Day 1 at the Mortgage Bankers Association Convention

I am at the Mortgage Bankers Association in Chicago and over the next few days will be blogging about my experiences during the show.

Sunday was the opening day of the conference and I met with Jim Blatt, CEO of marketing company Mortgage Returns. We were discussing the company’s success with its guarantee on its Targeted Refinance Program and the expansion of that guarantee to cover other programs offered by Mortgage Returns. He said the programs work even when rates go up.

Blatt said it is not just contacting past or potential new clients with a message, it has to be the right message, one that resonates with the consumer.

Too many originators are concentrating on their current clients and not paying attention to their past client database, he said, bringing up the well-known point that it is cheaper to keep an existing client than find a new one.

Many originators fail to stay in touch with their customers. We discussed a situation I am in, where a mortgage originator who works with a company my family has other financial business with contacted me once regarding a refinance, but has failed to follow up since.

Blatt said his programs make loan officers look more professional in the eyes of the consumer. The lender needs to the consumer which says something has happened which affects them; it has to be delivered to the right person and the results of such a campaign need to be measured.