Blown Mortgage » Marketing

How much is RefinanceRates.com worth?

Jay Hammond — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:11:01 +0000

Domain names are an integral part of business in the 21st Century. Some are perpetually popular. Most rise and fall in popularity, influenced by a variety of factors. One domain name that is currently enjoying an upsurge in popularity is RefinanceRates.com. And it is going to be auctioned off in early June 2009.

“Domain names continue to show an incredible increase in interest with recent acquisitions, such as Toys “R” Us buying Toys.com for $5.1 million and REDC purchasing Auction.com for $1.7 million. This demonstrates that even in today’s economy companies are continuing to aggressively invest in e-commerce,” said Cheryl Wright, vice-president Sales, at McKenzie Marketing, a full service brokerage specializing in helping organizations secure and sell premier domain names anonymously. “Companies that wish to dominate their space realize that premier domain names play a major role in this goal.”

In the mortgage industry, TheMortgage.com sold for $500,000 and Refinance.com went for $700,000. Citi purchased Mortgage.com for $1.8 million. Elsewhere in the financial services industry, InsuranceRates.com sold for $225,000 while FreeQuotes.com sold for $210,000.

The timing of the domain name RefinanceRates.com going to auction appears to be perfect. Mortgage rates are at or near historic lows and predicted to drop further. Even if the don’t continue to decline, the sustained low rates will attract those interested refinancing at least until the real estate market begins to turn around.

The auction for RefinanceRates.com will be transacted through Sedo. Most auctions are held specifically for expired domain names, indicating someone may have previously registered and used RefinanceRates.com. Other domain names available through Sedo auctions include mortgage.eu and untiedrealtors.eu.

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New game lets you get a bonus and a bailout for screwing up the bank

Constantine von Hoffman — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:48:51 +0000

“Crunch, The Game For Utter Bankers” is a card game for anyone with a distinctly gallows sense of humor:

[It] allows you to experience the upside of down. Placed in the role of a global banking CEO, you have to juggle the conflicting demands of your ailing bank and your flourishing bank account. … Each player starts the game with a number of Assets in their bank, a small workforce and a few Trust cards. Trust is essential to your bank’s survival. Not only will capitalism falter without it, but each Trust card hides on the reverse a potential Government Bailout.

This is the latest product from the fine warped folks at TerrorBull Games and – judging by the website — it is as bitter and cynical as their last number: War On Terror: The Board Game.

An average game sees you bribing your way out of government investigations, fending off aggressive takeovers and forcing debt onto the unsuspecting public. Meanwhile, reward your hard work by taking inappropriate bonuses and – when no one’s looking – brazenly embezzling your bank’s own funds and hiding them about your person. Crunch is unique in that to win, players are coaxed into cheating.

Fittingly, the game will hit stores on April 1, but it is NOT a prank.

Full disclosure alert:

I have not played the game yet.
I am being given a free review copy.
The company has wormed its way into my heart by sending a free copy of War On Terror to a friend who is currently deployed in Afghanistan.

That said, if the game is half as fun to play as the website is to read it will be great.

Although the problems inherent in, say, spending over a trillion dollars on a war, while your country’s exports diminish year-on-year, would be apparent to the average school child, somehow everyone seemed caught off guard by this. And, being simple people, we started looking around to find out who to blame. …

Unfortunately, you can’t bomb the economy into shape, so looking for culprits was largely a waste of time. Even when bank bosses finally came under fire, it all felt like a bit of a diversion. Like sitting in an upturned, burning car and taking that moment to try and work out where you went wrong, when the car itself has no breaks, no steering wheel, tyres made out of butter and wood instead of glass for windows. And it’s not even a car, it’s an angry lion on roller skates and you’ve been trying to drive it.

Not sure if this will be as much fun as some tar and feathers – but I have my hopes up.

Constantine von Hoffman is a veteran business journalist and social media consultant. He write the blog CollateralDamage, a satirical look at marketing and business.He is also an avid board gamer.

