad Review

Unless you’re congress, you probably want positive reviews. And when you get them, it’s a confidence builder. But when you get a review that is not so flattering, you want to handle it properly. Don’t be like Amy’s Baking Company. Just don’t.

Most customers won’t dismiss you out of hand based on a single negative comment. However, many will gain respect for your business if a negative reply is followed with a positive and helpful reply.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when working to handle a negative review:

Time Is Of The Essence – First, quickly respond by personally letting the commenter know that you are available and actively engaged. “People are not looking for perfection online. What they’re really looking for is humanity and a genuine response, so a negative review can be a great opportunity to respond in a positive and transparent manner. And that has a good impact on all your customers.” Shama Kabani, CEO of The Marketing Zen Group. Consider that approximately 95% of unhappy customers will return to your business if an issue is resolved quickly, efficiently, and politely.

Take it off-line -You should never handle an unhappy customer in public whenever possible. Take it offline to avoid a possible mud slinging match. Ask if you can contact them personally, the offer is made publicly and will be read by others, generating a positive spin and broadcast an image of genuine concern.

Offer A Solution — Connect with them, listen to them, respond with a solution to them to the best of your ability. Saying sorry only goes so far. Saying sorry and solving the issue is the key.

Follow Up — Keep up the positive effort until a resolution is realized. Leaving something unresolved or neglected will only serve to foster resentment. Even if the person is still upset, good and positive communication will likely result in their acknowledging that the effort is genuine.

How you handle bad reviews will reflect on your company immensely. Look at any negative reviews as a new opportunity. If looked at this way, negative reviews, while still undesirable, can produce results that are in the end positive and valuable. Readers who have ever worked in the restaurant business may recognize this saying: good service can make up for a bad meal, but a good meal will NEVER make up for bad service.

Good luck in getting good reviews, and better luck in making the bad ones turn out well!

Ever gotten a negative review? What have you done to minimize its impact or turned it around into a positive?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

Reverse Mortgage Marketing: Should You Market Online?

Recently, I ran across a discussion on a LinkedIn group discussing reverse mortgage marketing. It was a group of RM professionals discussing some interesting questions about their products, clients, and social-media marketing. The point that particularly piqued my interest was about marketing their products in social channels. In particular, one poster asked “why market where older people don’t go”? Why indeed?

Point of order, reverse mortgages are available only to ‘older’ Americans (keep in mind, this depends entirely on your interpretation of the word ‘older’). To be clear: reverse mortgages are available for people 62 years and older.

But are people 62 and older online? And if so, where are they, and do they engage? Can you actually find potential clients in the social-media channel for reverse mortgages?

Senior Space

Comparing older Americans 65 and older, to younger Americans, this study shows that only 59% of seniors are online — that’s “only” because it compares with 86% of those dang whippersnappers. Still, if you were a fisherman, and 6 out of 10 fish were all hanging out by the same rock, wouldn’t you go fish by that rock?

What’s more, trend lines indicate that seniors will soon more closely mirror the general population. And if that isn’t enough, you can actually use social-media marketing to target almost 100% of the senior demo. “How?”, you ask.

Answer: Through their kids.

And this is where the social message really works. Their kids are either working with their parents to research and understand the complexities of reverse mortgages, or they are doing it entirely on their own. In either case, the primary target is part of a larger family group that is actively searching for loan officers handling reverse mortgages. In other words: those 4 in 10 seniors not even online can indeed be accessed through social media after all, through their kids and siblings. That increases the reach of all your efforts.

The fastest growing social-media demographic is the 74 and up age group. The social-media sites that host the largest population of older adults include Facebook and Twitter with approximately 39 million users age 65 and older, and that number is expected to jump to 45 million by the year 2020. Seniors are on the way to being well represented.

For some tips on good content for seniors, have a look here.

Food For Thought

I used to get calls seemingly daily from my grandmother who is 76 wanting me to copy and paste something, or send a picture to cousins in Florida. I spent hours with her, teaching her tricks and tips to help her learn. She is into genealogy and spends a lot of her time writing books and researching family history. I explained to her that Facebook would be a great place for her to stay connected with family. She now has an active facebook account filled with family, photos, kitten pictures and more. The point is, she is engaged, and she is active, and like a lot of people her age, she is getting help from a number of family members, all of whom are potential targets for your message.

