I am trying to generate more leads I am new to the business and would like get more clients as soon as possible. I’m not trying to get rich quick just more experienced and make a lot more money doing so… for a business marketing is everything how can I market my-self to generate a strong sphere of influence?

I have a real estate home auction marketing business: http://www.directmailevents.com, that I am trying to promote on CL and kijiji.com.

Where is the best free online website to post my ads. Besides CL… Craigslist is just to ineffective in terms of response.

Thanks,

www.directmailevents.com

To Learn More Please Visit www.YourHomestart.com

HOMEstart Explains Obama’s Loan Modification Plan

Introduction. As part of Obama’s 2009 economic recovery package, the President has introduced a plan to rescue and revive the troubled housing market. The new plan is called the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP), which describes Obama’s intents to modify distressed mortgages, keeping struggling borrowers in their homes with the intent to help stop rapidly declining property values resulting from surrounding homes entering foreclosure. Obama is dedicating $75 billion to the HASP and below are some key details.

HASP focuses on reducing mortgage payments since it argues homeowners will continue to stay in their homes, despite declining home values, as long as the borrower is able to afford their monthly mortgage payments during the poor economic climate. Many economists agree that foreclosures result from homeowners simply being unable to afford high monthly mortgage payments versus not being able to pay at all. Obama’s plan requires major lenders and banks to participate in reducing monthly mortgage payments to less than 40% of the borrower’s gross monthly income. The resulting losses lenders and banks incur would be refunded by Obama’s $75 billion HASP budget.

Lenders Involvement. There are a few simple methods lenders use to lower monthly mortgage payments; these include reducing the interest rate to as low as 2% or extend the loan term as high as another 10 years. In Obama’s attempt to incentivize participation, lenders will receive $1,000 for each mortgage modification and can also receive an additional $1,000/year, for up to 3 years, if the borrower makes consistent payments. Borrowers are also eligible to receive a principal balance reduction of up to $1,000 each year, for up to 5 years, granted the borrower makes consistent payments. HASP was originally designed for responsible homeowners who have been seriously affected by the worsening economy and resulting decreasing unemployment, however, with the rate of foreclosures becoming so high, almost any home owner with legitimate financial hardships (ie. divorce or separation, illness, unemployment, reduced pay, etc) can qualify for a mortgage modification.

The major lenders developing government Loan Modification Programs are Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Countrywide, Citigroup, IndyMac and Washington Mutual. Most of these lenders make up the top 5 mortgage lenders by dollar volume. Whether you are currently behind on your mortgage payments or foresee being unable to make payment in the near future, you can qualify for a mortgage modification.

Loan Modifications. The time to act is now, however, do not rush and make a decision based on pricing from any mortgage modification company. Remember that a turnkey, mortgage modification involves 7 critical phases. The process can generally take up to 3 months, even with a team of experienced mortgage modification specialists working diligently, which is why the time to get started is now.

Even though a loan modification requires several people (ie. intake processors, consultants, negotiators, lawyers, etc.), consider that just one individual working on your loan modification file for 3 months works out to the borrower hiring help for just over the minimum wage rate of California. Do not be fooled by loan modification companies or firms offering low prices because they mostly likely (1) do not have a DRE license, (2) are not accredited by the BBB or (3) do not have the resources and staff to complete a full loan medication (a legitimate contractual agreement between the borrower and lender to modify mortgage loan terms).

Each of the seven phases utilizes the skills and experience of a wide range of professionals to negotiate and create a loan modification agreement for your mortgage loan terms. For the consumer’s protection, the Department of Real Estate (DRE) certifies loan modification companies by providing a license on a per state basis. Along with that license, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) provides an extensive grade, or rating scale, on a multitude of different factors which can help the consumer eliminate any fears of being scammed.

Loan modifications were originally reserved for those whose mortgages became delinquent due to job loss, divorce or illness, but today loan modifications are also open to anyone suffering from high adjustable rate mortgages. It is imperative to begin the loan modification process before your lender gives you a notice of default. Also, one major misconception about who qualifies for a mortgage loan modification is that the borrower must already be behind on their mortgage payments, this is not true.

Your HOMEstart. Many attempt to work with their own lender and come away with no results. This partly results from many lenders having a severe lack of trained and experienced personnel working on loan modifications due to the rising amount of loan modifications being processed each day by any given lender or bank branch. There simply is not enough experienced people to meet the demand of incoming loan modification files. Also consider this process can be difficult in some cases even with professionals and legal staff working diligently for months, so do not hesitate to make another attempt at a home loan modification with a BBB accredited and DRE licensed loan modification company like HOMEstart.

