Customer Engagement

Marketing to Millennials: Dogs, Video & Social Media

5 mins read
September 28, 2017
By
Total Expert

You might be amused – or dismayed – to learn that dogs played a bigger role in Millennials’ decisions to buy homes than getting married or the upcoming birth of a child, according to a recent Harris Poll conducted on behalf of SunTrust Mortgage. The survey results accentuate yet another diversion of this generation from traditional consumer attitudes, and should trigger professionals in the mortgage and real estate industries to review and update their marketing messages and delivery.

What is Inspiring Millennials to Buy a Home?

The survey, conducted in June 2017, revealed the following motivations for Millennials to buy their first homes:    

  • More living space: 66%  
  • Build equity: 36%  
  • Better space/ yard for dog: 33%  
  • Marriage: 25%  
  • Birth of child: 19%  

More traditional wants like more living space and building equity outranked pets in the survey, but the shift in household makeup over the last 50 years explains why children and marriage are further down the list of home buying considerations for Millennials. The Pew Research Center Current Population Survey numbers show how the percentage of Millennials who are married and living in their own home has dropped in recent years:    

  • 1968: 56%  
  • 1981: 43%  
  • 2007: 27%  
  • 2012: 23%  

Millennials don’t behave – or buy – like previous generations. To effectively communicate with them, companies and sales professionals must understand the attitudes and diminished relevance of previously very important life milestones, because today’s 18 to 36-year-olds are the largest age demographic in the nation at 87.2 million* and the largest group of home buyers ever in U.S. history.

Integrating Video into Your Marketing Efforts

To grow – or even survive – mortgage companies, loan officers and Realtors must tap into what is important to Millennials with their marketing efforts. But first, you have to connect. Email marketing has become essential, but video and social media are also deeply woven into the fabric of Millennial brand interaction and buying decisions. When it comes to spending money, they look to video:    

  • 1 in 2 Millennials will read an email from a company if it includes a video  
  • 4 in 5 Millennials find video helpful during initial research for a purchase decision  
  • 6 in 10 Millennials prefer to watch a video over reading a newsletter  
  • 2 in 3 Millennials lose interest if a video is “too promotional”  

Communicating to Millennials Through Social Media

Social media is another place Millennials congregate, explore and shop. Astute companies have online profiles, plans and a strong presence so that Millennials can check on them while they follow what is going on with their friends:    

Millennial engagement with brands or companies on social media:    

  • Facebook: 84%  
  • YouTube: 76%  
  • Instagram: 40%  

These video and social media statistics should spark a review of company and individual sales efforts. First, are you using video in your marketing – a little, a lot or at all? Do you have a method and means for delivering video to leads and other prospect groups via email marketing and social media? Do you have a way to deploy video and social media in a high-quality, compliant way that also preserves the integrity of your brand?  

Once dubbed “the entitled generation,” Millennials are now the coveted target of everyone selling a product or service. We have to remember that Millennials perceive, interact with, choose brands and buy differently than other generations.  

It is likely that dogs will continue to influence decisions of Millennial first-time home buyers in the future: 42% of the Harris Poll respondents who have not yet purchased homes say their dog – or the desire to have one –is a key factor in their plans to buy a home in the future.  

As Millennials mature, they will continue to challenge the assumptions that marketers and salespeople make about them, so industry professionals must keep up with the latest data to keep up with them. So…are you ready to shoot a video with a dog in it, blast it out in an email campaign and post it to multiple social media outlets?

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Expert Partner Network

The Moving Day Advantage: Transform Closing Day into a Loyalty Moment

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Meet the Partner: OneSource Solutions

OneSource Solutions is a utility concierge service that simplifies one of life's most stressful moments: setting up electricity, gas, internet, water, phone, home security, and other essential services after moving. OneSource handles the legwork by identifying providers, comparing options, and coordinating setup so homeowners can enjoy the excitement of their new home instead of stressing over the logistics. With over 1.1 million connections successfully completed, OneSource has built a reputation for taking chaos and turning it into peace of mind.

The moving day problem nobody's solving for

For some lenders, closing day is the end of the journey. But for their customers, it’s the start of a new chapter. There's joy in owning the keys. But there's also stress.

