America's #1 Mortgage Broker

"Brian Brady: Mortgage dude with the suspenders on the internet"

NOTE:  While the focus of this article is "viral marketing", I don't want to suggest that I am anti- SEO.  I am extremely sensitive about the benefits of SEO, especially when I'm writing as a guest.  When I write as a guest, I respect the home author's desire to avoid Google Duplicate Content penalties. While I believe that link direction can be an effective tool in viral marketing, I assure you my motives here are pure. 

BACKGROUND:  Link Direction As An Effective Online Marketing Strategy 

An excerpt from this article about Viral Marketing on Blogs :

I met Rudy of Sellsius earlier this year and he said “You’re all over the internet.” I dropped my daughter off at school last month and one of her schoolmate’s parents said “I saw you on Zillow.” My neighbors have told me that they read my articles on MySpace. I organized a coup to take over the Trulia Voices section. 

I guest author on BloodhoundBlog, NELA Live, Long Beach Real Estate Home, Sacramento’s Real Estate Voice and maintain an active profile and weblog on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. Lately, I’ve started experimenting on Gather.com.

To the untrained observer, I appear to be on an ego trip. To bloggers, I’m eschewing SEO for a viral marketing approach. I’m not going to wait for a customer to find me on the long tail search. I’m going to insert my goofy little suspenders picture in every imaginable place they might search for real estate related advice.

Does it work?

Well, I’ve received over 1,000 inquiries in the past 12 months from my efforts. Many are from borrowers, so my answer is, “Damn, Skippy, it works!” I’m slowly building up a database of people who have connected with me on the internet. My long-term goal is to have over 10,000 people in my permission-based email marketing database, receiving a newsletter each month. I’m at 1,012 today and I think I’ll be there in about 3-5 years.

Here are five tips to help you build an audience for your budding real estate weblog:

HERE ARE THE FIVE TIPS 

(for your convenience, they open in a new window so you won't be misdirected off of this site) 

Call your members of Congress and Senators today!  Write letters to the President!  Please take action because I am about to tell you of the most evil injustice being done today.

Mortgage originators do not have a national licensing program and THAT has to change! 

I propose that the House Financial Services Committee get cracking on legislation that would increase the minimum standards of loan originators.  Here is what I think would be appropriate:

An historical post went up today; the announcement of Real Estate Weblogging 101. This is the first time an author has used the medium of a WordPress weblog to publish an active, living book.

Here is an excerpt from the introductory article to the book:

This is a book about real estate weblogging, but it seems absurd to write about weblogging in the form of a book. The Dan Rathers of the world will finally admit that the old media are obsolete on the day after the last paper-boy dies of old age. The internet is a linked world, and to write about an internet phenomenon without linking is absurd. And the internet is an infinitely revisable world, so to give up the power of instant, infinite revisions seems foolish. Unless you print it out at home, you can’t take this book with you to the beach. But what you can do is pursue all of the supporting links until your understanding of real estate weblogging approaches perfection — where perfection is understood to be a blindingly moving target.

In my opinion, Greg Swann is the ultimate authority for developing expertise in real estate weblogging.  He teaches you how to write better, link better, and exploit the long tail results to drive traffic to your site.  More importantly, Greg Swann teaches you how to initiate relevant conversations with strangers.   THAT, in a nutshell, is why we do what we do. 

DISCLOSURE:   This book is a free book.  I have a contribution to it, a paltry one.  The main author has often discussed a concept called the Third Career so my endorsement of this project may be considered by some to be motivated by monetary gain.  If that ever happens, I'd be ecstatic.  However, as the main author has stated before, How Much Future is There in A Job Smart People Will Do For Free?  I'm not holding my breath for the big payday.

Enjoy reading, contributing, and commenting to Real Estate Weblogging 101

I started my career as a Financial Advisor on Wall Street.  At the young age of 25, I managed over $20 million in client assets.  That was back when $20 million was really worth something, too.  We used a litmus test for investment analysis that I'd like to share with you, the Long Beach home owner.

Liquidity, Safety, Return (and to a lesser extent,) Tax Status.  The LSR-T litmus test helped us match specific investment choices and determine suitability for the client.  In plain talk, that meant  "Is this the right thing for the client ?"

Let's run the equity in your Long Beach home through the LSR-T litmus test, first.  I'll discuss some ideas to improve that "investment" in home equity.

I think you'll find, after my analysis, that Long Beach home equity is a really...

READ MORE 

How often have you advised a client who is able to pay cash to eschew a mortgage just to "get the deal done"?  After all, she's an excellent credit risk...she can refinance her home later and still enjoy the tax benefits...right?

