Science of Mortgage Leads

Originators who purchase mortgage leads for reverse loan prospects from Lender Lead Solutions will be required to sign an agreement about their code of conduct, the company announced last week. The “strict guidelines” apply to advertising and sales practices.

The new guidelines were adopted from the National Reverse Mortgage Lender Association’s formal Code of Ethics and Ethics Advisory Opinion 2008-1 and 2008-2, which require its members to only sell products that are in the best interests of borrowers, the statement said. It also mandates that “prospective borrowers fully understand every aspect and detail of the reverse mortgage they are purchasing.”

All new customers of Lender Lead will immediately be required to sign the agreement, while existing customers will be required to execute agreements by July 3.

LeadPerformance has been launched by iLeads.com to track the funding rate of lead generation companies for buyers of mortgage leads, a recent press release said. In addition, the offering tracks leads that don’t close, determines if they closed at a competing mortgage company and identifies the competitor they closed with.

iLeads, which says it is partially owned by First American Financial and operates 185 lead generation Web sites itself, claims LeadPerformance is the first product of its kind. The company said it independently audits the leads.

“For the first time, lenders can see which sources are producing mortgage leads that close at the highest rates, so they can focus their time and money on the vendors that are producing results,” iLeads Chief Executive Officer Drew Warmington said in the statement. “Many times a lender will fail to close a lead and will assume that is the end of the story. In fact, the [lead prospect] may have closed with another lender, but up until now there was no way to know. With LeadPerformance, we are able to see that scenario, and our system can reflect all closings.”

Adjustable-rate mortgage borrowers facing rate resets in the next four months are being solicited through the mail by Survey Resource Center, the company wrote in an e-mail advertisement. The marketing campaign focuses on borrowers with FICO scores of at least 640 who have at least $15,000 in revolving debt and a loan-to-values of no more than 80 percent.

Survey Resource said it works with existing mortgage holders and credit card lenders to present a brief questionnaire to prospects. Those who request contact by a loan originator are sold as leads on an exclusive basis. The leads are sold with a full, money-back guarantee “if you do not earn $4,000 in commissions for 100 names.”