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Bernanke offers consumers $200B of what they don’t want

Constantine von Hoffman — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:16:41 +0000

How deaf is Ben Bernanke? With the US savings rate hitting a 14-year-high, the Fed unveils a $200B plan “aimed at boosting the availability of credit to consumers and small businesses.” While I hope this will be of use to businesses in need of it, consumers have already made it clear they’re not interested.

As Morgan explains:

The government is trying to inject liquidity in to the ABS markets for ABS comprised of auto loans, student loans, credit card debt, home loans, etc. The idea being that investors have not bought these securities because they have been unable to secure financing to purchase them through the private sector. The government will make financing available to those investors that purchase AAA-rated ABS to try to reopen the market and make more credit available to main street USA.

I guess the theory is consumers will ignore EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ECONOMIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE and decide to buy stuff because the credit is now available. At a moment when we are losing (conservatively) 600K jobs A MONTH, who in his or her right mind is going to buy a new car, house, or hot tub? ESPECIALLY when prices are being pulled toward terminal velocity. If consumers did this it would be so far past irrational as to call it “insane exuberance.”

Dear Ben, a lesson from Marketing 101: In order to be successful a product has to fill a need in the marketplace. Consumers don’t want debt! Not only do they not want debt, they’re not going to spend the money they already have. So there’s no way you’re going to getthem to purchase stuff right now. Consumer behavior is now a lagging, not leading economic indicator. Consumers will start spending after — NOT BEFORE — the economy gets back on track.

Some would argue this means we are doomed. Consumer spending is what drives the economy, after all. Yes it does, but that doesn’t necessarily mean doom. The money in those savings accounts can still be put to work fixing the economy. How? War bonds.

War bonds? I hear you ask. Well, actually not war bonds but something much like them — call them recession bonds or super saving bonds or whatever. Sell bonds to ordinary folks again.

Here’s the nutshell: Once upon a time this nation actually had to raise money to pay for the wars it got into. The very real question of “how are we going to pay for that?” had a calming effect on many stupid foreign adventures but didn’t get in the way in case of an actual threat (see Pearl Harbor, US Response to).

But wait folks — that’s not all they’re good for!

In 1941, in an effort to control inflation, the U.S. Treasury began marketing the new Series E bonds U.S. Savings Bonds as “defense bonds”. The government used the hype of the war to market the bonds to the country as a way to raise money for the war, when in fact they were used to remove money from the economy to control inflation.

So here’s the case right now: People want to save & people want to improve the economy. The government is buying debt despite being basically broke (see Smoke & Mirrors, efficacy of). Selling special super-patriotic Super Savings Bonds (set ‘em at 4% — current highest saving account rate is 3.51%) would let people put their savings to work and give the government some vague chance of actually paying off that debt.

I have no doubt there are problems with my plan — huge intricacies I can’t even begin to comprehend. Maybe pulling out those savings would cause the banks to collapse? Oh, wait … already happening. I do know this much about my plan it makes more sense than — pardon the phrase — trying to sell sand to an Arab.

Purchasing = patriotism worked after 9/11. It won’t work now.

Constantine von Hoffman is a veteran business journalist who writes the blog CollateralDamage, a satirical look at marketing and business.

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?Housing Markets Will Roar Back in 2009?

Constantine von Hoffman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:07:52 +0000

At dire times like these, we can all use a laugh or two. So our thanks to the author of the report, ?Housing Markets Will Roar Back in 2009.? At least I?m supposing that it?s brilliant satire because the only other explanation is out and out lunacy. Always hard to tell because as Spinal Tap?s David St. Hubbins said, ?It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.?

The nation?s foreclosure hemorrhage has finally slowed and 2009 should see a significant decline in foreclosures as buyers return, pushing home prices up and fueling a real estate recovery, according to the 2009 Outlook from ForeclosureS.com.

