How many different types of pre-foreclosure leads have you purchased for your business? What has made them work well and what makes them just stink? We’ve done some research and found it basically comes down to qualifying your prospects. Even within the lead list world, pre-foreclosure leads can vary from loan modification to short sale to foreclosure avoidance to BK and everything in between.
Finding the right type of pre-foreclosure leads for your business is very important to your success.
For example, within the credit bureaus themselves, there is an option to exclude or include those that have a foreclosure currently on their record. We’ve done a test with the criteria and have noticed that we lose about 1/3 of our database when we omit any foreclosure existing on list of mortgagors that are currently 120 days+ late on their mortgage. This means simply that the other 2/3 are currently 120 days+ late on their mortgage and the foreclosure pending has not showed up on their credit reports.
Tricks like this can make the difference for a company looking to target loan modification verses short sale or other services related to curing foreclosures or refinancing mortgages. The database itself is no longer good enough – smart companies have to know how to run the right criteria to get enough records as well. Most pre-foreclosure leads will not give you specific information, loan balances or late status. We strive to provide not only the timeliest data (updated daily and weekly) but also the most accurate in terms of late status and credit score. This allows your marketing campaign to generate only the most qualified responses and our pre-foreclosure leads are able to convert more business as a result of better targeting.
Some pre-foreclosure leads are very interested in having a loan on their home modified but unlike other products, unfortunately a home modification or short sale is only available to a small percentage of people. Everyone would love to look distressed, but only a few are truly in need of help and will actually qualify with their bank.
Spending the time to understand the capabilities of a good pre-foreclosure leads database is critical to your success. The key is to define your ideal prospect and then carve out a dataset that makes the most sense. For example, if you are doing short sale leads, you probably want to pull someone that has been in the home for less than 2 years that has over 100% LTV. This person will definitely not want to try and save their home if they can get out without owing money. A loan modification would be great for someone 60+ days late but that has been in the home for 5 years+ and has a real desire to continue living in the home. Banks look at the current payment, balance owed, and the value of the collateral. Make your case surrounding these issues and pull your prospecting data with these criteria in mind and you will be very successful!
Give us a call today or fill out the inquiry form and we will contact you during normal business hours. For more information on pre-foreclosure lead attributes, click here.
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