According to research, nearly 80% of Americans rank moving as one of life's top stressors. As if scheduling showings, putting in offers, and finally signing the paperwork wasn’t stressful enough—now borrowers have to figure out utilities, internet options, security systems, and more. And if they’re moving to an unfamiliar area where they don't know the companies and providers, they'll be making dozens of decisions with incomplete information, juggling phone calls and online portals, and trying not to miss setup deadlines.

The average homeowner spends 5–6 hours just coordinating these utilities. That's time spent on friction, confusion, and often overpaying for services they didn't adequately research or compare.

Lenders might walk away with a closed loan and a satisfied borrower, but they miss a critical opportunity that has a short window: Post-loan engagement. This is your chance to turn a single transaction into a lifetime of loyalty.

Why this moment matters for lenders

For years, the mortgage industry has focused heavily on the pre-close experience. That's where the relationship is built, where trust is established, and where communication is constant. But once the papers are signed, that relationship often goes dormant. That's a missed opportunity on multiple levels:

Retention: Borrowers who feel supported through the entire process, not just the financing part, develop deeper loyalty. They're more likely to come back for a refinance, a HELOC, or a new purchase down the road.

Referrals: Borrowers who enjoyed a smooth experience talk about it. When you go above and beyond to help them through the moving process, they’re more likely to become advocates and refer you to friends, family, and colleagues.

Competitive advantage: In a crowded lending market, showing up in the moments that matter sets you apart. It shifts you from being a lender to being a trusted advisor. The borrower's perspective changes from "they financed my home" to "they helped me through a major milestone."

Lifetime value: Today's borrower is tomorrow's repeat customer. A first-time homebuyer who closes with you at age 32 may need a refinance at 41, a HELOC at 48, and a move-up purchase at 53. That's three separate mortgage opportunities where they’ll need professional help—your help if you nailed the post-close experience.

The problem: fragmented solutions, fragmented experiences

Some lenders have tried to solve this by offering hodgepodge perks—a moving company discount here, a home service coupon there. But those aren't solutions. They're band-aids.

Borrowers don't want more options to manage. They want fewer things to think about. They want centralized, reliable, expert guidance on something they don't know much about—and they want it to come from someone they already trust: their lender. That's where OneSource comes in.

What OneSource does

OneSource removes the friction from setting up home utilities by acting as a concierge between the borrower and providers. Instead of the homeowner calling around to figure out which company services their address, comparing plans, and coordinating multiple setup appointments, OneSource does it—all in one place.

The service covers:

  • Identifying all available providers for a specific address (electricity, gas, internet, phone, home security, television, water, trash, etc.)
  • Comparing options and pricing in deregulated markets where choices exist
  • Securing exclusive discounts not available to the general public
  • Coordinating setup and activation so utilities are ready on or before move-in day
  • Saving borrowers 5–6 hours of coordination and often hundreds of dollars in optimized or exclusive pricing

For lenders, the value is even clearer: borrowers save time and money, feel supported, and associate that positive experience with the lender who connected them.

Over 1.1 million homeowners have used OneSource, and adoption rates among lender partners are consistently strong. Because it's not positioned as a "perk"—it's a genuine solution to a real problem that every homeowner faces.

How Total Expert and OneSource work together

Most lenders know they should be staying engaged with borrowers after closing. The challenge is execution: how do you make it seamless, scalable, and actually valuable?

The integration between Total Expert and OneSource answers that question.

Automated outreach at the right moment

Using Total Expert Journeys, lenders trigger a OneSource connection at the perfect time—typically 5–10 days before closing when the borrower is starting to think about logistics but hasn't yet begun the chaotic work of setting up utilities. The borrower receives an invitation to connect with OneSource, all contextualized within their communications with the lender.

One-click access

The borrower doesn't need to sign up for another platform or navigate a new website. They receive a direct link to their pre-populated OneSource profile, so the barriers to entry are near zero. They answer a few questions about their new address and service preferences, and OneSource takes it from there.