WRONG!  You may not only be offering erroneous advice to your client, you may be setting them up for an IRS audit- and they are going to be peeved at you when they find out the truth about the deductibility of mortgage interest.  Sticking your head in the sand and claiming that they "should have checked with a tax adviser; I'm just a Realtor!" ain't gonna cut it next year.

The IRS is gonna get your clients next year and they just may come running to you.  What will you tell them?

Next year is important because the IRS, in its typical Big Brother fashion, has enlisted lenders' help to crack-down on one of the most abused tax deductions to date; mortgage interest.

Some things EVERY Realtor should know about the mortgage interest deduction 

I am an online marketer; no doubt about it.  I employ a blanket strategy rather than a "smart bomb" strategy that is designed to have my goofy little suspenders picture show up in every imaginable place on the internet.

and...I am a Master at "Link Baiting" which has come under heavy criticism from the more noble of our weblogging community.  I don't call it "link baiting", I call it link direction.  I do it on just about every imaginable social network available:  Active Rain, MySpace, Sellsius, Zillow, and Trulia.  I do it because it's effective.  I "tease" because I want the consumer to come to my storefront, read more about me, and call or e-mail me.  It really is no different than "gaming" Google search to drive hits to my website.  It is NOT dishonest, it's marketing communication.  It's just like Coca-Cola running a lottery game under the bottle caps; an effective use of participatory media.

Why?  I blog for profit and so should you.  I blog for exposure, and so should you. 

There are many talented loan originators on Active Rain and I don't want a potential customer spending anymore time reading them than is absolutely necessary.  Would you?  

Now, I'm not talking about being rude.  If we equate activity online to real life, there is a marked difference between link direction from a social network and from a weblog on which I've been asked to guest author.  You'll rarely find me overtly link directing to my home weblog at Bloodhound Blog, NELA Live, or Long Beach Real Estate Home; that, without a doubt, is poor manners.  It would be akin to coming to your home for a BBQ and prospecting your clients in your backyard.

Social Networks?  Fair game.  Active Rain, MySpace, Sellsius, Zillow, and Trulia are like being at the beach, the Padres game,  or the mall.  I WILL wear my logo polo shirt at the mall and will openly pass out my business card to anyone that asks me a question.  In fact, I'll do my best to get that prospective customer's name and number so that I can initiate contact immediately so an another originator DOESN'T get to them.

Rude?  Hardly.  Let's look at Active Rain for example.  If you think for one moment that I want to let a consumer initiate conversation with Jeff Belonger, Jason Sardi, Mark Flanders, Rhonda Porter, or God forbid, Morgan Brown, you're out of your mind.  I like all of those originators and have enormous respect for their abilities. In fact, I have referred loans to some of them.  There is no way, however, that I want to be the second guy in line. I'll decide which loans to fund and which to refer, thankyouverymuch.  Now don't mistake my strategy for fear,  I hold my own pretty well.  I say, " God forbid, Morgan Brown" because I like and respect his abilities..AND he's 67 miles from me, smack dab in the middle of my market.  I like and respect these originators SO much that I want to direct the consumers away from them.

Why?  I blog for profit and so should you. I blog for exposure and so should you. 

You can make up any rules you want about perceived etiquette and what consumers "hate" but don't call my motives dishonest.  I don't ever pretend that what I do in a business setting is anything less than a direct but honest plan to own the space between a potential client's ears.  You do it your way and I'll do it mine.  I'll change when the results start to wane.

Portable mortgages are an idea that makes sense...maybe.  The concept is simple.  You get a home loan at a 30-year fixed rate.  If you lock-in when rates are low, you keep that rate for the life of the loan and transfer the loan to a new property.

Borrowers would love it because it makes them feel that the loan they "earned" stays with them forever.  Secondary markets (the ultimate purchaser of most loans) and banks, won't love this idea.  

Portable mortgages are available in Canada.  E-Trade Financial experimented with this loan product in 2003.  They charged borrowers a rate premium of .375% to guarantee that portability.  That means that if the "market rate" was 5.5% in 2003, the borrowers who optioned to take the portable mortgage, received a rate of 5.875%. 

The rate premium was charged to appease the secondary markets by providing them the extra money to hedge the interest rate risk.  The interest-rate risk for the investors could be hedged through mortgage derivatives or a collared options strategy.  I'm not exactly certain how that strategy will work so I'm asking Pat Kitano to comment; he was a capital markets guy on Wall Street (I was a consumer markets guy) so he might have an interesting take for us money geeks.

What are some of the problems ?