Mortgage Lead Insider

1st Choice Mortgage Leads has expanded its services to include telemarketed leads, which are verified electronically, checked for disconnected phone numbers, and contacted by its staff to verify interest in having a mortgage professional contact them, according to an e-mail by the company. This eliminates “cold” calling and provides professionals with leads that are awaiting their call.

Leads are reportedly generated through banner ads, opt-in emails, pop-up windows and affiliate sites.

Professionals are allowed to return any Internet lead that does not result in funding, according to its Web site. Also touting the “best return policy in the industry,” 1st Choice said a lead qualifies as a return when it has a wrong or bad phone number, or is in another state than requested.

Telemarketing leads, which cost $65 per lead, require a minimum order of 50 and are the highest quality,1st Choice said. Exclusive leads are leads sold to one mortgage professional and semi-exclusive leads are those that can be sold to three professionals and up to 72 hours old. The cost is respectively $15 and $8 per lead on a minimum order of 30.

All three types of leads receive special pricing on certain orders over the minimum.

FeaturedLenders.com said it has launched as a new mortgage referral directory that lists the top mortgage professionals in the country — though thus far participation appears sparse, with no listings for the biggest Texas cities of Dallas and Houston and no listings for the entire state of New York.

A listing contains the originators’ Web site, e-mail address, his or her profile, picture and company name. A one-year membership costs $49 and includes listing in three areas within the state or states a professional serves. A payment of $98 expands listing to up to 10 areas. National lenders can pay $110 to be added in the National Lender profile directory that is accessible through FeaturedLenders’s home page.

“We are working with all the major search engines on an ongoing basis, and will be doing more sponsored links and pay-per-click advertising as time goes by,” FeaturedLenders.com says on its site. “We are getting listed in most of the major real estate related directories on the Internet, which will bring good targeted traffic to our member’s listings.”

Intellidyn Corp. recently announced that it helped Ace Mortgage Funding create a customized lead incubation marketing system to increase lead-to-closed-loan-conversion rates. The service enables the lender to build a relevant dialog and relationships with prospects over time.

Intellidyn claims that although conversion rates have been falling, its low-cost system has enabled clients to stay in front of their prospects non-invasively, with relevant messages, and resulted in a significant impact on loan production for a number of them.

“This unique marketing platform establishes a one-to-one personalized dialogue with loan prospects by delivering advice that is relevant to their specific loan needs,” Erica Prowisor, chief marketing officer of ACE, was quoted as saying in the announcement.

Simple60, a new reverse mortgage for borrowers who are at least 60 years old, has been launched, according to an announcement from Lender Lead Solutions. The company claims it is the first offering that allows for borrowers who are under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage minimum age requirement of 62. The non-recourse loan product also provides lower closing costs than a traditional HECM reverse mortgage.

Statistics obtained from the Senior Lending Network, the national campaign Lender Leads uses to create leads for originators who have access to its wholesale reverse products, show more than 15 percent of consumers inquiring for a reverse mortgage are technically not qualified due to age.

Additionally, “census statistics tell us that the oldest of the baby boomers turned 60 last year, and more than 4.5 million seniors currently fall between the ages of 60 and 62,” the New York-based company said in an announcement.