| Trigger leads are a viable source of interested customers. If you get mad because I can call your client after you have “sold” him or her, then you are not doing your job properly. The reason I like trigger leads is simple, I am better than you. No, I don’t promise the sun and jack the fees and rate at the closing table. I simply get more information from “your client” and provide them with a financial solution, which makes your offer seem childish. Am I a better salesman than you? YES. But the best part is, I don’t have to rely on smoke, mirrors, and snake oil to beat you. I simply perform the job you should have in the first place. I don’t have to tell my clients to unplug the phone or make sure they opt out. I simply provide a superior service, which greatly improves my client’s life, and my competition doesn’t.
The privacy issue may cause some concern, but there are many safeguards John & Jane Public can put into place to prevent their info from being distributed and many more measures I must take to remain in compliance. The bottom line is, this is a valuable comparison tool for those seeking mortgages because there are too many order takers in this industry. If there were more people like me, Trigger leads would not be a practical source of lead generation.
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| Above Posted By:
Loaner
| Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:46:35 EST |
| First of all, do any of you realize that this has been going on for years and years and years. There are hundreds of chop shops across the country each housing hundreds of telemarketers claiming to be experienced loan officers who do nothing but call 500 to 1000 trigger leads a day while popping 5 to 10 pills of their choice and smoking three blunts a day. The worse part is that there are usually only ten or so real loan officers who all the loans close under making them a ton of bait and switch money while paying the telemarketing wanabe loan officers 500 dollars a week. These are the people you should be angry with for exploiting the industry the way they do. The credit bureaus are looking for shops like this to sign on, not the responsible banks and brokers that don't need 10 telemarketers for every loan officer to increase their revenue. I can go on and on, but my main point is to stop whining. |
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| Above Posted By:
Thomas
| Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:13:00 EST |
| I just recently found out about this. I was informed by my customer who was very angry he received an offer in the MAIL with all his current personal credit info on it. I urged him to talk to an attorney about it. I totally agree with you Gaby. I inform my customers ahead of time and urge them to opt-out. I think having to OPT-In is a wonderful idea. RATES change everyday so you people stealing loans by purchasing leads is wrong. I build relationships with my customers. Not wam bam thank you deals. Get out of the office and work for them like the rest of us ethical moral loan officers. I have been offered to purchase them many times, I would never do that, even if it was free. |
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| Above Posted By:
Tammy
| Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:58:20 EST |
| If your an ethical lender who takes care of thier customer a little competition should be no problem. |
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| Above Posted By:
DB
| Tue, 9 Oct 2007 16:54:57 EST |
| As a mortgage broker, the practice offends me. We pick up the tab to run credit checks on clients to qualify them for a loan. The fact that credit was run should not be made public & certainly no one should profit from it.
As the CEO for Mortgage123, a mortgage shopping website, I side with my clients (mtge brokers & lenders) that say, "as long as the information is available, why shouldn't I take advantage & offer borrowers a 2nd option?
Maybe a law prohibiting more than 1 sale? |
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| Above Posted By:
Ron Borg
| Thu, 6 Sep 2007 05:37:15 EST |
| Does leaving the phone number blank on the 1003 prior to pulling credit prevent the bureau from getting your clients phone numbers? |
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| Above Posted By:
Basel
| Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:35:04 EST |
| I hate the idea of knowing that i am paying for training telemarketers and also paying for credit reports and then finding out that some lazy shmuk that is going to lie to my client to get the lead even though im selling them the best programm for them, but since he or she are liars and or they are not really educated enough to give a solid proposal and will not back it up with a gfe but still play the old game of coming with docs with something totally different. this really sucks. |
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| Above Posted By:
AS
| Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:44:12 EST |
| I agree with both sides. I am taking a job in this business using these leads and after refinancing with my guy found out I paid thousands extra in fees because I trusted him. Would not have minded spending a few calls with someone saying lets see what I can do for you. Two sides to this coin. |
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| Above Posted By:
Andrew
| Sun, 8 Jul 2007 09:35:37 EST |
| If you work hard for your clients...protect them!!! In Caylex Point on the 1003 it autofills the phone # from the borrowers info section when you pull credit. Well....erase it!!!! before you submit it. That way all the bueru's have is an address to sell, and ripping up mail from your competitors 3 days after you've closed is better than getting that phone call saying they've been called 10 times while they were eating dinner while their file is still in underwriting.