?Recovery is underway. Affordable is back in the housing market,? says Alexis McGee, real estate expert, educator, and president of ForeclosureS.com. ?In 2009, housing will not only recover, but we?ll see buyers leap into this market in droves, depleting our housing oversupply, and actually put higher price pressures on the market.?

?With 4.5% fixed mortgage rates, housing prices lower than they were ‘pre-housing bubble’, commodity prices lower, tax credits available for homebuyers, and the government eager to stimulate our economy, for the first time in years I can see prices rising again in 2009? adds McGee. ?This is a great time to buy properties for investors — to buy properties at wholesale prices below today?s already low prices — rent them out for positive cash flow and then sell them for big profits in late 2009 once price appreciation kicks in.?

Let us then ignore two stories in the news: Mortgage applications dip despite low rates and Pending home sales sink to 7-year low

As the song goes, who are you going to believe ? me or your lying eyes?

Given that 77% of Americans blame the media for over-hyping the current economic mess a lot of people do seem to doubt their own eyes.

Post by Constantine von Hoffman, veteran business journalist and author of the blog CollateralDamage.biz, a satirical look at marketing and business.

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Someone’s finally starting to tell the truth about the “recession”

Constantine von Hoffman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:12:34 +0000

Three cheers for two economists for telling it like it will be.

Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland have published a paper outlining how long the “recession” will be and what it will entail. Their projections are based on what happened to 22 economies that went through financial crises since 1929.

Conclusions:

Housing downturns last six years — so we’re still at least three years away from bottoming out.
Unemployment increases around 7% after a major financial crisis; hitting its peak four years after the crisis. November jobless numbers 6.7%. That means unemployment will hit at least 13% if that’s where you start measuring from. Also this is based on the tweaked unemployment stats which do not include the under-employed or those no longer collecting benefits.
Stock declines last three and a half years and total 55%. If true, that means DJIA would be under 6500 (which is the number I have in our office pool).
Government debt = 86% of GDP ?- or $12 trillion.

(Another fine assessment of the report can be read at the WSJ Real Time Economics blog here.)

All of which sounds a lot more likely than any of the official pronouncements which suggest it turns around by 4Q of 2009.

Q. Were you wrong to be so bullish?

A. I worked for an association promoting housing, and it was my job to represent their interests. If you look at my actual forecasts, the numbers were right in line with most forecasts. The difference was that I put a positive spin on it. It was easy to do during boom times, harder when times weren’t good. I never thought the whole national real estate market would burst.

Q. The NAR’s latest forecast calls for a slight increase in home prices next year. Thoughts?

A. My views are quite different now. I’m pretty bearish and have been for the past year and a half. Home prices will continue to drop. I think we’ll see a very modest recovery in sales activity in 2009. But we’ve still got excess inventories, a bad economy and a credit crunch that will push prices down further, another 5% to 10% more. It’ll take a long time to get back to the peak prices we saw in many markets.

Q. Any regrets?

A. I would not have done anything different. But I was a public spokesman writing about housing having a good future. I was wrong. I have to take responsibility for that.

It is clear that telling the truth and leaving out the spin would have served the NAR better. They could have established themselves as a trustworthy source of information. Instead they lived up to expectation as just another generator of bovine fecal matter. Shame on them.

Constantine von Hoffman, is a veteran business journalist and author of the blog CollateralDamage.biz, a satirical look at marketing and business.

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Mortgage 2.0: I wonder if Wachovia will Twitter an FDIC takeover?

Morgan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:21:02 +0000

Just got this from one of my friends online. Wachovia is now promoting itself via Twitter and letting everyone know about it. This image is from their contact page. I just started following them yet and haven’t gotten anything worth talking about; but I did want to mention that although Wachovia may be in a heap of trouble this is a Web 2.0 first for large banks.

