IN THIS ISSUE:

- A Message From Jason Kane
- Maximize Marketing Time
- Tighter Lending Standards Impact Housing Forecast
- Lenders Move To Bail Out Homeowners 
 

KTS Message

Dear Friends,

I have received a few phone calls over the last 2 months from mortgage professionals looking to expand their businesses. As you may know every state has its own intricacies and traditions. Should you have any questions in regards to the loan closing process for CT, MA, NH & RI please don't hesitate to contact me.  

I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your business, and discuss how Kane Title Services can help you navigate new markets. Please feel free to call me at (508) 809-6580.

Sincerely,

Jason Kane

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Maximize Marketing Time

The average originator spends less than 20 percent of their time marketing. Why not spend more time on this important task? There is not enough time. This is why the typical loan officer has too much stress in their life. They are spending too much of their day dealing with customers, paper work and fighting fires. They are spending too little of their day marketing – which they know will bring them more business. 

How can this trend be reversed? The more business one originates, the more time one must spend taking care of the business. There is no breaking this cycle and for busy producers this leaves a minimum of time to spend marketing. The only real solution is to make sure that every action achieves maximum results through the use of synergy. We don’t have time to devise, revise or test our marketing efforts. Each action must be as effective as possible because it may be your only shot. 

To increase your marketing effectiveness through the use of synergy, you must understand the basic rules of maximum synergy marketing. Each rule provides direction that will help you increase the effectiveness of every marketing activity you are presently undertaking.

In this context the term maximum synergy refers to the increase in the effectiveness of your marketing activities through the linkage of objectives, tools and targets. The result is a multiplication effect. Activities one and two may produce a result of five. The goal is to open you eyes wider so that you can see and take advantage of these opportunities.

Rule Number One: Every marketing activity must achieve two results. Every activity has the potential for additional benefits. You must examine every activity that you undertake on a regular basis. The goal is achieve secondary goals whenever possible.  Perhaps a direct mail piece can be used to build your customer data base as well as generate immediate business. All too many times we focus on immediate benefits such as your next loan instead of the long-term goal of a larger contact database that will decrease your advertising needs.

In addition, many of your operational activities can add marketing objectives—especially the use of ordinary business tools such as phones and fax machines. Think about this—does your voice mail message make your prospect stop and say—I reached the right person—I want to do business with that person. Or does it say—I have reached another one of the masses, I better call a few more lenders.

Rule Number Two: Anytime you are marketing by yourself, you are wasting synergy. Who would want to market with you? Those who target your prospects and sell a non-competitive product. Do you really think that you are selling the only product that your target customers are in the market to purchase? Who could benefit from your efforts? How can you benefit from their efforts and especially their relationships?  Examples of partnership-oriented activities are referral relationships, cross-marketing or even joint events such as seminars and trade shows.  You can never accomplish as much as an individual as you can as part of a team. 

Rule Number Three: Certain targets are more effective than others. Think that all targets are equal? You do not have time to market everyone in the universe and your selection of targets will in large part determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. One of the reason most marketing plans fail is that our efforts are spread too thin as we try to be all things to all targets. When you attend a settlement – which actor at the table can be of more help as you develop your business?  You cannot follow-up with all actors equally. Choices should be made based upon potential synergy rather than chance.

Rule Number Four: Certain tools are more effective than others.  Not all tools contain the same level of effectiveness. One example is the difference between cold calling and networking. Cold calling is a tedious and exhausting practice that can lead to results one step at a time. Networking is the process of building layers upon previous efforts. Every successful networking step helps us increase overall effectiveness. With cold calling you start over again with every call.

Rule Number Five: Every action can be made more effective through additional doses of synergy. Adding synergy is similar to adding building blocks of effectiveness to your marketing efforts. No matter how good a newspaper ad, seminar, or direct mail piece, we can make it more effective by linking addition goals, targets, tools and/or synergy partners. Attending a settlement with a gift for the purchaser of a home? What if you made the gift from the Realtor as well? How much extra cost or effort does this take? Yet, the results are significant.