Loan modification companies that provide A+ BBB rated services have established personal relationships with the largest mortgage lenders to expedite the loan modification process. Contact HOMEstart at anytime to discuss your financial hardship, we will listen and maintain the highest level of confidentiality. We have an entire team of experienced loan modification consultants who will help answer any questions you may have, regardless if you pursue a loan modification through HOMEStart. We are here to help; start new, not over.

Mortgage Loan Modification Preparation

The loan modification process begins with consultation with your experienced HOMEstart loan modification specialist. Your loan modification consultant will discuss with you the financial hardships you’re facing and determine if you are a good candidate to receive a mortgage loan modification. After HOMEstart pre-qualifies you for a loan modification, there will be some essential paperwork to get to the loan modification process underway. The loan modification process will require:

* Proof of income.

* Last 4 monthly bank statements.

* Hardship letter discussing your current or future situation.

* All inclusive monthly expense sheet.

* Most recent mortgage statement.

* Past two years of W2 forms and tax returns.

Once the paperwork is complete, your loan modification file enters negotiations. At this time your loan modification file will contain all the information your negotiator needs to create an agreement with your lender to modify your mortgage loan terms. Once an agreement has been made, the loan modification offer enters approval. Your HOMEstart attorney will review the offer made to you by your lender to make sure that it represents the terms previously discussed with your negotiator. Generally each lender will have their own borrower qualification guidelines and so for the best results, consider these factors while getting prepared:

Income-Expense Ratio. The borrower’s proof of income and monthly expense sheet is used to show your lender that smaller monthly mortgage payments will in fact result in consistent payments. Lenders also want to determine if your expenses exceed 60% of the borrower’s gross monthly income.

Nature of Hardship. Some lenders have specific requirements on what types of situations qualify as a financial hardship, however, your financial hardship should be a result of a situation which occurred (or will occur) that was (or is) “out of your hands”. Commonly accepted situations include illness or death in the family, demotion or pay decrease, lawsuits, divorces and military service.

Payment History. Lenders look at the borrower’s previous mortgage statements to see if there were any prior delinquent payments. If the borrower made timely monthly mortgage payments prior to the financial hardship, then it will show the lender your capability to make consistent payments after a mortgage loan modification. Remember that your credit history is not reviewed, simply your mortgage payment history. Those with poor credit can qualify for a mortgage loan modification.

Bank Statements. Lenders look at the borrower’s bank statements to determine if the loan modification applicant had normal spending habits prior to the financial hardship and to see if there is any savings set aside in case of an emergency or worsening situation.

Tax Payments. These documents serve to evaluate the borrower’s level of financial responsibility. Consistent tax returns will demonstrate to your lender that you’re not just looking for “cutbacks”. The borrower’s tax returns also provide additional proof of consistent income.

Foreclosure Information and Timeline

If you are looking for loan modification services, then you are probably looking to save your home by preventing foreclosure. The closer a home owner gets to foreclosure, the more difficult it becomes to get a mortgage loan modification. Knowing the foreclosure process and timeline will help you evaluate your situation and make the best solution for your current or approaching financial hardship.


Collections Stage. This period, ranging from 30-90 days, begins when you miss your first mortgage payment. Generally your bank will try to contact you before taking any severe action. After 2 to 4 weeks from the first missed mortgage payment, your bank will begin to assess late fees. If the second mortgage payment is missed, your lender will send you a breach of contract letter, which formally informs the borrower in writing that they have violated the mortgage loan terms. In addition, after the second delinquent payment, the borrower will be given 30 days to pay the balance or come to a resolution before receiving a Notice of Default.


Notice of Default. At this point, also known as pre-foreclosure, the borrower has missed their third mortgage payment. Pre-foreclosure starts when your lender files a Notice of Default (NOD) at the county office governing your property. Unfortunately for the home owner, technically speaking the foreclosure process begins at this time; only a short 2 months after your first delinquent payment. It takes less than 2 weeks to receive your formal Notice of Default. In California, a 90 day period, known as the Reinstatement Period, is initiated as the time frame the borrower has to resolve the owed balance before a Notice of Sale.

Midpoint. At this time, typically 60 days before the Auction date of the home or property, the borrower’s options for initiating a loan modification get very difficult. Contract terms vary from lender to lender, but the trend is the longer you put off making payments, the less likely your lender will allow you to create an agreement to modify your mortgage loan terms. However, if the borrower does manage to get caught up in payments, the NOD would then be withdrawn.

Notice of Sale. At this point, also known as Pre-Trustee Sale, the owner’s property will have a Notice of Trustee Sale (NOS) publicly posted. The notice remains posted for 3 weeks (21 days) and will contain the time, date and location of the auction. Fortunately, the borrower is able to reinstate the loan upon payment of the balanced owed from delinquent payments 5 days before the auction date.