While it may sound stupid for a company to be on Twitter, it can actually work. Comcast cable has scored huge PR and customer appreciation wins through their maintenance of their @comcastcares Twitter account. My colleague gave up on the Comcast dial-in customer service line after 10 minutes but got a response almost instantly through Twitter.

It begets the question though. Will they Twitter the moment they’re seized by the FDIC and put in to receivership? Will the FDIC support the Twitter customer service function?? I kid, I kid! Kind of. You can see if they do or not by following them here. If they don’t you’ll hear it from me, here.

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Zillow Mortgage Launches – How do you rate?

Morgan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:01:25 +0000

Zillow launched its mortgage product tonight and from my review of the platform seem to have taken a major step in the right direction when it comes to leveraging the internet to provide consumers with quality mortgage options without the treachery that is online lead generation. I had a sneak peak at the platform and I’m duly impressed at the way Zillow has put consumers in control of the transaction right from the start.

You’ll see the new Mortgage Marketplace as a new tab in Zillow’s home page navigation and there are two paths once you get to the marketplace, either as a lender or as a borrower. If you remember about a month ago Zillow started taking lender applications to prime the system to be ready for this day. I made a big deal out of the vetting that went in to the application process and I’ll go in to detail now about why that was such a big deal. The lender side isn’t that sexy, so let’s talk about what the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace means for the consumer.

Accurate information without the hounding

The paradigm-shifting change at Zillow is the separation of the consumer’s contact information from the loan information. This gives the consumer total anonymity when soliciting mortgage quotes which is something that must sound like music to consumers’ ears. With this one move Zillow has eliminated a MAJOR pain point for borrowers shopping online for a mortgage.

The number one complaint we received from internet-based leads was that they had been hounded to death on the phone for business. I knew of a lady who lost her job because her office line rang incessantly after she filled out a lead on lowermybills.com. People turn off their phones, unplug their home phones and generally do whatever they can to avoid be hounded to death once their information gets out on the internet.

Zillow allows them to 100% control the interaction by getting custom mortgage quotes by providing their scenario in a standard pre-qual format (their interface is pretty similar to a typical online prequalification form you’d see elsewhere – Zillowfied of course) minus their personal information. Zillow has made it a bit more user-friendly by helping people estimate their credit scores through a series of questions and have also made the mortgage product choices easier by eliminating some of the more exotic programs from the quote options.

Once a consumer submits this anonymous quote lenders in the system can “bid” on the quote. They can quote rates, fees and terms that are submitted with a brief introductory paragraph from them as well as their picture and a link to their profile page. The principal and interest payments are automatically calculated by Zillow based on the loan program, term and fees and the taxes and insurance are estimated based on property records (Zestimate?) so that there can’t be any manipulation of those numbers.

Consumers are presented these quotes as they arrive and when they find one they like they can choose to contact the lender directly and share any additional information they choose to at that next step. They are never bothered by unsolicited phone calls or emails.

The Originator Rating

In addition to the quotes that they receive that come packaged with an intro paragraph, easy-to-understand terms and pre-calculated payments the originators submitting the quote carry ratings with them of 0 to 5. These ratings are calculated based on consumer feedback after dealing with the originator. The ratings have nothing to do with fees or loan terms and everything to do with the process of working with that lender. So if there were changes in the loan, or things seemed shady or uncertain consumers can rate that originator poorly, and vice-versa.

Loan originators who feel wrongly scored can rebut the poor score and all of it is kept with their profile to provide consumers the clear picture of who they are dealing with. They can now determine whether they want to work with the person with the lowest rates and fees and a low rating, or pick someone with a higher rating that has higher fees.

I think this is a great step towards providing transparency for consumers and an easy-to-understand scoring system that allows them to make choices in a difficult decision-making environment. Of course, Zillow will have to police the marketplace and eliminate offenders on both sides of the wall, ensuring that slanderous consumers don’t blackball innocent lenders and vice-versa; but the step is a positive one and one that should help consumers in their quest for an honest, straight-forward (non-blown) mortgage.

