When you hear the words “Payday Loan” what comes to your mind?

1. Do you think of an industry out there taking advantage of consumers?
2. Or, do you think about an industry providing people with relief and peace of mind during this financial crisis?

Most people would say answer a.  But is that true or do we need to educate ourselves regarding this part of the financial industry?  Who are the people that need these payday loans and do they have other options?

According to www.census.gov the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, which was up from 14.3 percent in 2009.  In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, which was up from 43.6 million in 2009.

Those are staggering numbers.  People are having a hard time making ends meet. From 2009 to 2010 an additional 2.6 million people were at poverty level.  Where did they come from?  Middle Class families?  Low Income families?   Who is out there helping them get back on their feet?  The banks?  With the foreclosures on homes, the increased account fees, overdraft fees and high credit guidelines… what do you think?

What sort of monthly expenses do all of us face? Rent/Mortgage, utility bills, insurance, car payment, food allowance just to name a few.  If you are running out of money at the end of the month what would you sacrifice?  Your electric bill?  Your rent?  Your car loan?  Or just overdraft your bank account?  All of those choices involve late fees or overdraft fees and may incur being harassed by credit agencies or having your electricity turned off, being kicked out of your home or having your vehicle repossessed.  None of those sound like viable solutions to me.

According to www.wikipedia.org the definition for a payday loan is “a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until his or her next payday.”   That is truly what a payday loan is there for.  Many times you will hear payday opponents talk about high interest fees, but when you research these fees in comparison to bank charges and late fees of missing necessary payments and/or possible repossessions/foreclosures/losing electricity, going hungry etc. – which sounds better to you?

So before we judge the financial institutions giving payday loans or the people receiving such loans – let’s make sure that we look at the situation from all angles, and form an educated decision.

Mortgage leads are basically contain mortgage related information that is furnished by the debtor to service providers or to dedicated third party agencies. Some of the actionable information that can be enacted upon by financial service providers includes – name, contact information of prospective debtor, mortgage amount sought out for, his or her current liabilities and other income sources related information. These cues are enough to be acted upon by service providers. They can easily get in touch with the prospective debtor and offer dedicated solutions to meet their financial needs.
How to Generate Mortgage Leads

Mortgage leads can be generated through multi channel framework. Some of the popular means of generating mortgage leads include – online channels, mass media marketing, affiliate marketing and by direct sales or cross sell opportunities. At time, service providers might even consider cold calling options in order to reach out to customers in an effective manner. Dedicated call centers or outsourced contact centers can be utilized to accomplish the task of generating mortgage leads and qualifying them based on the given criteria. Mortgage leads generation is essentially a continuous and evolving activity.

How Many Are Too Many
Financial services providers should ascertain their strengths and weaknesses in order to serve their prospective customer base. Dedicated mortgage lead generation campaign might generate too many leads. However, leads should essentially be qualified based on various parameters such as risk profile, monthly income, asset base, current liabilities and other risk factors. Service providers should only offer services which come under their gamut of offerings. Over committing or under committing might lead to detrimental effects in just about no time at all. Therefore, newer service providers should benchmark their services with the best in business in order to make an impression in mainstream business.
Leaning Possibilities While Generating Mortgage Leads
Financial services providers can get to learn enormously from mortgage lead campaigns on the go. Some of the best learning’s that a service provider can capitalize upon include – most profitable channel for lead generation such as online/Mailer marketing/ Mass media marketing etc. they can also get to understand the pulse of customer in better manner. With the changing trends and lifestyles, mortgage service providers can get to understand what exactly is needed by customers. Tailor made mortgage solutions can power through financial portfolios of one and all in no time. Mortgage lead generation is an art which can be mastered gradually with experience.

FHA Mortgage leads are basically information hubs for financial service providers and debtors who wish to maximize their wealth on the go. A mortgage lead may contain information pertaining to home financing needs of a debtor. Some of the information furnished in such leads includes – debtor’s name, email, and contact information, amount of mortgage loan sought for and other key information pertaining to home financing needs of one and all. Mortgage lead generated by service providers promotes their service offerings through various channels such as affiliate marketing, online dedicated marketing, brochure and other mass media based marketing.

Mortgage leads generated through such platforms are then qualified by cold calling and by reaching out to one and all. These qualified mortgage leads are then offered dedicated and tailor made rates in order to meet their financial needs on the go. The cut throat competition in the mortgage leads space can provide competitive solutions to debtors and financial service providers in no time. Mortgage leads can be provided by certain third party intermediaries who may benefit on commission basis from both debtors and financial services providers. However, one should try and avail such services from dedicated and expert providers.