Trustee Sale. At this time, also known as the Auction date, your home is officially auctioned off to the public. The borrower is given 10 days to remove all property and leave the premises from which thereafter a sheriff will get involved to enforce eviction.

What are these new attorney-client matching services? Who are the players? What do they cost? What is the risk to me? What is the return for me? What is the buzz on them? Are they ethical as marketing for law firms? Will they save me money and are they for me? Will they get me clients I would not have otherwise?

In part one of this article we will look in depth at a relatively new wrinkle in marketing for law firms known as “attorney-client matching services”. Part one focuses on the facts about these firms. Part two gives you my conclusions and recommendations as a result of my research. First a little background is in order. The legal services market segment is expected to reach $82.5 billion in 2008 according to Euromonitor International a market intelligence firm. In recent history consumers have been finding attorneys through word-of mouth or through the yellow pages. Often the word-of mouth advice does not deliver people to the best possible solution for their particular needs and the yellow pages is certainly not a great place to select a lawyer I am sure you would agree. Additionally, according to the Pew Internet & American Life over four million consumers and small businesses currently search for legal services via the Internet every month with these numbers expected to rise to over seven million by 2007. I think you can see this is a huge market getting larger. It is imperative that attorneys understand this marketplace if for no other reason your potential clients and clients are moving to the Internet and yellow page advertising is a dying marketing for law firms vehicle. Understanding attorney-client matching services is one new way to tap into this Internet marketplace.

What I will not be talking about here is attorney-listing services. Please don’t get confused between attorney-listing services and attorney-client matching services. The two majors in the attorney-listing services arena are Lawyers dot com or FindLaw dot com that are used by many in marketing for law firms. With attorney marketing one might want to get a minimal listing on one or both of these two major sites. Both do drive a large amount of traffic to their sites for sure (in the millions of visitors per year). If you do get a listing then track your results carefully and see if being in the middle of a pack of listed attorneys actually does produce clients for you. Please don’t spend more on them than the basic listing that will run about $150 or so per month, at least until you can document results with the basic listing. Also, don’t buy your website through either of them, even if after testing you find good results, for many reasons that can be found under the Internet marketing tab on my website. One last note here, you probably don’t want to test most of the lesser attorney-listing competitors like LawInfo dot com, LawCore dot com or AttorneyFind dot com is my take, however if you do be sure to track your results. The rest of this article is about attorney-client matching services.

Attorney Marketing Via Five Attorney-Client Matching Players

In the attorney-client matching field there are five competitors for the attorney marketing dollar offering online attorney-client matching services. The first and originator is LegalMatch dot com and its newer competitor being CasePost dot com as well as a third competitor LegalFish dot com. The two big players that offer almost everything in attorney marketing, Lawyers dot com and FindLaw dot com; have also recently begun to offer a version of attorney-client matching services. Lets begin with LegalMatch that was established in 1999 and is based in San Francisco. LegalMatch uses a double blind matching system. By double blind they mean the consumer does not see identifying information about who the lawyers are and the lawyer does not see identifying information about who the consumers are although all the cards are put on the table for both to see before any contact is made between them. Through an allocation model LegalMatch makes the decision about which lawyers get the consumer’s information. Consumers can opt into “priority service” for a fee to talk with a LegalMatch staff attorney about their case and work with that attorney in selecting the attorney for their case. LegalMatch does have partnerships with the Utah State Bar Association, ATLA and NACDL. Membership fees for this marketing for law firms vehicle run from $2,500 to $25,000 per year (they will finance the membership fee if desired) depending on practice area and geographic location of the attorney. For example, a PI attorney in Los Angeles would likely be charged more than a family law attorney in Los Angeles, while the family lawyer in Peoria is likely to pay less than the family law attorney in Los Angeles. Their guarantee consists of extending your membership at no fee until your revenues have exceeded the fee you paid them. The details of the guarantee are available on their website.

Are There Legal Marketing Ethics Issues with Attorney-Client Matching?

A relevant digression here, since this model is not a lawyer referral program, a pre-paid legal service plan, a joint or cooperative advertising or a directory listing service it is not subject to ethics rules around much of marketing for law firms it has been asserted. Recently the Professional Ethics Committee of the Texas State Bar was looking into these practices and that committee received a seven-page letter (May 26, 2006) from the FTC that was agreed to by a unanimous vote of the FTC commission members that this attorney marketing practice is indeed ethical.

Already the states of North Carolina and South Carolina found the practice ethical. The Rhode Island Supreme Court specifically named in an ethics opinion that online matching services are ethical. Finally, the Utah State Bar (a mandatory bar) has retained LegalMatch as their lawyer referral service clearly indicating their thinking about LegalMatch’s ethical nature it seems to me. Naturally you do need to check with your state bar to be sure this is an ethical practice in your state. Now back to the options in the marketplace.