Originators get transparency too

In addition to the consumer getting multiple, anonymous offers the originators who are submitting the offer can see all of the other offers that the consumer has received and who has submitted those offers. This is a great tool for originators to use as market intelligence – they now know who and what they are selling against. They can talk intelligently about the universe of offers that the consumer has without having to sell without any information about what or who they are competing with. I think this will be a big help in letting originators determine what customers they quote, how they quote and their overall strategy towards leveraging this platform.

The Code of Conduct

In addition to the upfront vetting that Zillow performs on originator-applicants Zillow has rolled out a Mortgage Marketplace “Code of Conduct” for all parties involved. The code calls on consumers to be law-abiding, honest in their disclosure of income, credit and other material qualification criteria, and fair and reasonable in their rating of originators. Originators are called on to be law-abiding, upfront, to stick to their original quotes as long as material facts don’t change from beginning to end, and to respect consumer’s in the marketplace regardless of what the consumer ultimately decides to do.

Zillow will of course play ombudsman in its sandbox and will bounce originators and consumers who use the marketplace in ways that Zillow deems unacceptable to a healthy environment. This is at their sole discretion.

Here are the highlights from the Zillow Code of Conduct, you can read the whole thing here:

Principles for Lenders

Stand behind your quotes
Don’t provide lowball loan quotes and teaser rates to intentionally draw in a borrower and then “readjust” your quote. We alert borrowers that the anonymous nature of Loan Quotes prevents an initial quote from being a binding Good Faith Estimate; however, we expect you to stand by your quote if the information provided by the borrower is accurate.

Disclose all terms of the deal
Be upfront and transparent with various rates and fees so that borrowers will regard you as a trusted lender. Do not hide details of the loan in fine print; our loan quote form is designed to easily identify these costs. Be ready to answer questions and walk borrowers through each step of the process. Helpful lenders will get good ratings on Zillow, leading to more business down the road.

Obey the law
Discrimination in mortgage lending is prohibited by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Fair Housing Act and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity actively enforces those provisions of the law. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to engage in the following practices based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or handicap (disability):

Refuse to make a mortgage loan

Refuse to provide information regarding loans

Impose different terms or conditions on a loan, such as different interest rates, points, or fees

Discriminate in appraising property

Refuse to purchase a loan or set different terms or conditions for purchasing a loan

No spamming
If you have made contact with a borrower and things didn’t work out, please be professional and end your contact with that person. Do not add their contact information to your promotional lists or provide their contact information to others unless you specifically ask for the borrower’s permission first.

Principles for Borrowers

Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy
Be accurate when filling out mortgage loan requests, particularly when you estimate your credit score. Lenders will prepare quotes based on the information you provide. If you submit information that is not accurate, you will get loan quotes based on inaccurate information and the quote will likely need to be readjusted.

Rate/review mindfully
You may rate any lender you’ve contacted through Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. However, your rating for a lender with whom you’ve closed a loan carries more weight because you experienced the full extent of the lender’s service. So, please rate thoughtfully so that others can benefit from your feedback.

If you contacted a lender, but did not close — Your rating should be based on how responsive a lender was in providing a quote and follow-through during the process; it should not be based on the quote received.

If you contacted a lender and closed a loan with them – Your rating should be based on how responsive a lender was in providing a quote, finding the right loan for you, the rate and terms for the quote and follow-through during the closing process.

Report questionable or unscrupulous behavior
While Lender Ratings is one of the most valuable tools you can use to rate the quality of a lender, we also want to know if you encounter any questionable practices by any lender. Contact Zillow Customer Support by e-mail at mortgagesupport AT zillow.com so that we can quickly respond if necessary. Also, if you feel you have been subject to discrimination, file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Be informed and responsible
There are scores of tools at your fingertips to help you evaluate the loan offers you receive from various lenders. We have assembled many of these in our Help Center. Take advantage of these and weigh your options and long-term implications before signing up for particular loan.

