You don't need leads handed to you - they're everywhere you look

Brian L. Peart, president, Nexus Financial Group

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, September 2005.

Potential loan-officer hires ask the same questions in interviews. “Do you provide leads?” “What’s your split?”

Mortgage brokers believe that if they don’t have leads, they will fail. Somehow, they have created this “scarcity” mindset that unless they have fresh leads every month, they cannot survive in this tough environment. This belief is tragically leading a lot of brokers to lives of mediocrity.

The truth is, you have all the leads you need. In fact, you have a never-ending supply. But you need to rethink the way you view this business and yourself; you need to be prosperity-conscious. You are not a peon at the beck and call of rate-shopping fanatics bent on working you over until you barely make any money.

Think about this: In 2003, residential lenders funded $3.9 trillion in mortgage loans. There were maybe 10 to 15 lead-generation companies then. In 2004, they produced about $2.4 trillion — about 40 percent less — and the number of lead-generation companies is now in the hundreds. Can their leads possibly be as good? Working with many of these companies, you also are left with no residual. The people who shop online for rates and costs view you as a commodity, and people do not refer commodities. This is the hard truth.

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