Hi everyone, this is part 2 of our series on using SEO tactics to be more successful online. In Part 1: SEO For Real Estate Agents, we showed you what SEO is and how it works. In Part 2, we will give you the tools that you need to make SEO work for you as you go about marketing yourself, your properties and your company online.

SEO For Real Estate Agents Part 2: Taming The Beast

By now we hope that you have a good grasp on the basics of SEO; what it is, why it’s important. The next step: how can you use it to build up your online business?

Note: These are deep waters, and if you want to really dig in, I would suggest that you purchase one of the many beginner/intermediate SEO books. My first book was “SEO For Dummies”, but I’m sure that Amazon can suggest a better one for you.

Keyword Research

Every project begins with a bit of research. Luckily for you, researching keywords is a pretty easy and streamlined process. There are two ways to go about it.

1) Find keywords based on existing material

Have a home page, blog or other public website? Great! Go to Google’s Keyword Search Tool and plug in your website address (skip the http:// part, that breaks it) – you will get a list of keywords that Google thinks are relevant to that website. Here is what I get when I plug in our VA Loans website address:oregonveteransmortgage.com.

2) Find keywords based on a list of possibilities.

Have an idea of what you want your website to rank highly for? Make a list of pertinent words and phrases, including any “alternative” words that people use to say the same thing (example: Military, VA, Veteran, Vet, Mortgage, Loan, Home Loan, Mortgage Loan) common misspellings (Veteren, Morgage) and geographic words (Clackamas, Clackamas County, Portland, Happy Valley, Oregon, 97015, SE Portland, West Linn) and plug that list into Google’s Keyword Search Tool. It helps to write this out in Word or a similar application before you plug it in, trust me. Separate your keywords by line, as shown below. For now, just do one-word keywords. Later you can go back, once you have a better idea of what you will “specialize in” and go wild with multiple word phrases.

So, for example, my list would look like this.

Either option will give you good information, or for best results you can combine them.

Take a deep breath - the next part looks complicated and overwhelming, I’m going to walk you through it step by step.

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Either keyword option you chose above, you will wind up with a screen like this. You want to go to “columns”, like shown, and add the column called “Estimated Avg. CPC” – This stands for Estimated Average Cost-Per-Click” this is information that shows what people who use Google’s advertising service pay, on average, for a “click” on sponsored results. Why do you need this information if you are looking for free clicks? Keywords that have bring in money have more advertiser competition.

You want to sort by Monthly Searches. This can be global or local, for this example we are using global. You will get similar results either way. Go ahead and print the first page out. You can print the second as well if you have the time. Get your highlighters and do the following.

1) Look at the “keyword” column and cross out any keywords that don’t apply to your goals. For example, if I have Portland, Maine results or Car Loan results, I would mark those out because they have nothing to do with me. I also cross out keywords that don’t imply an intent to “buy” – try to put yourself in the shoes of the searcher. If you are looking for “Interest Calculator” or “Zillow Prices”, are you likely to be looking to buy a home soon? Maybe, but these keywords do not imply that the person is ready to act. Highlight “Very Relevant” Keywords with one color, Highlight “Not Relevant” Keywords with another. Try to highlight at least half the keywords one way or another.

2) Look at the “Average CPC” column; this will give you a good idea of how fierce your competition is. At some point, you may decide to advertise on Google, so this will give you an idea of how much you may end up paying if you go that route. Highlight “High” prices with one color, “Low” prices with another. If you look at the price range, you will probably see that some prices are much higher than average, while some are much lower. Try to highlight about half of the prices as “high” or “low”

3) Compare: As you can see above, I have Not Relevant Keywords, Very Relevant Keywords, High Prices & Low Prices color-coded for you. Start with your Very Relevant Keywords and look for ones with Low Prices, these are probably GREAT finds – if you use these keywords consistently, you can carve out a profitable niche for yourself. You also want Low Prices with Medium Relevance Keywords & Very Relevant Keywords with Medium Prices. Confused? Here is a cheat-sheet.

In my example, we end up with the following keywords.

Mortgage Broker
Mortgage Calculator
Get A Loan
VA Homes

You might say, “Hey! None of those keywords implies that the customer is in the market for a Veterans Loan”, and you would be correct. If you look at the words together though, we are making progress on all the keywords that use some combination of Mortgage, Broker, Loan, VA and Home. So if someone types in “VA Home Loan Broker” – we have them covered too.