How to Gain From FHA Mortgage Leads

Mortgage leads contain valuable information about the financial needs of a debtor. In true sense, debtor provides exact information about their financing requirements to prospective financial service providers. The onus of pitching correct mortgage solution lies on the financial service providers. Proper analysis on current liabilities, mortgage amount sought out for and other critical information is must in converting mortgage lead to a long term customer. However, these solutions might not be for everyone. Mortgage solutions are essentially medium to high risk solutions that can ensure one and all in owning a home in no time.

Online mortgage leads and solution offerings have made the overall market more lucrative in shorter span of time. Competitive FHA mortgage leads are most popular online. Therefore, service providers who can provide scalable mortgage solutions with competitive landscape can edge past their competition and seize on valued customer base in no time at all. Mortgage leads can provide best in class solutions and more business to service providers. However, it is important that they qualify the leads generated across various channels in order to ascertain that only the most valuable and actual leads are converted through.

At one point or another we have all come across someone that is either loosing their home, lost their home, or on the verge of falling behind. We are all asking ourselves, at what point is this home crisis going to subside? It’s a scary thought to talk to someone who has been around a long time and to hear them state that this is the worst they have seen the economy in their lifetime. There seems to be no end in sight on when the economy is going to get better. NPR is stating that at least 10 percent of mortgage holders had missed at least one payment between January and March of this year, and 4.6% were in foreclosure. Hopefully, the second quarter of 2010 will prove to be a little more positive than this past quarter.

According to Forbes.com 10 things first time homeowners need to consider are:

Monthly costs: Mortgage, taxes, insurance and regular fix-up costs

Tax Credit: Keep your eye’s open for a possible extension on the first home buyer tax credit if you were not lucky enough to take advantage already

Getting a Government-Backed Loan: Mortgages by the Federal Housing Administration are becoming harder to receive. Buyers with a credit score of 580 or less are now required to put a 10% down payment.

Avoid Family-Assistance Tax Traps : Structuring parental assistance as a bona fide loan with minimum interest rates set by the IRS. (Nolo.com)

Consider buying a foreclosure: Phoenix, Las Vegas & Central Florida have the best foreclosure markets.

Factor in property taxes: research the specific county that you are looking to buy in, some can be very costly in property taxes!

Shop around for Title Insurance

Consider High-Deductible Home Insurance: Consider lowering your homeowners’ insurance premium by raising the deductible.

Cut Insurance Cost By Upgrading: Security systems and smoke alarms are both upgrades that can cut your insurance premiums.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know all about what has been going on in the U.S housing market. With houses being foreclosed left and right, it has put house values at an all time low. Most believe that this was due to large mortgage companies writing bad home loans and giving loans to individuals who clearly could not afford to own a home (or at least the one that they wanted to purchase).
Now until March the U.K government will be offering “A No Money Down Mortgage”. It basically is exactly what it says it is. People who normally could not afford to buy a house because of the down payment, now can. There has been a very split reaction on whether this is going to help or hurt the U.K economy. People are going to be buying houses, putting house sales and values on the rise, and the housing market will be booming. But what happens when the home owners realize that they are in over their heads and can not pay the payments? First they miss one payment, then two, until before they know it their house is being foreclosed.
It almost seems that somehow people do not listen to the world news over there. The same effect that happened to the U.S is going to happen to the U.K. You think that they would have learned from our mistakes. What is almost more shocking is that people think that the government is actually trying to help them. According to Alastair Stewart “Every scheme in history the government has tried to implement in the housing market has gone completely toes up,”. I don’t know why people think that this is going to be any different. All I know is that I hope the U.K does not come to us asking for money when they are in our position two years from now.

Companies working with consumers to modify their mortgages has been going on for almost a year now. However, Ocwen Financial Corp (a servicer of sub-prime mortgage) is one of the first mortgage servicers to begin modifying mortgages under the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Program. The new government program was rolled out in an effort to help mortgage holders who are potentially going to fall behind on their mortgages.
According to Business Journal,”For a loan modification, lenders would have to reduce the mortgage payments to no more than 38 percent of the borrower’s income. The Treasury Department would share the cost for lenders to cut that debt-to-income ratio to 31 percent.
Loans could be extended to up to 40 years. Those lenders who do participate would have to modify all loans, not just the worst ones. Loans originated before Jan. 1 are eligible for the program, which runs through 2012. Homeowners who have an unpaid principal balance of as much as $729,750 can participate. There are also incentives for firms such as Ocwen (NYSE: OCN) that service these loans.
They will receive an upfront fee of $1,000 for each eligible modification meeting guidelines established created by the initiative. They will also receive “pay for success” monthly fees – as long as the borrower stays current on the loan – of up to $1,000 a year for three years.”
Leadpile Lead Exchange has seen the loan modification lead type go through periods of high demand to not much demand. Maybe this lead type has some more life in itself in our marketplace. There still seems to be consumers that will want to be a part of this new government plan. We shall see…..

