If you are a loan officer or mortgage broker that has used mortgage lead companies in the past, there is a very good chance that you have encountered some bad experiences.

By bad experiences I mean, you have invested money with mortgage lead companies and have received absolutely nothing in the way of a return on your investment.

If you were even lucky enough to make contact with some of the clients, you probably heard things such as “I closed on that loan months ago.” Or “I never applied for a mortgage.”

Or, one of my personal favorites “oh, I thought I was only filling out a survey.”

The next time you consider using a mortgage lead company it is important to take your time and do your homework.

Here are a few things to look for.

Find out exactly where the mortgage lead companies are acquiring their leads from. Are they buying them from third party vendors? Or are they acquiring the mortgage leads through web sites they own and operate?

If the mortgage lead company you are considering is acquiring the mortgage leads from outside companies, this says very little about the mortgage leads.

Who knows how many times that outside company has sold those leads to other mortgage lead companies. You could end up being the tenth person to buy the lead.

Look for the mortgage lead companies that offer low minimum deposits and do not require minimum orders.

Some lead companies have a minimum deposit of five hundred dollars and you must purchase a certain amount of leads per day. If you decide you are not happy after spending one hundred dollars than you are out of luck.

So look for the mortgage lead companies that have low minimum deposits and allow you to spend it at your convenience. This is the best way to test run a mortgage lead company.

And when doing your research on mortgage lead companies take into consideration the customer service that you are receiving. Customer service says a lot about any company not just mortgage lead companies.

If the customer service is poor than most likely the product will be poor as well. When talking to customer service are they forthcoming with the answers to your questions or are you treated as a statistic? Use this to gauge how you will be treated and what kind of response you can expect when requesting a refund.

The bottom line here is to take your time and do you homework when researching lead companies. You work hard for your money so don’t throw it away on mortgage lead companies that can’t provide you with good quality leads even though they claim they can.