Mortgage insurance is coverage to the mortgage lender in case of the potential default of payments by the borrower. It is an insurance policy like any other, and requires premiums to the paid. Premiums are generally passed on by the mortgage lender to the buyers of the mortgage. Mortgage buyers may wish to pay the premiums either on a monthly basis, or as a lump sum amount at the end of the year or closing period. Since mortgage insurance premiums have to be paid by the borrowers of mortgages, mortgage insurance companies target their advertisements to the borrowers.

Mortgage insurance companies are on the lookout for leads of potential mortgage insurance policy buyers. These are people who have taken mortgages from a financial institution. A person making at least 20% of the down payment is not required to buy mortgage insurance, but it is obligatory for the others. Hence, mortgage leads are invited from those mortgage buyers who have paid less than 20% of the down payment.

Telemarketing is the most viable option for garnering mortgage insurance leads. Call-center employees may cold-call various mortgage companies, who wish to pass on mortgage insurance to their buyers. Companies interested in buying mortgage insurance for their borrowers constitute leads, which are forwarded to the insurance company. Call centers may also cold-call the mortgage borrowers themselves. Once the mortgage insurance company gets hold of a potential lead, it follows up and tries to close the insurance policy on the mortgage borrower.

There are not many mortgage insurance websites that generate leads. The few mortgage lead generation websites that exist have mortgage borrowers fill in online forms and pre-qualify them for mortgage insurance policies. Pre-qualified leads are passed on to the mortgage insurance company. Since the leads are already pre-qualified, it saves both time and money for the insurance company.

The reason for the lower number of lead generation companies existing in the mortgage insurance field is that most of the mortgage insurance companies are tied up or affiliated with leading mortgage providers. Hence, when a mortgage is sold, the insurance policy is bundled along with the mortgage. This is known as capitalization of the mortgage, and is the norm employed by most companies.

However, mortgage insurance companies still try to improve their businesses by getting more leads. They may be willing to pay upwards of $35 for a good lead.