Obtaining mortgage leads is important for any mortgage lending or real estate business. Though advertising and referrals constitute a large part of doing mortgage business, leads also play a major role. You can obtain mortgage leads through different sources such as paying for exclusive or general leads or by gleaning them from your business website, but this is only the first step. You must use these leads to the best of your advantage.
If you are an independent mortgage broker or work for a small mortgage lending or real estate firm, you will probably be making many of the sales calls yourself when you receive mortgage leads. Larger mortgage lending or real estate firms may employ people to do the initial calls, but as a mortgage broker or real estate agent you will need to eventually talk to potential clients yourself. One thing to do after receiving your mortgage leads is to separate them into different categories, such as active and passive leads.
"Active" leads are those people who are already in the market for property or a mortgage loan. A passive lead is someone who has made a general enquiry, and may or may not be interested in doing business right away. Active leads should always be on the top of the list, but passive leads should never be ignored. One good rule of thumb is to hire people to call the passive leads for you, and provide you with a narrowed-down list of those leads that should be followed up. As a broker or real estate agent, however, you should probably be the first one to call the active mortgage leads, since these people are often ready to do business.
