Citracado Market Advisors

Student Loan Leads A Unique Opportunity

The student loan bubble is beginning to pop with massive surge in loan defaults; this surge offers a unique marketing opportunity.   The amount of bad student loan debt is staggering and at some time in January of 2013 the aggregate amount of bad student loan debt finally surpassed the aggregate total of bad credit card debt.   For many that follow the industry this is not a surprise.  The bubble created in student loan lending and the massive push in for-profit education has helped to fuel the bubble.   Much has been written about the looming student loan crises but very little has been offered in the way of monetizing the opportunity that it presents.

Utilizing student loan leads to help students restructure that debt might just be the new frontier that the debt settlement industry was some years ago.   Many of our debt clients are looking for next new market and we believe we have found it.  The marketing of student loan leads uses the same impressive infrastructure and processing systems that many of our clients have built to process their debt files.  The impact the debt settlement industry has had on the aggregate amount of credit card debt in the United States is not a trivial amount.  As the debt industry has grown and matured credit card companies have had to undertake fundamental changes in their business practices due to the impact the settlement industry as a whole has had on the American consumer.  We believe this same opportunity exists in the student loan market, and we believe thet market to be in the very early stages and set for explosive growth over the coming years. 

Like many of the great marketing booms this opportunity was created by a change in federal regulation.  The loosening of guidelines and restrictions for the GSE that hold the majority of student loan debt has opened the door to a marketing opportunity like we may not see again in some time. 

Most of the marketing for student loan leads up to now has been primarily done by pay-per-click online marketing, or data collection through various websites which simply does not allow for the kind of volume needed to process these types of files on a large scale.  This has been due primarily to the lack of a reliable source of data.  Citracado Market Advisors has been testing new data sources for student loan leads and we are pleased to report that our testing phases have concluded and we have rolled out our student loan leads product that has produced results with our direct mail campaign that have far surpassed our most optimistic projected response rates.  If you have a business that processes files of any type:  Debt, mortgage, or anything similar please give us a call to see how easy it is to switch gears and move to restructure student loans using our student loan leads.

     If you have ever wondered what the total amount of late mortgages in united states is, you are not alone.  A quick search will take you to various sites but very few have real usable information on them and there is not a single website that publishes a aggregate late mortgage report. One might ask why this information is useful or why publish this report?  As we have noted in our real estate marketing article it's our belief that the economic health of the United States is correlated strongly with the real estate market.  We are not unique in this; it's a belief that is shared by many economists, business owners, and every day Americans.  

     The health of the real estate market has real implications on marketing decisions and the direction of the vast sums of marketing money spent every day.  Just about every direct to consumer marketing campaign is in some way affected by the real estate market and the sentiment of the American Homeowner.   Trends and analysis are very valuable in formulating strategy and making the correct decisions and a national late mortgage report will aide in that decision making process.

     As part of our continuing effort to produce information that useful and relevant to our marketing clients Citracado Market Advisors will publish the monthly totals for all 30 60 90 120+ late mortgages on the first of each month.    We hope you'll find this information useful.    For more detailed reports, analysis or help planning your next campaign please contact us.

National Totals of pre-foreclosures by state.

     Have you ever wondered how much mail is sent during a presidential election cycle?  If your business does not utilize direct mail as part of its advertising then probably not, but if you do then it's something you want to know.   As we draw closer to the election the amount of political mail in the US postal system will skyrocket but the question is how high and just what effect will this have on the rest of the direct mail response rates?  It's a difficult question to answer at best.    There are companies out there that claim to have a good handle on the amount of mail being sent out for various industries but they are statistical samples and extrapolated totals so the real answer is nobody knows for sure.

     The most pressing questions for our clients now and moving forward to the election is what, if any effect will the surplus mail have on response rates of existing campaigns?  Pinning a total on loss of response rate is a near impossible task; there are so many factors involved.  Registered voters tend to get more mail from the republican side; non-registered voters tend to get more mail from the Democratic side.  Each party will send absurd amounts of mail to their respective party affiliated registered voters.  

     It's a tough question but we do have some observations.  We have observed the effect on response rates is going to vary greatly by target demographic.    The high-end homeowner with mortgage a balance above 629k has shown a much larger drop in response rates than those with lower balances.   Response rates for debt offers to this point have largely been unaffected, where as the non-profit mail response rates have virtually come to a complete stop. 

                So to answer the question of how many pieces of political mail have been sent in this election cycle:  Our best guess based on our volume and industry feedback is north of 160 million as of September 17th.   How has that 160+ million pieces impacted the response rates on other mail?  Our best cumulative guess is about a 1/15^th(.0015) of a percent.  We will have the overall data totals published in the September entry on our Direct Mail Weather Report so we may revisit this question again, but so far our observations have suggested the affect is minimal unless you are in the non-profit sector.  We will post more numbers as they become available and the election draws closer.  There are times when we advise clients not to mail.   We are in the direct mail business so advising clients to hold back is often a difficult and painful one but there are times when the best decision is not to do anything.  Thankfully now (as of 9-17-2012) is not one of those times unless you are a non-profit. 

      If you like what you have read here drop is a line and let us know.  We want our paying clients to have the advantage so we don't disclose everything on the website.  Let us help you with your next campaign

     So the year is winding down and we're heading into the final stretch in the real estate world.  It's been a busy one for sure:  The MERS debacle, Robo-signing issue, AG Settlements, and a few other issues have had a real effect on the real estate market.   Many forecasters, including myself have been projecting prices to continue to go down.  All the signs pointed to a continued downward trend in housing prices, and many people, including myself, were caught off guard when we started seeing reports of year over year price increases back in July.   It seems many of us have forgotten one of the most basic rules…  Supply and demand.

     What many of us did not see coming was entrance of the Hedge Funds into the property management business.   I say this with a hint of sarcasm.  I don't think by any means that Johnny Hedge Fund Manager is fixing toilets and harassing people for late rental payments; but make no mistake, Johnny Hedge fund is fast becoming one of the larger landlords in the country. 

     The number one issue that all of my investors and agents talk about is the lack of inventory.  One would think the big issue would be the mountains of paperwork involved with short sales, or asset managers hacking down broker commissions, but those are side notes in a larger struggle.  The biggest issue by far is the lack of inventory.   Car dealerships sell cars, real estate agents sell property.  If you don't have inventory to sell all other problems tend to be side issues.

     Today marked a first, a private equity firm in San Diego completed a bulk REO transaction with Fannie Mae.    This is not the first of this type of transaction, but it's the first time that it was made public.  It had to be disclosed due to the fact that it's tax payer money in play via a government institution.   I don't know that there is any way to find the total number, but I suspect that there have been plenty of private transactions between the larger banks and private equity for some time.  I believe this is the X-factor and a partial answer to the national inventory squeeze. 

     So the question becomes, how do agents and investors find more inventory?  The answer is simple, marketing.  Citracado Market Advisors have proven programs to help you find deals.  I would urge you to give us a call and take a look at some of the lead list pages.   We want our paying to customers to have the advantage, so we won't disclose all our secrets here on the website, but if you would like to learn more please give us a call.