CasePost, based in Southern California, was established in 2002 is a second player in this area of marketing for law firms. They operate in a similar fashion as LegalMatch in matching clients with lawyers; however, the directory of attorneys is shown to the consumer immediately. The consumer can decide whether they want to remain anonymous or give their contact information to the attorneys. The consumer is limited to four attorney responses. Thus the consumer determines what attorneys will get their information. In May of 2006 CasePost has made a major expansion as a result of their partnership with HandelOnTheLaw dot com that is powered by a successful nationally syndicated radio show on over 120 stations with attorney Bill Handel. This show has been running since 1985. They also have a strategic relationship with LegalZoom dot com that began in 2006 that has increased their reach. Like LegalMatch the membership fees for this attorney marketing vehicle are from $2,500 to $25,000 per year (financing is available if desired) depending on practice area and location. Their guarantee to a member is based on a minimum amount of referrals over the year.

LegalFish is a third player in this arena. It entered the marketplace in 2003 and is based in Chicago. It is a bit different than the other two in a few ways. Like the other players the consumer can input their information and post their cases to the site as well give their identifying information or not. In a number of cases LegalFish will contact the posting consumer themselves by telephone or email to delve deeper into the needs of the consumer so they are not totally automated. There is an allocation model used by LegalFish in referring the cases to their members. Another difference is LegalFish charges a monthly fee for this marketing for law firms vehicle ranging from $180 to $750 to members that are non-contingency based practices. For contingency based practices the fee ranges from $1600 to $5000+ monthly only if the client retains the attorney. If LegalFish does not deliver a referral to a member that retains that attorney they don’t charge a fee to that attorney for the month (a form of a guarantee). Creating something of a “shared risk” system. Naturally, with this type of shared risk system, long-term success for both parties is based on LegalFish’s ability to generate new client opportunities and create demand for legal services, and their member attorneys’ ability to convert those referrals to paying clients. Both parties have to “pull their weight”. Finally, LegalFish reports they are particularly committed to serving the solo and small firm market with ten employees or less.

The next player in this marketing for law firms arena is Lawyers dot com (mentioned earlier in this article about their directory listing or attorney-listing service) with their new Attorney Match Service. If you go to their homepage what stands out on that homepage is their “Find A Lawyer Quick Search”. This is their free to the consumer attorney-listing service (this is why you might want to test a listing with them and track results). To get to the Attorney Match Service you have to know to click on “Contact Lawyers” navigation tab or notice it up there at the very top of the home page. Clicking on that takes you to a page where you input your zip code and the practice area you are seeking, however, it also tells you how many lawyers there are listed that “are interested in receiving your request”. You are required to fill in the identifying information with other case information. Once you do that you see the attorneys listed and pick the ones you want to send your request to and wait for their replies. The fee for the attorney member is $495 per year, however, you must have a biographical level listing on the site to be on the Attorney Match Service and that is $150 and up per month depending on the size of your firm. There is no guarantee for this service.

The final player in this marketing for law firms arena is Thompson’s Findlaw (mentioned earlier as an attorney-listing service) with their new attorney-matching website http://www.LegalConnection.com. The FindLaw system is similar to the Lawyers dot com system with three steps of #1 Select your legal need; #2 Tell us about your case; and #3 Choose the attorney that’s right for you. It is different from Lawyers dot com’s system since they have broken it out of their attorney-listing services completely with its own dedicated website. Their fees generally run from $500 to $1000 per month depending on your practice area and geographic location. They do not have a guarantee. They do report that they do set targets for each geographic area as well as practice combination and then will manage their marketing to get positive results for attorneys.

Well, now we have all the players in this particular niche of marketing for law firms with a lot of information. I think it would be imperative for me to mention one more item. Both Legal Match and CasePost have negative information on the Internet and it needs to be considered. If you go to Google and search just the term LegalMatch and then do the same with CasePost you will be able to find details about the negative information. One location that covers the negative information on LegalMatch with relevant links is at Wikipedia dot org (go to the site and look up LegalMatch) although that is disputed as not being sufficiently neutral in tone, which is one of Wikipedia’s requirements. If you want to see a string of negative information on CasePost go to: http://counsel.net/chatboards/marketing/topic111/6.23.04.11.34.29.html . I am not sure one needs to be overly concerned about this information since it is mostly in the past and you need to consider it.

See Part II of this article for my conclusions and recommendations as a result of my research. I can tell you now that this approach does have some merit but there are definite cautions as well so do read Part II.