Competition is one of the most important things that makes world moving around. So on the questions “How can we compete with big online lender companies” the best answer would be..”What for?” Leading mortgage companies did a lot of mistakes during their activity, and now you can get a chance to learn them and not to repeat them. It will give you two things: to avoid this problems in future and use the successful experience. Rather enough, don’t you think so? Yet, there are several huge mistakes these leading online lending companies are repeating over and over - and they just never seem to learn their lesson. If nothing else, most of these “BIG” online lenders have taught us what not to do!

Let’s explore one of the things these companies are doing wrong, how much it costs them and why they are competing with you, you are not competing with them. Here is one common misconception:

It’s not true at all. Marketing your loan business takes careful planning, education, patience and a small advertising budget. Most of the leading online loan companies you hear about have a “BIG” advertising budget backed by venture capitalists who eventually will want a return on their investment.

“BIG” online lenders also have a “BIG” business overhead that makes it impossible to make any kind of a reasonable profit. They are either too impatient to learn to market loans properly themselves, or they trust their promotions to people who know nothing about the loan business (people who have never originated a loan in their lives). They may get lots of “hits” on their web sites, but they close very few loans.

Without regard for the borrower, the leading lending companies have become money-hungry monsters that constantly think it’s time for dinner. The “BIG” online lending companies that are over-promoting their web sites are losing a ton of money every quarter (some around $250,000 or more) by spending extravagant amounts on the wrong types of advertising to try and obtain marketshare (like $1.5 Million for two key words on Yahoo). How many loans do you think they have to close to make this money back?

And, what kind of potential borrowers do you think these “BIG” advertisers attract? Without a doubt, they attract “Rate Shoppers!” In my experience as a mortgage broker, Rate Shoppers are the worst types of borrowers you can attract. Here’s why:

(1) A Rate Shopper may call you every day to tell you of another lender that is advertising a lower rate (even if they can’t qualify for the loan program).

(2) A Rate Shopper seems to have a problem believing anything you tell them, possibly because they are secretly dealing with a loan officer from another company who is telling them something different than you are telling them.

(3) A Rate Shopper will sometimes question every scrap of documentation that you request them to provide to get the loan done.

(4) Typically, Rate Shoppers are not “A” paper borrowers, but wouldbe borrowers trying to get a better rate than their credit scores will permit because they don’t want to accept the fact that their credit stinks!

Attracting Rate Shoppers is a huge reason why these “BIG” online lenders have such a lousy closing ratio (at last count, our research showed most of these BIG lenders had less than a 30% closing ratio - many as low as 2% to 3%). Would this closing ratio be acceptable to you? This tells you what their borrowers must think.

We have been working with a number of online lenders who apply careful planning, education and patience to produce a constant and significant profit to their bottom line from loans originated on the internet - and they aren’t in debt due to their advertising campaigns. Patience is the key. It is said that “A sign of true patience is finding something productive to do while you’re waiting.” So, devise your marketing plan carefully, educate your management team and your loan consultants about your web site, and be patient (give it a little time for your plan to work and those search engines to update their listings).

To sum it all up, the “BIG” online lenders are trying to compete with you, not the other way around. The truth is, most borrowers who are interested in applying for a loan over the internet first look to see if a local lender or mortgage broker has a web site. They feel better if you’re close by. They may even want to come to your office and check things out.

This is a playing field that the “BIG” online lending companies don’t have the benefit of competing in - and never will. They also can’t offer the borrower genuine personalized (one on one) service, and it is doubtful that they will ever have a personal or long-lasting relationship with their borrowers.

Technology exists to easily and affordably keep ahead of these socalled giants and you can do a better job of satisfying your borrower’s needs with nowhere near the cost and effort these “BIG” online lenders expend.

The truth is, The leading online lenders can’t compete with you!

“Why Isn’t My Mortgage Web Site Bringing In Any New Clients?”- is the question that most mortgage brokers ask when starting business. Fortunately, there are some wise insights and simple answers to this huge question for online mortgage entrepreneurs.

Although the list of reasons why your mortgage web site isn’t bringing in any new clients can be quite long, Here you can find the most important areas of concern to consider if your mortgage web site isn’t doing well on the internet.

is a common term in the marketing business. Frankly speaking, what it refers to is: You may have the best billboard advertisement in the world sitting in your back yard where nobody can see it.

In other words, you might have a great mortgage company, the most experienced staff, the lowest rates, some really dynamic loan programs, excellent customer service and advertise it on the most userfriendly web site money can buy, but it will not do you a bit of good if nobody knows it’s there.

Most people claim that they advertise all of the time, and are frustrated with the fact that they get almost no response with their ads. What can you do about this? Here’s a big hint: learn to write and test your own ads by learning a few simple rules.

This means that all broker company staff has to know the web site. I’d like to mention- know not only the site url, but the whole site. Believe me, many loan consultants knows nothing about the company web site, how to navigate it and even know the web site address. Yet the web site gets no business, so why promote it and encourage the loan consultants to use it?

One of the most convenient, time-saving and cost efficient ways to make your web site presence grow quickly is to direct your clients to your web site to fill out the online application. When borrowers experience the benefits of the loan process from the convenience of their own home, and how quickly they get an approval, they invariably tell others about your company and your web site.

Your mortgage web site is one of the most powerful tools you will ever have. If you don’t familiarize your staff with your web site and encourage them to use it, you are missing one of the greatest wordof-mouth opportunities you will ever have. Don’t get caught up in this vicious circle.

What do you think, is your web site ugly? Now imagine another situation:somebody is showing you a new-born baby and asking: “Isn’t he beautiful?” While it’s true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, web sites tend to have the same problem as babies when it comes to honesty - no one will tell you it’s ugly! We are providing you we a baby-born site, it’s up to you to make it unique and really attractive. Mortgage brokers are not developers or HTML-trained people; and they don’t need to have this knowledge. They do their financial work excellent and we are trying to do our job as good as we can to grant them with success.

Let a professional create your web site if you’re new to the game. If your web site isn’t bringing in new clients, perhaps it’s ugly. Remember, the internet is a source of information, but it is also a form of entertainment. Even borrowers like to be entertained.

Mortgage web sites can be plagued by too many problems to mention here, but a short list of questions you should ask yourself will give you an idea of whether your site needs some work.

Is your web site pleasing to look at? Do all of the links work? Do you have an online application? Do borrowers fill out your online application? Do you have online calculators? Can you navigate to anywhere from anywhere on your site? Is your contact information on every page? Is your email address on every page? Are your meta tags on every page? Do you have an information request form? Does your site have mortgage information reports to educate your borrowers? Is there too much information on your site? Not enough information? Is the spelling and grammar correct on your site?