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| Above Posted By:
Mike
| Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:19:09 EST |
| Jon,
Your argument makes no sense. If I were a doctor and sold your medical history would you really put blame on the person buying it? Is it really that bad for someone to get a second opinion if they are looking for money? If they don't want to be called they should make sure they are on a no-call list. If they do that and get called anyway they should report the offending party. If I was looking for something I would appreciate several quotes. This is just my opinion.
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| Above Posted By:
Milton
| Mon, 2 Apr 2007 08:54:12 EST |
| Hi I work with a company that sells trigger leads. I see a few concerns here. To be honest you the mortgage industry create the market for us to sell this data. The blame should not be on the credit agencies or the trigger lead sellers completely. If no one was buying these trigger leads then no one would still offer them. Your industry creates the supply and demand for this product and your industry buys them. So stop buying them. That will stop them from selling them. |
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| Above Posted By:
Jon
| Mon, 2 Apr 2007 07:37:12 EST |
| Trigger leads work well, except the fact that they say the are exclusive to you and sell them to a million other people. There is lots of fine print that isnt outlined on websites, all in all just get out in the community like a real LO!! |
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| Above Posted By:
bcp
| Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:58:52 EST |
| If you are honest with your clients and aren't ripping them off then you should not worry. This is actually doing a service for the end consumer making sure they get the best deal possible. The only ones that suffer are the order taker LO's. |
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| Above Posted By:
vantage
| Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:26:40 EST |
| This is nothing short of insanity! The FTC needs to regulate this. I too work very hard for my clients. The fact that when I am forced to pull and pay for a credit report generates a "trigger lead" for some schlock telemarketer is pathetic and a direct violation of privacy laws. I hope the FTC gets involved soon as this is not in the best interests of consumers. |
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| Above Posted By:
Douglas
| Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:00:06 EST |
| I just recently found out about these so called trigger leads when we switched over from a reporting service to Transunion (direct). This, in my opinion seems like a direct violation of the privacy policy act. How can one's personal information be sold without their authorization? Other companies are scripting calls stating they work with our company and can get the client a better deal. That in and of itself warrants a lawsuit over false claims and I've already spoken to the attorneys. |
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| Above Posted By:
Drew
| Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:53:11 EST |
| The 3 credit agencies are worthless. I work hard to get my customers and I dont like that fact that their personal info is being sold, after being forced to pay for a credit report. The FTC needs to really crack down on the credit agencies. |
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| Above Posted By:
Roxanna
| Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:41:27 EST |
| The credit reporting companies tell Legislators that this is a benefit for consumers because it fuels competition. However, there's still the concern about lead generation companies selling this information to anyone. It becomes a tool for identity theft.
Solution is simple: Institute an OPT-IN requirement. Make the 3 credit repositories fund it. This way, any consumer can be part of it, but they would have to request it. Better than Opt-out because it protects those who don't know. |
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| Above Posted By:
Joseph
| Fri, 5 Jan 2007 08:37:36 EST |
| This is not fair game as Andrew thinks. The lead is mine and I am not the person profiting by the selling of it. I wonder if there is a law suit there? If you want to be fair then the credit bureaus should pay me everytime I pull someones credit. I have worked hard over the years to establish my clientele and I do not appreciate it being stolen by companies( the bureaus) that I am forced to do business. As a mortgage company I should be able to opt out. |
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| Above Posted By:
JOE
| Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:02:09 EST |
| This is yet another scam in our industry that gives this industry such a shaggy rep. Here we are stealing leads from our fellow brokers so our job is easier. This is almost the epitome of sleazenot THE epitomeI'm sure we have not seen that yet. If you do this you are scum no way around it. |
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| Above Posted By:
Mike
| Mon, 20 Nov 2006 10:35:30 EST |
I wonder what the good folks at the FTC would say about the "Extension of a Business Relationship" between a credit bureau and lenders who DON'T have a prior business relationship with the consumer.
