Apple is set to release iOS 13, which will include some major updates to your iPhone. Users will start getting download notifications in the last few months of 2019.
Apple has been one of the strongest advocates for consumer information privacy and they are really putting their money where their mouth is with iOS 13.
The Big Change
You’ll see “Silence Unknown Callers” as a new feature with the release.
Apple describes the feature as:
A new setting protects users from unknown and spam callers. When the setting is turned on, iOS uses Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages. All other calls are automatically sent to voicemail.
Impact to the Mortgage Industry
What does the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature mean for the mortgage industry? It means a lot. This will have a huge impact on mortgage companies that rely heavily on lead generation. As potential borrowers start receiving their iOS 13 downloads over the next few months, this feature is going to be enabled in many potential borrowers’ iPhones.
Many mortgage companies have sophisticated intake engines that ingest thousands of phone numbers every day. These are either distributed instantaneously to mortgage originators or fed in an auto-dialer. Some companies have a goal to call the number in less than 10 seconds of receiving it.
Similarly, many individual mortgage loan originators also by leads to supplement their relationship based production. These may be co-marketing agreements with real estate agents and companies sometimes share this expense.
Whether you are a company or an individual that leans heavily on mortgage leads, you should prepare for a huge decrease in customers who pick up their phone. As a result, this decrease in contact rate will have major effects on pull through rates and your eventual cost-to-close metrics.
Impact to the Bottom Line
Assume you buy 100 leads for a total of $2,000. You get 20 people to pick up the phone and talk with you and 2 of those to apply and close with you. You have $1,000 cost to close. Now, if only half of those people have the iOS 13 feature downloaded and enabled, 10 people will pick up and 1 will apply. Your cost to close just doubled from $1,000 to $2,000!
What Can You Do?
If you rely on mortgage leads for a large part of your income, you might start to wonder what you do. First, keep building those relationships in your community. A referral from a previous client or a real estate agent is free and something that you’ve earned.
But, building those relationships can take time.
You can also check out Bundle. We started our company because we really believe the industry has gone sideways. We don’t enjoy getting cold calls. You don’t enjoy getting cold calls and neither do home buyers.
We built a platform that allows you to connect with home buyers easily without cold calls. Your first 3 connections every month are on us. Check out this quick video and see how Bundle can work for you.