You can move a little outside of these rules, if you see a keyword that is just perfect for you, or if you think that you can beat the competition for a high-priced keyword, but I highly recommend this plan for putting together a targeted keyword list.

Okay, Now What?

Great news, we are almost done.

You now want to use these keywords on your website, in your blog, in your public profiles (think Zillow, Activerain, Trulia) and any other place that a search engine might see it.

1) Write for your Customer

In other words, I wouldn’t put Mortgage Broker Loan Homes Calculator in the middle of your web page; instead, I could write “I am a Mortgage Loan Officer (like a Broker, only better!) and I specialize in VA Home Loans; Here is my favorite Mortgage Calculator, Call me with any questions you may have”. That way, we still use all of our targeted keywords, but in a manner that won’t scare away business.

2) Use your Tools

Have a blog? Work your keywords into the titles of your posts. Website? Use the keywords in your navigation bar, and write pages that specialize in a few of the words (e.g. a page entitled “Get A Loan” where I use the words VA Mortgage Loan several times). If you own the website, you can probably add your keywords in to the Meta Tags that we talked about in Part 1: SEO For Real Estate Agents; you also want to use the words in your title and meta description. Again, get a web-nerd to do this for you if you don’t want to do it yourself. Offer them a 2-Liter of Mountain Dew and an hour or 2 of pay and you should be solid.

WordPress Users: Download this plugin, and use it on your posts.

3) Specialize

I think it may be hard to make a sales-driven website around the keyword “Mortgage Calculator”, especially one that ranked high on Google naturally (every existing mortgage website has a calculator, so you are facing stiff competition).  You also will want to narrow your web presence down by using geographic terms, like Portland, Clackamas County, Happy Valley, etcetera. Google will rank that article, website or profile higher as time goes on, so you want to winnow out the competition as much as is possible – make sure that if someone knows what they are looking for in your area, that they can find you through Google.

I highly recommend accomplishing this with multiple websites. The website address that you use is a very powerful SEO tool – oregonveteransmortgage.com will always score higher for mortgage / veteran / oregon than my “main site” geoffboyd.com, simply because it is specialized for that. So if I own Oregonmilitarymortgages.com, OregonVeteransMortgages.com, Military-Mortgages.com and Vet-Mortgages.com, I can specialize to a whole bunch of different keywords without losing effectiveness through diminishing returns.

“Aha!” you might say “Websites are expensive, and I don’t have time to figure out all of that!” – The website host that we use, Startlogic, gave us a coupon for Unlimited $3.95/mo hosting to share with you – including one free domain name, super-easy wordpress setup and $125 in free online advertising credits ($50 for Google Adwords, $25 for Yahoo, $50 for Facebook).  Its a great deal, even if you just use the $125 advertising credits (for which you paid $48) to promote your existing website. Want to do multiple websites? Extra domain names are just $10 and you can use the same hosting account, so you can get 6 websites for less than $100 (I wouldn’t recommend starting 6 websites at once).

Now that you have your keywords figured out, go to whois.domaintools.com and find a good available website name!  If you are hopeless with computers, pay your local nerd to do the integrated startlogic wordpress setup, and then just post some pictures, write up a few listings, talk about your experiences, in no time you will be getting traffic and (hopefully) some new customers!  Use these tricks on your current website to capture more traffic and, if you wind up getting a new web hosting account, set up a google adwords account and spend that free advertising money!

All the best,

The Mortgage Pro Blog Team!

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Geoff Boyd – PrimeLending – Clackamas, OR

A long time ago, almost 3000 years ago to be precise, Greece was the ruling power in the Mediterranean. Their rich mythology and language are still around, thanks to some scholars who remembered the first rule of any task, Write It Down. Many of you who can still remember middle school will recall the story of Sisyphus; a King who angered the Gods so greatly that he was given a simple but impossible task. Sisyphus was to roll a boulder up a mountain, but every time he got close to his goal, it would roll right back down and he would have to start over. A lot of effort for no net result.

Just like Sisyphus, the Federal Reserve Bank is trying to push our economy out of the recession. Their most recent strategy? Buying more treasuries. By purchasing these securities, they will decrease the supply of treasuries, raising the price and driving down the required return, you know the drill. This is Economy 101 stuff, and interest rates will go down as a result.