How are you marketing in these dynamic social media channels?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

Solve the Self-Employed Mortgage Puzzle

Matching the right loan type to the applicant can be challenging on the best of days. If you are working with someone who is self employed, finding a mortgage might make your day a bit harder, but the payoff may make up for the extra effort.

For some, getting a mortgage the way they want can be difficult. For self-employed individuals the task can be even harder. With the extra paperwork and documentation, it’s no wonder that according to a recent report from Zillow, self-employed online mortgage shoppers received just six mortgage loan quotes for every ten quotes given to those who were regular employees.

Self-employed individuals as a group tend to have lower credit scores when compared to salaried workers. Loan officers should also consider that people who are self employed tend to have a mishmash of personal and business expenses that may appear to decrease their true earning potential. Dealing with this issue may mean reaching farther into an applicant’s personal life than normal to gather data usually considered personal info. Loan officers should be aware of these issues and be clear and open about why more information than just the surface numbers is needed.

But there’s good news too. In contrast to the credit scores, self-employed people usually have a higher income when compared to salaried employees. Also, they typically have higher and more readily available savings for down payments.

New regulations may lower the bar

Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the process of making big changes (e.g. the 3% down payment mortgage is baaack) with hopes of improving the housing market and helping more Americans become homeowners. The new lending guidelines that went into effect will aid in easing credit requirements. “Credit availability is still a challenge and it is particularly challenging for self-employed borrowers,” said Zillow vice president Erin Lantz. “So, despite self-employed borrowers with high incomes appearing on paper to be better situated to repay the loan, they’re often overlooked by lenders” (Are YOU passing up these potential clients?)

The new guideline initiation is now in full swing and can be seen as a positive change that will broaden the range of accepted borrowers. According to the Urban Institute, it is estimated that approximately 1.2 million additional home loans would be given annually if mortgage availability went to normal levels.

Though applications from self-employed applicants currently require more paper chasing, the benefits to those LOs with the desire to push through can be well worth the effort. A long-tail approach to their application process is often key to success. Early consultation with potential applicants to assess their current situation has been very beneficial for those LOs specializing in self-employed applicants and early guidance before face-to-face meetings goes a long way in building the right foundation. When the potential clients get clear direction and an inventory list, the process can work as well as any other application. You may find extra potential clients among the self employed, giving you extra leads and more closings.

Are you working with self-employed mortgage applicants? Tell us why you do, or tell us why you don’t?

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]

Small Business Apps: 6 Lesser-Known Treats

Social media has become a staple among many business owners; it’s everywhere, and it seems like every-other week a new small business app appears that may or may not improve your life. Your customers are constantly on the move, and your business should move with them. With the invention of smartphones, tablets, etc…, people have become mobile shoppers, viewers, and sharers, and apps should play a huge role in your marketing campaign.

Apps if used correctly can

enhance your company’s brand
build trust with your clients or prospects
increase your company’s visibility
increase your company’s exposure across social networks
aid in connecting with mobile users.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of apps available, and your job is to decipher which apps work best for you and your company. Below are a few helpful small business apps that might not be widely known, but have proven beneficial.

Small Business Apps We Think You’ll Love

Edit Flow

Edit Flow is connected to WordPress and allows you to manage your company’s editorial team with little effort. It shows your month-to-month calendar and is a great option for a business with a multi-author website or blog.

Vine

Vine has attracted a lot of attention over the last few months, and we’ve written about it before in our intro to Vine. The app allows you to make a quick 6-second video that you can edit to create short but effective video campaign. A good example of a successful Vine campaign is the Dunkin Donuts ad aired during ESPN’s Monday night football. The spot featured Dunkin Donuts coffee cups scoring a touchdown. While the ad only lasted six seconds, it made a huge impact in the advertising world.

TigerText

TigerText can be compared to Snapchat, but is made for the workplace. The app allows you to quickly and privately send pictures of files, signatures, and messages to your co-workers that are automatically erased after being viewed.

Moonfruit

Moonfruit can be a savior for small businesses. Web pages can be very expensive, but this app is a cheap alternative. Moonfruit helps you automate the process and aids in optimizing your site for search engines.

Square Register

Square turns your smartphone or iPad into a credit-card reader, letting you take orders anywhere — and more than just that, it’s a full POS system. The app sends you a free card-reader when you sign up. The app quickly transfers received funds into your bank account for a 2.75% charge from each sale.

Trello

If you’re like most small business owners, keeping organized is one of your greatest challenges. There are thousands of “to-do” list apps out there, but we think Trello is absolutely the best for managing project and organizing anything in a way that’s designed from the ground up to be appealing on tablets and mobile devices.