Will originators use it?

The first question that came to my mind is would a high-quality originator use this? I can’t imagine a Brian Brady spending his days blindly filling out GFE’s to ghosts who may or may not work with him. It is feasible that a consumer gets upwards of 20-30 offers on a quote or more (it’s not restricted). What is going to make Brian Brady use his time for a small chance win when he has a million other strategies that will result in higher close rates? Knowing Brian he will find a way to succeed with this platform, leverage administrative resources of find a way to leverage this marketplace; but what about those who are good but don’t want to fire shots in the dark?

I think that’s the big question to be answered as this marketplace evolves. Are the consumers getting lower-quality originators because the good ones don’t want to play consumer roulette with GFEs? It will be interesting to see how it plays out as the marketplace evolves.

A big step in the right direction

The online “lead” model has been broken since its inception and has caused irreparable harm to not only countless consumers but to the image of the industry as a whole. People who bought and sold private data across convoluted networks of lead brokers abused people’s trust that the lead form they completed would be a great offer from 1 of 4 lenders. This clearly has not worked. Zillow puts the power in the consumer’s hands. Now they can shop from hundreds of offers at their discretion from behind the Zillow wall of privacy which is certainly a step in the right direction; now the question is – will the best in our industry use it?

What do you think?

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Monday’s Blame Game: Dirty, Dirty AEs.

phillenbrand — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:30:17 +0000

Dirty, Dirty A.Es.

Part of the problem that puts us where we are today is the way mortgages are sold. The process creates a ton of perverse incentives that cause an overall degrading of credit risk across the spectrum. Wholesalers bop into mortgage companies and talk about program highlights. They employ Account Executives (AEs) to communicate their messages. The AEs chat up how quickly they close loans, and what loans they are looking for. The originators are their customers. A good, knowledgeable rep is worth their weight in gold, because they know which exceptions their companies will and won’t take.

Originators generally have the choice of many different places to send their money. I myself use five total sources, but back in the subprime heyday, there were people in our office four and five times a day–minimum–trying to get us to send our clients to them.

Exceptions: The Rule in Lending

In a sea of sameness, these originators began to sell what exceptions–tough deals–their company took. First Franklin was the ’score driven’ lender, allowing people 12 hours out of their bankruptcy discharge to close loans. This “score driven” bias was a huge reason to send stuff to First Franklin because they could (in 2005) close loans when the borrower had thousands in money owed to bad credit card bills, judgments under 10k, and even Child Support. There were others.

The AEs began selling their “exceptions,” or “niches.” Things that they did that nobody else did. The now defunct Own It was notorious for doing high-loan-to-value loans for people that had no history of paying anything, ever. Do you see what happens?
Successful reps wanted to win, so they would get relationships with underwriters, and write to the LETTER of the guidelines negotiated with their securitizers. Crap loans–that were obviously crap loans–were not only accepted, they were sought after by reps and sales managers. “We’ll do that,” was the mantra of the highly aggressive, industrious and intelligent AE community.

Perverse Incentives

On more than ten occasions, I was told how to do a “phantom second” by a rep–essentially asking me to commit fraud against his own company. On more than five, it was put in writing. I was told to “throw away income docs,” and run it “stated”. And–from the perspective of the AE–they are paid to get acceptable loans. That’s their job, and the incentives were pretty perverse. If you were good at finding–and selling–the soft spots in your company, you get promoted to management, where you disseminate the information even faster. A partial verbatim niche sheet from a now (nearly) defunct lender (bonus points if you guess which lender in the comments).

unlimited 90 day lates if no NOD filed.
“Seller Seconds” fine with us (Note: quotes his, not mine)
1 DAY OUT OF FORECLOSURE W/620 IF BANKRUPTCY 1 YEAR OLD.