There is just one problem; our economy is going to come rolling right back down the hill. What I mean, of course, is that this plan to stimulate the economy doesnt address the problems that the economy is facing. With unemployment through the roof and the savings level rising, a very large portion of our population is changing how they “do” money – if they have extra, they save for when things get worse. You can look at the economic reports and they tell the whole story – new and existing house sales are at all-time lows, building permits and materials have not recovered either, but savings are up and spending is way down.

So, the solution is to make lending more affordable, right? Wrong. In the state of our economy, with a true unemployment rate assuredly over 12% and possibly near 18%, even the least savvy of Americans understands that you don’t rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. If the economy is going down the drain (and for some, its reached rock bottom), it doesn’t matter how low an interest rate you can get, you won’t have money in the bank or food in the pantry. Unemployment is an anchor that will continue to pull our economy down until the joblessness problem is solved.

The Fed seems to believe that low rates are the key to recovery. This is where they must have skipped the chapter in the economics 101 book; “the economy doesn’t work if people don’t have jobs”. Unfortunately, the answer is right in front of them. Thomas Hoenig, Kansas City’s Fed President, has repeatedly dissented with the Fed’s continuing decision to keep the Fed Funds rate near 0. His most recent statement is that the Fed is making a “dangerous gamble” by continuing to force rates down.

The Fed refuses to listen, perpetuating the Boom / Bust cycle that reminds me of that ancient boulder rolling up and down the mountain. Unfortunately, the only way to get some footing is find a bottom…..a real bottom, and this would be very painful.  Our country can create and maintain growth, real growth, but the interventions that we have seen in the past 2-5 years have made it hard to get any traction because they create the illusion that we are experiencing a recovery.  The Stimulus Checks, New Homebuyer Tax Credit, Auto Incentives, and all the rest of the government interventions, do not seem to be helping create any lasting growth.  This is because they are not creating foundations upon which the market can stand and build from.  For now, they are simply fluff to make it appear as if the Fed is doing something.   The real truth is that we will come right back to where we started unless the American people are able to start working again.

If you follow the news, you might have seen recently that a lauded FHA reform bill recently passed into law and has been sent to the President. This bill, H.R. 5981, allows FHA to raise it’s mortgage insurance premium (MIP) also known as monthly mortgage insurance (MMI) from the current cap of .55% to a whopping 1.55% – this increases the monthly amount that you pay for insurance if you opt for an FHA loan. This was partially balanced out by a decrease in the upfront MIP to 1%.

This is, from our perspective, a mixed bag. It doesn’t completely destroy the benefits of FHA over Conventional Mortgage (low down payment remains the same) but it is a net downturn when it comes to marketing this type of loan. This change was made because FHA is critically under-capitalized (0.5% capitalization as opposed to the 2% required of them) and they needed to make changes to insure that they can stay liquid if things get even worse.

Why are they under-capitalized in the first place? As you can see below, HUD (the government entity responsible for FHA) has seen a spectacular spike in demand since 2007. Since their growth was so quick, the funding that they had and the loans currently adding money into their system were not enough to maintain a healthy capitalization ratio. Their solution? Up the monthly mortgage insurance across the board for new loans (many of their older loans no longer require the MMI). This will increase their liquidity, but ends up costing the consumer more in the end. Here is a chart that we threw together to show just how quickly their demand changed.

Today we got the newest unemployment data, and it’s not pretty. The Jobs report was expected to come in near -90,000 jobs in July, and instead we got -131,000. Worse than that, the revision for June shows an additional 100,000 jobs lost. Lets just call it a “margin of error”. This report, coupled with an increase in consumer saving, tells us that we are a long distance away from true recovery in our economic climate; many people do not have jobs and those that do lack consumer confidence and probably fear that they will be the next one to get axed; hence, they save more.

The one thing you wont see anywhere on this jobs report? Emergency unemployment recipients. these people, who have been taken off the normal structure of unemployment, magically disappear as far as this report is concerned, so instead of having a clear, concise view of hire/fire in our economy, this economic indicator is severely compromised, and may actually present a rosier picture than reality dictates.

So, the Fed is “fluffing” the numbers to make things look better.  9.5% is not good………..we all know that.  But the reality is much worse.  Scary huh? That’s one big reason why the Personal Saving Rate in the US jumped back above 6%….because consumers are afraid that more bad news is on the way.