Where did you purchase the gift? Did you purchase the gift from a business that gives you value in return? When you expend your most precious resources—time and money—synergy should link these expenditures to results. Every activity can be made more effective—there are no exceptions. Focus on your present activities because chances are that you don’t have time to add new activities.

Rule Number Six: If there is no response mechanism, do not waste your resources.  Every time you attempt to reach your targets, there must be an irresistible lure back to you – besides immediate business that typically happens so infrequently that we tend to abandon our efforts. Writing a letter? Include an offer for a free report on how to increase your credit score. You do not have to produce the materials. Government agencies produce valuable materials or the materials can be provided by your synergy partners. 

Rule Number Seven: If you are not offering something of value to your targets, why bother? Your response mechanism must be something of value to all of your targets.  Otherwise, your response mechanism will not produce the response necessary to achieve additional objectives. Coupons to save money to utilize your product do not constitute value. Your coupons are seen as self-serving tools in the eyes of your targets.  They will solely appeal to those who are ready to act immediately and to those who are price sensitive (So you want to attract rate shoppers?). To develop your value offering you must think in terms of value to your clients, not to yourself. It is your value statement that will evolve into your Unique Selling Proposition. It is what differentiates your from the competition. 

Source: Dave Hershman

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Tighter Lending Standards Impact Housing Forecast

Source: The Title Report

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Lenders Move To Bail Out Homeowners

The home-loan industry, facing the worst housing downturn since the early 1990s, is ramping up efforts to help strapped borrowers stay in their homes.

The goal is to restrain a gathering wave of foreclosures that carries big costs for both lenders and borrowers.

These rescue efforts aren't expected to save every at-risk homeowner. But they promise to reduce monthly payments for many who have fallen behind on mortgages. In the process, they could help to stabilize a struggling real estate market.

So far the housing slump, precipitated in part by overzealous borrowing and subprime lending, continues its downward slope. In discouraging news for homeowners and home sellers nationally, a Standard & Poor's report April 24 said "the deceleration and declines in home prices are showing no signs of turnaround." Citing February data, the S&P/Case-Shiller index of housing prices in 10 cities posted a 1.5% drop from February 2006 -- an annual decline not seen in 15 years.

That news followed hard on a revised 2007 price forecast by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR said in April that it no longer expects the median price of an existing home to rise this year, predicting instead a 0.7% decline. The slower recovery, it said, is a result of "tighter lending criteria and fallout from the subprime loan debacle."

Lenders' strategies:

• Fannie Mae, America's leading mortgage lender, says it plans to help as many as 1.5 million "subprime" borrowers -- people with low credit ratings -- refinance out of high-interest loans.
• Freddie Mac, which like Fannie Mae is a government-backed corporation, is creating products to make homes more affordable to buyers with poor credit. Freddie Mac doesn't make loans directly but pledges to buy as much as $20 billion worth of these mortgages from participating lenders.
• Washington Mutual, another giant lender, says it will refinance $2 billion in subprime loans, helping borrowers avoid foreclosure. The new loans will come with below-market interest rates.
• Some finance companies are partnering with nonprofit organizations that act as advocates for at-risk borrowers.
• In addition to efforts by specific companies, the Mortgage Bankers Association announced a foreclosure-prevention campaign in partnership with the nonprofit group Neighbor Works America. They will link homeowners to a free counseling hot line (888-995-HOPE) provided by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, boost the capacity for homeownership counseling within Neighbor Works and conduct a national ad campaign for homeowners in financial distress.

All of this represents significant relief, but the magnitude of the problem is large and growing.

"We're struggling to provide help" to troubled borrowers, says Robert Pulster, who heads a Boston nonprofit group called Ensuring Stability Through Action in Our Community. "We're seeing double the problem that we were seeing last year."

The lenders themselves are careful not to overstate what the new projects can achieve. "While these efforts will help cushion the expected rise in foreclosures, we need to be clear that these offerings are not a panacea," said Richard Syron, the chief executive of Freddie Mac, as he unveiled the products at a congressional hearing April 17

Source: American Land Title Association

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