I was chatting this morning with a buddy of mine, Mark Green, the guy behind Top of Mind Networks about social media and a recent conversation he had with Brian Brady. Like many of us out there, Mark is new to social media and has been trying to navigate the divide between how to effectively use social media to drive sales and build relationships and using time for more traditional marketing vehicles.

It turns out that Brian was nice enough to give Mark an hour or two of his time and walked Mark through how he uses social media effectively day to day.

Now Mark and Brian are teaming up to put on a FREE webinar where Brian will share how he uses social media as communication and business building tools. Awesome! I consider this a must see… check it out.

YOU CAN SIGN UP FREE HERE!

During this 45-minute session Brian Brady will explain: 1)  The ultimate goal of social networking 2)  How to extend your “sphere of influence” online 3)  What’s the “favor bank” and how to put it to use 4)  How to monetize your social networking efforts PLEASE register early, mark your calendar, and be on time.  We’ll begin at exactly 1pm EST (10am PST).

As I have mentioned many times before, the only way we could get mortgage rates down this low was with the Fed buying up mortgage backed securities and creating an artificially inflated market, aka the “mortgage rate bubble”.  They have been the creators of the bubbles in the past through their actions, so why should this one be any different?

Well, the headlines not too long ago stated that Paulson and Bernanke wanted mortgage rates to be as low as 4.5%, some mortgage originators even developed their own agenda of 3.5% mortgage rates as another bait and switch advertising campaign.  But reality is quite different and the Fed knows that.  Or do they?  We can see what their MBS purchase pattern looks like and you can see they are not trying to drive mortgage rates down at all right now.  In fact, it looks more like they are trying to keep mortgage rates from spiking higher, bringing into question whether or not they are already realizing that mortgage rates are headed higher and likely quickly, so they need to dampen that burden on the economy.

Here is a chart I did that shows their actions each week, allowing you to see where their purchasing concentration is.  Click on the picture to get the full sized graph.

As you can see, the Fed was buying mortgage backed securities with lower coupon rates in the beginning.  They are still concentrating their purchases of Freddie Mac mortgage bonds in the lower coupon rates, but even here they have crept away from the 4.0 and only last week dropped back into the 4.5% MBS.  The Fannie Mae purchases are quite different, however.  The Fed’s focus on Fannie Mae mortgage bonds has drifted, and stayed in the higher coupon ranges, namely the 5.5% coupon and bleeding into the 6.0% MBS last week.

So what does this all mean?  In all likelihood, the Feds are expecting mortgage backed securities market pressure to drive mortgage rates higher.  In fact, they may even be concerned about their actions turning into inflation down the road and the market reaction to that fact.  That means they have little power to drive mortgage rates lower and the best they can do is to maintain mortgage rates, or more realistically, keep mortgage rates from spiking. 

With the shift of the purchases towards the higher coupon bonds, one of two things are taking place.  They likely are attempting to maintain stability in the markets as much as possible.  The other possibility is, in my opinion, a little less likely, that is they are purchasing higher coupon rates because those loans are likely to get refinanced and paid, thus allowing them to recoup their investment fairly quickly.  With the Fed playing with “fake” money, aka printing new money to build their balance sheet (Bernanke favors this tactic to create inflation), I doubt this is what they are focused on, not to mention that it is a gamble they may not pay off.

Decide what you may, but the reality is the Fed is not going to drive mortgage rates lower through the purchase of mortgage backed securities.  That means, all those people out there looking to refinance or even purchase homes at the lowest mortgage rates already missed the boat.

I get asked about loan officer websites quite often. As more and more people make the shift to shopping online, it’s become all but impossible to ignore! So what do you need to be aware of if you’re planning on setting up your own website?

Super Important Loan Officer Websites Tip #1

A website is not a marketing strategy! A website is an electronic storefront or sales person for you. Unfortunately, without people stopping by to chat with your new found sales person, it’s useless! Most loan officers spend good money to purchase a website package. Excited at the thought of all this new business they’re about to get, they are soon disappointed when none is forthcoming!

What’s happening? There’s no traffic! See, when someone goes to a search engine to type in what they are looking for, your website is most likely not showing up. This means no traffic, no leads, no closed loans.

Super important Loan Officer Websites tip #2

If you’re not on the front page of Google, then you’re missing out – big time! Yahoo ROBO, DMA, and other recent organizational research studies confirm that 91% of individuals do NOT click past page number 1 of the search results! Is your site on the front page of Google? If not, then 91% (Or more) of the targeted prospects searching for your services are going elsewhere… Not a good way to generate business.

Super Important Loan Officer Websites Tip #3

Is your website a pre-written purchased package? I’m sorry to tell you, but chances are a lot of money was wasted! See, one of Google’s primary criteria for ranking websites is “unique content.” It only makes sense, as how valuable would a search engine be if it kept displaying results full of the same material over and over?

If you have a pre-written website that was also purchased by other loan officers as well, then your chances of ranking well on the search engines just dropped into the basement. This is coming from Google’s mouth, not mine. If you’re violating this rule, then you need to rethink how badly you want business from the web.

There’s lots of business to be had, but you need to know what is required to rank high on the search engines for proper keywords. Want to learn more about this concept? Here’s a great video I have prepared – Click the Loan Officer Websites link below to watch. (About 10 minutes) :

Loan Officer Websites