I do have some good news though………..your weekend is almost here. ☺

So, primary research time. I decided to take a look through the records and see who was still in the game, lending-wise, in Oregon. What I found, may not surprised you – about 7 out of 10 licenses are inactive at this point; a virtual exodus from what used to be a overcrowded business. Without being too rude,…. at the peak of the housing boom, I could have sworn that some lenders were hiring monkeys to take loan applications!  So, I guess the moral of the story is that nowadays you have to be a true professional to make it in this business.

For all of our readers in the Real Estate, Construction, Mortgage and Housing fields, what do you think? Is your profession becoming less popular? Are you having a harder time finding customers? Have old colleagues jumped ship? Answer our poll and leave a comment!

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Geoff Boyd – PrimeLending – Clackamas, OR

This article is a response to Rhonda Porter, a Loan Officer and Blogger from Seattle, in her Friday post about the House of Representative FHA Reform Bill. You can find her original article here.

Rhonda,

Great post and some very timely consumer information! We couldn’t agree with your assessment of the situation more – the first sentence of the HUD program mission statement – “HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all.” – says it perfectly – FHA Loans exist to make housing loans available to consumers with more limited resources. This increase in insurance that passed, which raises the annual mortgage insurance premium from 0.5%-0.55% to a maximum of 1.55% (your article says that they will start at 0.9%) plainly makes these loans less attractive to the consumers whom they are meant to serve.

One additional issue that is being considered in this overhaul of the FHA Home Loan program is raising the minimum down payment from 3.5% to 5% – a change of $4500 on that $300k loan that you based your numbers off of – I don’t know how things are in Seattle, but down here in Portland, most people don’t have that just laying around. The good news is that it sounds like, although the possibility is still out there, that this increase will not take place because they have already raised the Mortgage Insurance Premium.

The biggest driving factor in this overhaul is the fact that the FHA program is critically under-capitalized. Several banks that fell at the peak of the crisis were considered well capitalized (at or above 10%). In 2009, the Capitalization Ratio for the FHA Program was calculated at 0.53%. Ouch ! ¹ – the required capitalization for this program is 2%. So, not only are they sitting at barely 25% of their own requirements (in terms of capital) but they are sitting at 1/10th or 1/20th the capitalization of many of the failed banks of the last few years.

I pulled the numbers, here’s what their capitalization situation actually looks like.

We all want/need the FHA program (instituted by the New Deal after the Great Depression) to stick around. The problem is this; FHA is trying to handle a landslide of new loans with the same infrastructure and capital that was adequate 5 years ago. In 2005, FHA (or HUD) insured 43,000 loans. In 2006, they insured 76,000 loans. ² In 2010 they are expected to insure 1.9 Million Loans.³ So, in the past 4 years they have increased the amount of endorsed loans 25 times over. It has taken them less than 4 years to NEARLY DOUBLE the total number of single-family-insured loans in their portfolio, from 3.8 million in December 2006⁴ to 6.2 Million as of April 2010. ⁵

Regulators are afraid that if we see another round of defaults in the coming year(s), that HUD won’t be able to financially handle it. That’s why they voted to increase the MI Premium by such a large factor. On the other hand, we’ve been hearing that the defect rate has come down drastically since 2009, primarily because of the tighter lending guidelines from investors, banks, and the like. Across the board, loan officers, banks, and investors are becoming much more focused on quality loan files, responsible underwriting, and proper packaging of loans on the secondary market. Once again, our regulators are attempting to legislate something that the markets have already taken care of (like no-income loans).

FHA is an awesome program and has helped countless borrowers over the years. It may have a few leaks and rusty parts, and instead of fixing the engine, legislators are under the car with a roll of duct tape, trying to cover up the leaks. What will be interesting, and awful, is to see what happens if a government mortgage insurer goes belly up. Who is going to step in to bail out the FHA? My short-list of white knights? Germany, China and Google. Maybe we can sell them on Ebay or Craigs List? China already owns most of our mortgage debt anyway, we might as well sell them the whole thing.

So, if you want to make a quick buck – go register googlefha.com or buy fha.de/fha.cn today, just in case.

Until that point in time, FHA Loans are still a great option for first-time home buyers; the preferential interest rate usually makes the mortgage insurance payment well worth it.

From her website – “Rhonda Porter originates mortgages on homes located in Washington state.  Rhonda is an NMLS Licensed Mortgage Originator at Mortgage Master Service Corporation. MLO-121324.”