Transparent outcomes

As OneSource coordinates utilities and completes activations, lenders can see that engagement happening. When utilities are activated, when issues are resolved, when the borrower has saved money—that data stays visible in the context of borrower relationships, not in a siloed system.

Continuous engagement

The relationship doesn't end at utility setup. By bringing this service into Total Expert Journeys, lenders can sequence follow-up touchpoints that keep them connected as the borrower moves through the post-close window. A check-in on moving day. A referral prompt once utilities are stable. A follow-up six months later when the next major financial decision might be on the horizon.

It's frictionless for the borrower and scalable for the lender.

The lender advantage: from transaction to relationship

For lenders, the integration transforms closing from a transaction endpoint into a relationship milestone. Instead of handing off the borrower at the finish line, lenders stay present through one of the most stressful weeks of the entire home purchase process.

The outcome:

  • Higher engagement: Borrowers see their lender as a partner in their entire home transition, not just the financing part
  • Stronger loyalty: When you help reduce stress at a critical moment, that relationship becomes emotionally charged—the good kind
  • More referrals: Borrowers who had a smooth, end-to-end experience share that story. They refer lenders who "really took care of them"
  • Repeat business: Top-of-mind borrowers come back. For refinances. For HELOCs. For move-up purchases.
  • Competitive differentiation: Most lenders hand off at closing. You don't. That distinction registers with borrowers

The real competitive advantage: showing up when it matters

The lenders winning in today's market aren't the ones with the lowest rates or the most loan products. They're the ones building deeper, longer-lasting relationships with borrowers—and that starts with showing up in the moments that matter most.

Closing day is special. But it's not the end of the story. It's a milestone in a much longer relationship.

OneSource helps you stay present through what comes next. Total Expert helps you scale that presence across your entire organization.

Together, they transform how lenders think about the post-close window—from a time to forget about the borrower and move to the next deal, into an opportunity to build the kind of loyalty that keeps customers for life.

Ready to turn borrowers into lifetime customers?

The Expert Partner Network connects you with solutions designed for every stage of the borrower journey.  

Schedule a demo to see how Total Expert + OneSource can help you stay connected where it matters most.

Lead Management

Your Pipeline Just Got a Promotion

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Smart routing, contact-centric pipeline management, Journey automation, and real-time pipeline visibility have always been the core of Lead Management. But top-performing originators and strategic sales leaders told us they needed more if they were going to stay one step ahead in the current market. They asked; we delivered.  

Here's what's new in Lead Management.

So, an LOS and a sales pipeline walk into a bar...

Until now, keeping lead stages accurate required manual effort. When a loan moved forward in the LOS, someone had to remember to update the record in Total Expert. That gap between what was happening in the LOS and what the pipeline showed was friction nobody needed—and an opportunity to create confusion among lending teams.

Now, those updates are fully automated. When a loan status changes in your connected LOS, the corresponding lead stage advances in Total Expert. No more manual updates, no more room for error, and your pipeline view stays accurate at all times, so your team spends less time syncing data and more time working deals.

Tap into Lead Management from anywhere, on any device

Lead Management is now available in the Total Expert Mobile App!

Originators can view their leads, create new ones, and log notes and outcomes in Total Expert directly from their phone. Whether they're at a real estate agent’s office, a networking event, or just away from their desk, they have full access to the information they need to follow up fast. Speed to lead is critical, and Total Expert is here to help you outpace the competition.

Journeys that don't make you backtrack

As borrowers progress through automated Journey workflows (opening emails, responding to texts, talking to AI Sales Assistants, and completing key actions), your pipeline can advance right along with them. With a few tweaks in Journey Builder, you can update lead stages automatically to reduce manual entry and increase pipeline data accuracy.

Whose lead is it anyway?

One of the most disruptive things a lead routing system can do is reassign a lead that has already engaged with another originator. But if an owned contact re-enters the system with a different number or email, they might get sent back into the distribution queue instead of connected with the last originator they engaged with.

Lead Management significantly reduces that risk. Admins can configure routing policies to bypass distribution entirely when an incoming lead matches a contact already owned by an originator. That way, relationships stay intact, and your team avoids those awkward conversations about who actually owns the opportunity.