So–the incentive to put volume above all other concerns–including quality–meant that lenders were actually trolling for business that we all knew HAD to be worse than risky. That it remained acceptable for so long was mostly because of the “popular because it’s popular” Ponzi effect of the Real Estate Boom. Once the prices dropped and the valve to “sell or refinance” was removed, well, the mortgages were all Blown.

Chris Johnson is a mortgage lender in Westerville, OH specializing in closing purchase loans in ten days or less. He can be found many places on the web, including here.

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Don’t you love mortgage marketing gone awry?

Morgan — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:31:00 +0000

GMAC, one of the biggest losers in the subprime mortgage game is attempting to scare up business – literally. Calculated Risk and Matt over at the OC Register point us to an article by Fortune Magazine senior writer Jon Birger who received a very ominous-worded piece of mail from GMAC about his mortgage:

Just consider the direct-mail solicitation I recently received from
GMAC Mortgage. The letter was addressed to me as a "Washington Mutual
Customer"- I have a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with WaMu – and it
began ominously: "You’ve probably read about it in the newspaper or
seen it on the nightly television news. Many mortgage lenders all
across the country are heading for financial trouble because they have
made too many questionable loans. Some lenders may even go out of
business. And what will become of the people who trusted those lenders
if that happens?"

Then came the kicker: "Allow us to help you refinance your mortgage with the rate and term that best suits your needs."

GMAC’s
pitch is absurd on so many levels I barely know where to begin. First
off, the letter implies if you have a conforming mortgage, as I do,
that you could somehow lose your mortgage should your lender go
bankrupt. That’s simply untrue. Sure, there could be some servicing
glitches should your loan be acquired by another bank, but that’s more
an annoyance than a genuine financial safety issue.

Birger goes on to highlight just how deceptive and misleading this advertisement is on many different levels. While it is great that this type of practice is highlighted in the press it is nothing earth-shattering. I received dozens of pieces of mail from lenders and brokers on a weekly basis – and I review each one. At least 75% of them violate some of the advertising and disclosure laws as required by the state of California.

Scare tactics are not unusual in these mailings with bright red warning labels about adjusting interest rates and untapped home equity. Misquoted interest rates, non-extistent APR and licensing disclosure are also at the top of the frequent offender list.

Jon is right – lenders are desperate. Consider the letter I received from IndyMac a while back that came in a UPS Overnight envelope asking for me to "come back" (I’m a former IndyCrack customer). This has to be a game of continuous diminishing returns. Spend more and more on more and more desperate advertising to get less and less of a return.

As the business dries up more businesses will resort to high-pressure and scare tactics. If GMAC is doing it you can imagine what the "wild west" mortgage brokers are out there doing. My advice? If you get an unsolicited letter in the mail with an offer that sounds too good to be true – use it to train your new puppy or save a tree and recycle it.

With any large financial decision, pick up the phone and contact a professional you trust.

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Marketers Unite to Bring Seth Godin to Orange County, CA!

Morgan — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:03:14 +0000

If you’ve been following me from day one you have a decent idea that my background prior to mortgages is marketing. As a major marketing geek I read and read and read Seth Godin’s works all the time. Read is the wrong word – I devour them. Anyone serious about marketing and business success in general should read Seth Godin’s stuff.

Seth has a new book coming out called The Dip and instead of going for the normal book tour he is setting up speaking engagements to audiences of 500 or more in cities that can recruit enough pledges to make it worth his while to make the trip.

Matt in Phoenix has already succeeded at signing up enough in the area for Seth to plan a trip out there, and I thought what a better way to make his trip worthwhile than by having him keep coming west! I want to try to get Seth Godin to come to Orange County to speak to us. You can learn about the details here – all you have to do is pay $50 (which is a bargain to hear him speak) and get as many of your friends to come with you too!

Come sign up for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by joining my pledge here! Pass it on! And hurry, we’ve got two weeks to get 500 people just as interested as you and me!

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