In recent conversations with many of my affiliates, the conversations about the economy and the housing market have been very popular. The housing market as we all know has impacted those around us in a very dramatic way. There are short sales, foreclosures, and home sale conversations going on with those on the internet, and with those in our every day lives. If you are one that is in the market to buy a house, this is certainly the time to do that. However, knowing what a short sale , foreclosure and FSBO (for sale by owner) are is very important. To help with finding homes to purchase AND becoming educated on these terms, there is a list of websites that Hitwise.com considers the highest ranked real estate websites ending the week of 3/21/2009:

1. Realtor.com
2. Yahoo! Real Estate
3. Zillow
4. ZipRealty
5. RE/MAX Real Estate
6. US Department of Housing and Urban Development
7. Rent.com
8. Homegain
9. Trulia.com
10. ServiceMagic
11. Homes.com
12. Apartments.com
13. Century 21 Real Estate
14. Foreclosure Store
15. Foreclosure.com
16. Reply!
17. RealtyTrac
18. Coldwell Banker Real Estate
19. RealEstate.com
20. MyNewPlace

Leadpile Lead Exchange is always looking for new partnerships with websites such as these, and any other websites that are looking to be monetized. However, we are also looking for those sites that are great resources for consumers to learn information from, such as the ones listed above. Being educated on a large transaction, such as buying a home, is key to making that transaction that much more successful. These listed websites can certainly help with accomplishing that, so you might want to take a look!

Interest rates have gone down, and now many are wondering if it is really that time to refinance their home. The answer is YES. Not all situations are ideal to do a refinance, however there are things to look at with regards to entertaining the idea of refinancing your home right now.

According to ABC news, here are some common questions consumers might want to know before trying to refinance their home.

1. How much will a refinance cost?
2. Will a refinance save you money?
3. What kinds of loans are out there?
4. What are some common pitfalls?
5. What is the difference between a loan modification and a refinance?
6. If I have a prepayment penalty, should I still refinance?
7. If everyone wants to refinance, is the lending industry able to handle this rush?

Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a large volume of refinance (homeowner), loan modification, debt and home purchase leads. These are all consumers that are in this process of trying to determine what their best option is. No matter what the decision is, asking questions is key to knowing what is the best option for you and YOUR situation.

Remember those days when you could pick out all the items you want, and then pay for them each week at your local store?  Okay, maybe not everyone did that, but I remember doing this sort of thing when wanting to buy some “big” ticket items.  Those days seem to be back.  Sears announced it is rolling out layaway!  You shop for what you want and then make a small down payment, then you are done.  Layaway is not a common thing these days, however with the economy retailers are doing whatever it is they can do to get consumers in their stores for the holidays

What happened to layaway and why did it pretty much disappear?  According to creditcards.com, the rise in credit cards being issued erased the high demand for layaway.  Now with consumers having maxed out credit cards, delinquent mortgages, and jobs disappearing, retailers are trying to come up with ideas on how to get that limited amount of consumers in THEIR stores.  Other stores that I found offer layaway are:  Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, and also take a look at elayaway.com, because this website offers a layaway service.
So, why would Leadpile Lead Exchange be writing about “layaway”? As I have stated in previous posts, we see consumers that are in all sorts of financial situations. Seeing stories such as retailers rolling out an old idea in this tough economy, gives me optimism that there is possibly some light at the end of the tunnel. Every little piece will help those consumers and the economy get headed in the right direction!

Recently, while researching the loan modification lead type, I came across some very interesting (and helpful) information about loan modification. This is something that Leadpile Lead Exchange currently is not generating, however we are currently doing the much needed research to roll out this new lead type.
After speaking with a representative (Souban Houn) who is working in the industry, here is what she informed me that are some “events” that would make a consumer potentially eligible for loan modification.
Generally, loan modifications are considered by the lenders under the premise that the borrowers experiences some sort of hardship that resulted in their falling behind on payments. For instance:

Adjustable Rate Mortgage Reset- Payment (uncommon, but we will see more lenders accept this in the future)
Illness
Loss of Job
Reduced Income
Failed Business
Job Relocation
Death of Spouse or Co-Borrower
Death
Incarceration
Divorce
Marital Separation
Military Duty
Reduced Income
Medical Bills
Damage to Property (natural disaster or unnatural)
Overall, these are “events” that could happen to anyone unexpectedly. Therefore, this seems like a good alternative to going into foreclosure. The unfortunate thing is, some went into these mortgages already in a very tight situation financially, and nothing major has happened to them. However, now the rate is about to adjust and that just makes the difference between paycheck to paycheck TO falling months behind on the mortgage. Tough situation for both lenders and consumers.
Stay tuned for this lead type to be rolled out in our marketplace. There are a lot of consumers needing this assistance, and a lot of people like Ms. Houn looking to assist these customers (if they can).