If you guys have any questions for us, Send us an Email or Leave a Comment Below.

You can find us on Twitter @MortgageProBlog, we would love to have you as a follower!

Thanks,

Geoffrey Boyd – Prime Lending – Clackamas, OR – NMLS ID# 184665

1. http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/rpts/actr/2009actr_subltr.pdf [↩]
2. http://www.hud.gov/offices/cir/test021507a.cfm [↩]
3. www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/rpts/ooe/olcurr.pdf [↩]
4. www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/rpts/com/06dec.pdf [↩]
5. http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/hsg/comp/rpts/com/10apr.pdf [↩]

There are many myths surrounding VA Mortgages (the Veterans Administration benefit that provides affordable housing loans to current and past members of the Military).

Many of these myths exist because many Mortgage Brokers and Bankers do not know the VA Loan program very well, or because many veterans have been given false information by well meaning family, friends, or co-workers regarding their VA benefits. Too many lenders that are not VA approved will often continue spreading myths regarding the VA program, simply to redirect a borrower to a program that will earn them a larger commission. I have worked with VA Loans for over 20 years, so here is a quick list of the top 10 VA Mortgage Myths that we have seen over the years.

1. You can only use your VA Mortgage benefit once.
   FALSE: Your Military VA Benefits are reusable, and you can use the benefit as many times as you want. For repeat users, there may be an increased VA Funding Fee, in some circumstances. More on this later.
2. VA Loan rates are higher than conventional loans, or FHA Loans.
   FALSE: VA Loan rates are comparable with conventional loans and FHA loans, and since VA Loan program is more flexible on Credit Score and DTI (your debt to income ratio); it’s possible to get qualified for a better rate through this program than you could find with a conventional loan.
3. VA Loans take a long time to close due to government red tape.
   FALSE: If you hear about a VA Loan took forever to close, it’s likely because the lender did a poor job of submitting the application. Last month, we completed a VA loan in 14 days from beginning to end! On average, there is little difference in length of closing between a VA Loan (when submitted properly) and a Conventional or FHA loan.
4. You are required to have PMI (Mortgage Insurance) on a VA Loan.
   FALSE: This is one that we hear a lot, and its mostly due to lenders who do not know the program very well. VA Loans are different than FHA loans, and VA Loans do not require Mortgage Insurance. Instead of PMI, VA loans require a VA Funding Fee. In a number of cases, we have seen this fee waived by the VA!
5. The appraisal process is tougher / takes longer / is more strict.
   FALSE: There are many different versions of this myth, but the fact is that, on a Mortgage for Active Military or Veteran applicants, the appraisal process is similar in every way to a conventional loan; the one difference? In a VA Loan, the appraiser is assigned by the VA, and not the lender or their appraisal service. In many cases, this is much better, as there are very specific standards that the VA appraiser must abide by. In addition, the VA appraiser can specify energy efficiency upgrades that should take place, and those can be paid for by the loan itself – a great benefit for a house in need of insulation, weather-proofing or duct repair.
6. You cannot refinance a VA Loan, or the VA program cannot be used to Refinance a loan.
   FALSE: You can refinance a current VA Mortgage, and use your VA benefit to refinance your mortgage.
7. You have to use it soon, or else it will expire.
   FALSE: We hear this one a lot. In fact, widowed spouses are allowed to use a VA benefit in many cases. But basically, your VA Benefit will not expire until you do. End of discussion.
8. Only certain veterans are eligible / certain branches of the military are ineligible / Military Reservists are ineligible.
   FALSE: This is another myth that comes up once in a while and is completely fabricated. If you are a veteran , you are eligible. If you are a member of the military (yes, even a reservist) you are eligible. One caveat to this: you must have received a honorable or “other than honorable” discharge. Also, If you are active duty, you are eligible.
9. VA Loans are difficult to get or qualify for.
   FALSE: There are a few extra pieces of paperwork that you must submit to confirm eligibility for the VA Program. They are not complicated forms and we can easily help you with them. Also, the VA loan program has more flexible guidelines for credit and income than most other programs, and there are no geographic restrictions (other than being part of the United States).
10. You can only access your VA Mortgage Loan benefit through the Veterans Administration directly.
    FALSE: The Veterans Administration (VA) approves lenders to directly access these benefits for eligible buyers. Our bank, PrimeLending, is one of these approved VA lenders as well as being one of the top VA lenders in the nation.