Double Your Applicants: First Time Home Buyer Marketing

More than half of potential first-time home buyer clients are afraid to call you.

You and the process you represent fill them with enough fear of rejection that they don’t even try to contact you, even though they want a mortgage. It’s a crazy truth in this business.

To first-timers the process of buying a home is incomparable to almost anything they’ve done before, and they are scared. Just over half (56%) of all buyers who don’t own a home today, but want to, say they’re not pursuing it because they fear they won’t qualify for a loan. 56%!
Loan Officers who understand this see this as a huge opportunity, and they are actively using first time home buyer marketing techniques to get face-to-face with these people. They are figuring out how to get them off the sidelines and into a home. In this article we focus on first-time homebuyer seminars.

Teaching them to become clients

Home buying seminars led by loan officers are the perfect balance of permission marketing and educating first-time buyers. It’s about handling their fears, understanding their uncertainty, engaging with them directly and offering your mortgage advice as an incentive to connect.

The last J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study released in November found that 43 percent of first-time home buyers indicate they do not completely understand the process, and only 48 percent of first-time buyers planned to schedule a meeting with their local lender for personalized advice. Plus according to this recent Wells Fargo survey they definitely need some. One key highlight of that survey found that 64% of respondents said they understood how much down payment is needed to buy a home, and yet 44% believed that amount was 20% down!

What’s in it for me?

Organizing a first-time home-buyers’ seminar benefits both you and your audience. Aside from helping people with an education in buying their first home, you’ll gain the confidence of the people — the people who want to learn about what you know, and what you can offer. They’ll give you their trust, and when you deliver value and education to them, they’ll come to you first for advice. You’ll be in a position to offer a product that suits their needs. And if one of your competitors has the same or a similar product, you’ll be the one that started them out, giving you a big advantage over your rival.

And even if none of the attendees become customers in the short term, the word of mouth promotion that you will gain will be sure to benefit you.

If you organize it they will come

One of the key things to keep in mind when organizing a seminar is knowing your audience. According to the National Association of Realtors© the average age of a first-time home buyer in the last year, and pretty much the last ten years, was 31 years old. This gives you the opportunity to use the right style of marketing and approach when putting together your seminar.

You should also consider that not every attendee will be ready to purchase a home now. Another highlight from the Wells Fargo survey we mentioned earlier found that more than half of millennials (ages 18-34) had a “rainy day fund”, and would be in position to purchase in the near future. These individuals may not be clients of yours today, but if you meet them and put them on a path to achieving their goal, they will be more likely to reach out to you in the future when they are ready.

Now that you have your audience in mind, here are some things to consider when creating your content for your presentation:

Drafting a home buyers plan
Overview of purchasing different types of homes (house, condo, townhouse, etc…)
Home buying terminology
Advantages of having a mortgage versus renting
Preparing to apply for a mortgage: what do you need?
Hidden fees and taxes in purchasing and owning a property
Closing the deal

This is isn’t the be-all and end-all of home buyer seminar topics. After all, the lecture will end up being only half of the seminar. You’ll find that your audience will come with enough questions that it will fill up the other half. Don’t be afraid if someone comes at you with a question that you can’t answer immediately in the seminar, you will be able to address it in your follow up email. (Make sure that you collected everyone’s contact details before the seminar starts).

Choose your location well

Try to pick a place to host your event that makes your audience feel welcome. One suggestion is to co-promote the event with a realtor and host it in a house that’s for sale; the realtor may like the idea of having some serious people come to visit, and the two of you will get some serioius time together as well. No matter where you decide to hold it, make sure it’s somewhere pleasant where you won’t be distracted. Holding it at a local restaurant or bar, unless you have the place to yourselves, is not recommended.

Another thing to keep in mind is that according to the NAR around 92 percent of buyers use the internet in some way in their home search. This means there is always the option of hosting the seminar online using web conferencing tools. The advantage is that you can appeal to a wider geographical area, though face-to-face is still recommended in gaining personal confidence. If you are interested in hosting the seminar online you can check out this article about the best services to use.

Need more ideas?

If you’d like to see some example flyers from other seminars or an online course organized by the Virginia Housing Development Authority you can click on the links provided.

If you’d like to see more articles on marketing techniques to get first-time home-buyers through the door, make sure to subscribe!

[cwrcta id=’read-blog-sub-insiders’]