PAUL AMATA
‘Working with Realtors’
In an effort to boost business and combat aggressive advertising designed to convince homeowners they don’t need a real estate agent to sell their homes, a few Bay State lenders have launched campaigns promoting the use of Realtors.
The campaigns come as lenders and mortgage brokers across the state have been reevaluating their business strategies to shift more focus on the purchase mortgage business in anticipation of the end of a prosperous refinancing boom fueled by low interest rates. As a result, some have sought innovative ways to strengthen their relationships and ties with real estate agents and other partners.
It also comes at a time when Realtors in New England are stepping up efforts to pursue home sellers who try to sell their homes on their own through mortgage company-sponsored Web sites like ISoldMyHouse.com.
Worcester-based Lendia, a national provider of mortgage financing, has recognized that local Realtors are increasingly frustrated by the anti-Realtor message pushed in radio ads, on the Internet and other venues, and has created a Web site, TheySoldMyHouse.com, that touts the value of using a licensed real estate agent in the homebuying and selling process.
The Web site includes content provided by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and other Realtor associations, and features profiles of local real estate agents who can register on the site for free.
Only about 3 weeks old, the Web site is part of the Lendia RealLife initiative that was developed to strengthen the company’s ties to Realtors who work with homebuyers and can refer business their way. Already, nearly 80 Realtors in Massachusetts and another dozen in Connecticut have registered their profiles on the site.
“The response has been tremendous,” said Paul Amata, director of business development & corporate counsel for Lendia. “Our goal is to become the preferred lender to the Realtor community.”
Amata said Lendia spent several months talking with leaders from small and large real estate firms throughout New England and contemplating programs that would appeal to Realtors. The message that continually surfaced in conversations with real estate agents, according to Amata, was that Realtors thought of themselves as professionals and wanted to treated as such.
Many real estate brokers also expressed frustration with ad campaigns that have focused on trying to convince home sellers to save thousands of dollars in real estate commissions by selling their home on their own. One ad campaign, by Peabody-based East/West Mortgage Co., a regional lender based in Peabody, tries to convince sellers to list their homes on a Web site it created and operates called ISoldMyHouse.com. The site was largely created to steer business to the lender.
Buyers who are interested in seeing a home listed on the site are automatically connected to a mortgage consultant. East/West Mortgage, which has rapidly expanded throughout New England and in states like Florida, last year announced that it planned to spend $20 million on advertising to encourage homeowners to sell their own properties, according to a National Association of Realtors publication.
Real estate industry groups like the Massachusetts Association of Realtors have been focusing more attention on targeting homeowners who are swayed by such ads and try to sell their homes without the help of licensed agent. Just recently, for example, MAR held seminars to teach members how they can turn for-sale-by-owner properties, commonly referred to as FSBOs, into business opportunities for themselves.
“Basically the message of such ads is that the value of a Realtor is nothing,” said Amata, whose mother is a Realtor. “Being in this business and working with Realtors, we know that’s factually inaccurate. There are many hard-working Realtors.”
Fighting Back
Like Lendia, Cornerstone Mortgage Corp., which is based in Waltham, also got fed up with hearing all the negative ads against real estate agents. The lender and broker hired a marketing company to develop a pro-Realtor advertising campaign. Ads starting appearing in local newspapers and airing on the radio early this year, and have picked up again.
Mark Warren, owner and manager of the Malden branch of Cornerstone, said his branch has also sent postcards to real estate brokers with a basic message that Cornerstone understands the value that Realtors bring to the real estate transaction.
“I do believe the transactions have a certain security when you are using someone that is licensed,” said Warren, who noted that some of Cornerstone’s loan originators are former Realtors. “I believe a Realtor also has better capabilities to market a property and more resources, as opposed to an individual.”
Asked if the campaign is designed to increase Cornerstone’s business from real estate agents, Warren said, “Obviously that’s something you would hope to happen. Loan officers and real estate brokers are going to have relationships if they’re [loan originators] working for a company that’s pro-Realtors.”
Meanwhile, Lendia, which in addition to Worcester has an office in Tempe, Ariz., is moving forward with the Lendia RealLife program. For Lendia, the campaign is a way to bolster its purchase mortgage business, or loans originated in conjunction with a home purchase rather than a refinance loan. Formerly known as eSource Mortgage Inc., Lendia closed 237 loans last year totaling $44.6 million in Massachusetts, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. Most of the loan transactions – or 207 loans – were for refinancing, while only 30 were for purchase mortgages.
In addition to TheySoldMyHouse.com – which enables Realtors to include client testimonials and links to their personal Web site – the Lendia RealLife program also includes software that provides loan status updates throughout the loan process to Realtors whose clients use Lendia for home financing. Lendia is also offering a $100 gift card to Home Depot to clients.
Lisa Brown, a Realtor with Century21 Tangney Assoc. in Worcester, decided to post her profile on TheySoldMyHouse.com after representatives from Lendia gave a presentation at her real estate office about two weeks ago.
Brown, who has had clients who’ve used Lendia for loans, said the site received a “pretty good reception” at her office. “We’ve been looking for a way to fight back” against Web sites like ISoldMyHouse.com, explained Brown.
“This is a way to say, ‘Look, we’re not out here taking your money. We’re working hard to help you buy or sell your house,'” said Brown. “We adhere to a strict code of ethics and we go through a lot of training.”