Here is a piece they wrote on lead generation companies. Maybe they'll wait until after the election ,).
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/telemarketing/HudsonCookAdvisoryOp.pdf#search=%22ftc%20ebr%22 |
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| Above Posted By:
Guillermo
| Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:54:42 EST |
| Where can I find a good lead source? |
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| Above Posted By:
Gaby
| Thu, 5 Oct 2006 22:57:34 EST |
| This can not last-privacy advocates are all over it right now. In the meantime you can do the following to protect your hard won clients:
Prep your customer that they will be getting dozens of calls from boiler room, used car salesman types who will lie to their mother to get a loan. Get 'em hoppin' mad that their privacy has been violated and that there is pending legislation to stop it. Then instruct them to unplug the phone for a week. You won't lose even one loan to a trigger shark. |
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| Above Posted By:
Joanne
| Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:03:39 EST |
| This article states that there may be implied consent on the part of the customer since he/she did authorize a credit pull. This is false. The customer authorizes a credit pull for the purpose of determining credit worthiness with a specific lender. Brokers ignoring DNC will eventually get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Better save those fat commission checks while you can so you can cover the fines -at $11,000 per call they're pretty steep.
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| Above Posted By:
Joanne
| Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:03:19 EST |
| The issue I have is not only regarding privacy for the individual, but with the backstabbing credit bureaus who charge their clients (brokers) a fortune to buy their product and then turn around and sell them out. The irony here is that the brokers who use triggers will get trigged themselves -a vicious cycle of annoying calls to the borrower is the result and the biggest winner is the credit bureaus laughing their a$$es off at us.
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| Above Posted By:
Joanne
| Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:02:17 EST |
| Get a firm grip on reality. This is a good way for mortgage brokers to get a hold of new leads. It's just fair game and I don't see a problem with it. I buy a lot of it and it works! It's making me a killing so whoever wrote this article is just full of bologna. |
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| Above Posted By:
Carlo
| Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:53:08 EST |
| Trigger leads are really only good for maybe 3 days, if you call them after that or not the first one, your screwed, in FL within a week these leads have been contacted by no less than 8 mortgage brokers. When you take into account 80% of these people are being offered option arms and not being told what they are, its an up hill battle of the borrower being lied to over and over again. Many of these good leads turn to trash because the borrowers feel disgusted after being lied to with opt arms |
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| Above Posted By:
Andrew
| Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:14:33 EST |
| Great article. Another sound reason to consistently monitor ones personal credit bureaus. Unfortunately practices such as these are becoming the norm in an increasingly cut-throat industry that is fighting increased attrition levels by 'crossing the line'.
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| Above Posted By:
Jeff
| Sat, 9 Sep 2006 09:26:43 EST |
| Geesh. This makes me even happier I got rid of all my credit cards!
I also got on the "Do not Call" list, and "Opted-Out" (of Consumer Credit Reporting Companies providing my credit file information for firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by me.)
Cause I just don't trust 'em. Now I have even further reason not to. |
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| Above Posted By:
Lisa
| Fri, 8 Sep 2006 09:31:11 EST |
| We all know that its not all about the product being sold as it is the way its being sold. A lot of people will use someone else because they were sold and/or dont know any better. |
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| Above Posted By:
derek
| Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:44:25 EST |
| Is there any specific website where I can can buy these leads? |
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| Above Posted By:
fred
| Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:04:57 EST |
| They can work, but in some situations, you are basically stealing a loan from someone else. However, if they had done their job right in the first place and given the borrower the best deal, then you would really not be as likely to steal the customer away. In other words, take care of your borrower and you will have nothing to worry about. |
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| Above Posted By:
JT
| Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:41:59 EST |
| I want to know if these trigger leads are good or not. |
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| Above Posted By:
MK
| Tue, 5 Sep 2006 11:36:32 EST |
| This is a great mortgage lead source for the 'Bait & Switch' loan officers out there. VERY poor decision by the bureaus to sell this info.
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| Above Posted By:
Tom Burris
| Fri, 1 Sep 2006 13:17:31 EST |
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