Leads2007
I attended the Leads2007 unconference in Tampa, FL with 50 individuals representing lead aggregators, lead management systems, service providers, and lenders. Although I have chosen to explore new concepts outside of mortgage lead management and exchanges, it was a great opportunity to listen to ideas and best practices. I’ve obviously spent over five years working with mortgage advertising (e.g., Root Markets, LeadROI, and Countrywide), but it is always eye-opening to understand what the thought leaders in the space have to say.
I have chosen not to recap the entire event as a couple of others have done a fine job of this:
The most encouraging parts of the two day conference were the discussions around consumer control. Discussions around forms, disclosures, education, choice, telemarketing, and much more, showed that the group of over 50 individuals were thinking on the same page.
One thing that I mentioned was my dreams of a humanless process when I obtain my first loan. The mortgage industry itself needs a lot of retooling to make this work, such as eSignatures and eMortgages, but overall I think that this will be inevitable. I acknowledge that its wishful thinking for now, but let’s take a couple of examples:
- Phone calls - Google recently acquired GrandCentral for $50M to empower consumers with more control over their phone. Imagine hiding behind a phone firewall that allows you to control who can call you. Forget the tedious Do Not Call list and cell phone configurations; just block private numbers at the firewall. Auto-dialers and excessive calls may be a thing of the past.
- Income - Geezeo is a new social networking personal finance site that allows individuals to consolidate their bank transaction data and make it accessible via mobile phones and to share advice with one another. The individuals using this site are the same ones who would be willing to allow a portal to verify their income by directly logging into their bank account, the way Paypal does to verify you truly own the bank account you register. I think sharing income data will move closer to the research process for the upcoming generations.
- Credit Reports - Ike Eze, founder of Centrro, formally co-founded QSpace which merged with ConsumerInfo. I chatted with him about consumers taking more control over their credit report data and how that will continue to evolve. Could underwriting systems simulate against a credit file pulled by the consumer himself?
- Trigger Data - Connie from LowLender spoke about an initiative she has to help inform consumers about trigger leads. Her website is just a start StopTriggerLeads.org. Oversee’s Low.com recently launched a new product that allows consumers to share a simulated FICO score without being pinned as a trigger lead. This will give greater control over who is aware of your mortgage shopping.
- Appraisals - Eric Schmidt recently mentioned in a speech to NVCA that Google Maps and mashed-up data may make it easier to appraise homes.
There is a lot of areas for improvement in this space. I certainly plan on staying on the pulse of things in this space, and this was a great place to listen to what others had to say.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:22 am
[...] recently attended the Leads2007 unconference (see my previous post), where I was interviewed on the future of online consumer [...]
September 10th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
[...] this an example of an old line lead company beginning to put the consumer at the center of the mortgage transaction or positioning themselves to become the consumer’s "mortgage [...]