Cleaner data, better integrations, more doing what you do best

Lead records now include UTM parameters and additional standard fields, which means better source tracking and more consistent reporting. If you're trying to understand which campaigns, channels, or partners are generating your best leads, this data will give you more to work with.

And for teams using AI Sales Assistant or third-party dialers: lead details like loan purpose, property information, and lead ID can now be included in Outbound Data Connector payloads to give your external tools the context they need to make an impact from the very first touchpoint.

Fully loaded Lead Management

Total Expert Lead Management is built to help turn more opportunities into revenue by assigning leads faster, automating engagements and follow-ups, and giving sales leaders better visibility into what’s working and where the gaps are.  

Ready to see it in action? Schedule a demo or reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more info!

AI

Joe Welu on Agentic AI, Contextual Data, and Earning Customers for Life

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**This content was originally published on Housingwire.com**

In this conversation with HousingWire’s Allison LaForgia, Total Expert Founder & CEO Joe Welu outlined how the company’s evolution to Customer IQ is reshaping the way lenders engage borrowers and drive growth.

"We just announced Customer IQ as this next evolution of our platform,” Welu said. “Taking what we built with Customer Intelligence . . . and we’ve reimagined it for the AI revolution, what we call this 'agentic lending opportunity.'"

At the core of that evolution is a system designed to unify and interpret data in real time. “Customer IQ aggregates all of the different data points and interprets what those data points mean . . . what’s going on in my customer’s life at this moment that I can connect with them on and provide value to them,” he explained.

To bring that concept into focus, Welu pointed to a common borrower scenario: “Maybe they had some medical issues, maybe they had some unnecessary expenses, but it’s clear from what’s happening on their credit report that they have a spiking, revolving debt. Customer IQ knows that you’ve got three, four hundred thousand in equity in your home.

From there, that insight doesn’t sit idle. It becomes actionable through AI-driven engagement. “Customer IQ brings all that together, and then it puts it into our agentic layer, which ultimately is AI agents that can go out and have a conversation, send a text, a voice call, and then bring the loan officer into the loop.

The result is a clear shift from traditional workflows. “If you think about a loan officer historically, they would be going through their database at random… [now] the AI agent will bring them into the loop,” Welu said.

When it comes to measurable impact, Welu didn’t hesitate. “It’s hard to overstate how extraordinary some of the results that we’re seeing are,” he said. “We’ve seen people increase the applications… three to four times more loan applications than if they just use the humans.

That scale is driven by a simple shift in capacity.  “You’re limited on how many of those people you can talk to… now I can go out, talk to thousands and thousands of people… and put time on the calendar for that loan officer.”

In practice, that translates directly into day-to-day execution.“We had a top producer… they had 26 appointments over two days… with people that are ready to talk about how you can help them.

But the opportunity extends beyond volume alone. Welu emphasized a broader strategic shift toward deeper customer relationships. “The most profitable way to grow their organization and build a sustainable lender in 2026 and beyond, is to go really deep with your customers, get loyalty…the limiting factor to doing that was ultimately, day-to-day human behavior,” he said.

AI changes that equation. “If you can just augment their skills… with the most brilliant, intelligent assistant you’ve ever imagined, it’s a recipe that opens up this new world of possibilities.

Central to that “recipe” is context. “It’s that system of context that can aggregate everything… interpret it, prioritize it, and then ultimately feed that into my human loan officers and the AI agents,” Welu said.

That precision leads directly to better outcomes. “ You end up with a customer that feels like you deeply understand them,” he noted.

Compared to prior waves of AI, Welu sees this moment as fundamentally different. “Most of the AI was very incremental… this is helping you go deeper with customers and ultimately create loans and new revenue. The ROI is nearly immediate.

Looking ahead, Total Expert is moving quickly to build on that momentum. “We’ve taken a more extreme and aggressive approach to innovating and moving quickly… it’s just what’s required to win in 2026,” he said.

What’s next includes new capabilities already in development. “We’re releasing… our next AI agent… a refi agent, which helps you go in and analyze your portfolio, create scenarios and just do some really cool things,” Welu shared.For Welu, the mission remains simple: “How do we partner and help our customers win at the very highest level, period, full stop.

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