Most loan officers and mortgage brokers spend time researching and considering how to generate mortgage leads. There are several options, some of which may be time-consuming or costly and others that generate little in the way of positive returns.
Mortgage professionals can find mortgage leads through paid services offering lead lists, work on optimizing their websites, rely on referrals from friends and family members, use networking and directory listings, or utilize the referral partnership program with Insurance Pro Agencies.
In this guide, we’ll look at who has the best mortgage leads, the pros, and cons of each of the above lead generation solutions, and help you think about what to say when calling leads for mortgage loans to maximize your chances of success.
The Complexities of Finding Quality Mortgage Leads
Brokers and loan officers frequently discover that standing out from the crowd, gaining traction with potential clients, and building the level of trust a homebuyer requires can be difficult. That might be because:
- They face substantial competition or find that multiple other loan officers have already contacted each lead.
- Most of the leads available are unqualified or unlikely to convert into clients because the individual isn’t yet in a position to proceed.
- As an agent, broker, or officer unknown to the lead, they are perceived as less credible, with customers reluctant to trust companies or professionals they haven’t heard of before.
These factors may vary between cities, regions, and states, but they affect almost all mortgage brokers who spend time and money purchasing or researching leads with little or no intention of purchasing a mortgage loan product.
How to Generate Mortgage Leads With High Intent
Next, we’ll recap each of the options we listed earlier to demonstrate the advantages and drawbacks they may have.
Buying Paid Mortgage Lead Lists
Purchasing leads online can seem appealing, with promises of huge lists of potential clients at a set fee. The issue is that paid-for leads are rarely of sufficient quality to warrant your time and are often not worth the amount invested because a proportion may not be in a position to proceed or be looking for an entirely different mortgage loan or product than you offer.
Mortgage brokers and loan officers also find that spending hours following up leads does not result in any business and, in the worst-case scenario, can sustain reputational damage if they are perceived to be cold calling.
Optimizing Your Site and Building a Sales Funnel
Another way to find new mortgage leads is to invest in a high-performance website fully optimized for SEO purposes, with attention-grabbing headlines, specific keywords and calls to action to prompt a response. Writing clear, purposeful landing pages can help drive organic traffic and link with social media marketing campaigns, pay-per-click advertising, and visibility of your services as a loan officer or mortgage broker online.
As with purchasing lead lists, the big caveat is that there are no guarantees. Developing and deploying a new website can also be time-intensive and a less attractive solution if you’d like to generate high-quality leads in as little time as possible.
Accessing Mortgage Referrals From Friends and Family
Referrals are a great way forward because people who know and trust you can advocate for your professionalism and the standards of your work. Asking previous clients for referrals is also worthwhile. However, there might be limited capacity if you are a fairly new loan officer or haven’t yet built a strong network of previous clients.
Advertising via Local Directories
Adding your details to directories can attract leads from clients actively looking for a mortgage broker–although there is the potential they may contact several brokers to compare the services and mortgage loans on offer. It’s also less common for a static directory listing to provide a steady stream of referrals, although you can also support this with networking to help publicize your services.
Joining the Insurance Pro Agencies Partnership Network
Finally, our partnership referral program offers an alternative: free, qualified, and high-intent leads exclusive to you and relevant to the mortgage products and services you provide and the areas within which you work.
Our proven system connects homebuyers looking for home insurance and mortgage loans. It is mutually beneficial and generates consistent, dependable leads that directly correlate with the types of clients you’d like to reach.
For more information about becoming a referral partner, contact us today or read more about how the system works on our online pages!
