“I’m not an expert, I just read a lot.”

mark

Mark Madsen
Social Media / Communications
Raintree Mortgage Services
Las Vegas, NV
mark(at)myfhablog.com
702-496-5626
Twitter: @mark_madsen

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Professional Bio:

I’ve been an active mortgage originator since 2000 with experience as both a branch manager and wholesale rep.

After spending the past 5 years learning how to leverage social media for the purpose of communicating with clients and real estate partners online, my role as Communications Director for Raintree Mortgage in Las Vegas, NV allows me to pursue my passion for reading and writing about the financial industry.

I co-founded the Mortgage Revolution movement in 2009 for the purpose of networking with other lending professionals that are passionate about bringing some honor back to our industry by raising the bar for ethical business and marketing practices.

As a full-time mortgage blogger, my objective is to build perpetual equity in an online presence by producing targeted content, networking with social media innovators and staying ahead of the curve through daily research.

My mission in business and life is simple  …. Value – Find It, Share It

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Professional Affiliations / Highlights:

  • Raintree Mortgage Services- Communications Director

Raintree Mortgage Services is an FHA approved Nevada Mortgage Company. My main role as the communications guy is to spread the good word about FHA mortgages online, network with our real estate referral partners, educate our clients and build relationships within the community we serve.

Mortgage Success Source is the parent company of Loan Tool Box and Mortgage Market Guide, which represent a private community of around 20,000 top loan originators. As a contributing faculty, I participate in content development and education pertaining to social media marketing, mortgage blogging basics and online social networking strategies.

I participate on the weekly Bankrate.com Mortgage Rate Index Trends Survey with a few other national lenders. Bankrate.com is the online authority “Bank Rate Monitor” with over 7 million unique visitors a month. “The Bankrate.com Personal Finance Minute” plays over 200 times per day on XM Satellite Radio and their data frequently referenced on “CNN Headline News,” “ABC News” and many other major broadcast news outlets.

My affiliation with Bankrate.com has created several interview opportunities with national media organizations for myself, as well as my real estate partners.

Besides helping NAMB with its evolution into social media, I volunteer my time developing educational webinars that will allow the organization to provide mortgage industry professionals with valuable information about regulatory updates, Web2.0 communication strategies and networking opportunities.

The Mortgage Revolution is a grass-roots movement of street level loan originators who are standing together for the benefit of our industry’s future.

We believe that mortgage reform needs to come from within, and it is our responsibility to protect the profession that we love.

Through transparency, group accountability, and a code of conduct, mortgage originators can change the public’s perception of true lending professionals.

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Mortgage / RE Blog Projects:

As a full-time blogger, I spend most of my time researching, participating in niche social networks and talking with industry experts so that I can keep our clients and referral partners in the loop with trends that may have a direct impact on their real estate decisions.

I probably own or participate on around 13 different blogging projects, but the following list are a few of the public ones that I feel represent the different shades of Mark the best:

Myfhablog.com was created specifically for experienced loan officers that are too busy taking care of clients and closing transactions to play social media guru.

By centralizing our online content on one high traffic platform, we can be more effective at dominating the search engines for our local markets, keeping up with changing lending guidelines  and communicating with clients and agents.

The FHA blog is a Referral Only Network, where new authors have to be given the stamp of approval and voted on by three other contributing authors.

Originally launched as a social network that attracted over 19,000 members in 2007, WannaNetwork.com has evolved over the past four years into a national group real estate networking blog designed to give industry professionals a powerful voice online.

MRev is a fun charity blog project that allows me to report on positive events and people in the industry.  The site has evolved as my WordPress design skills have improved over the past year, but it has certainly been a learning experience.

Lenderama is the original mortgage industry blog, which was launched by Todd Carpenter in 2005.  My good friends at Top of Mind Networks acquired Lenderama in early 2010, and our intent is to continue building and developing it as an industry standard.  “By the industry, For the industry” is our common theme with some of these blogging projects.  It seems to work.

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Guest Blogging:

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Personal Bio:

Originally from Lake Tahoe (Minden, NV), my family moved to Las Vegas when I was in Jr. High due to a job transfer my father had in the casino business.

After graduating from Green Valley High School in 1995, I returned to northern Nevada to attend college at the University of Nevada Reno.  While fraternity life (EN) and skiing were fun for a few years, I eventually graduated from the University of Nevada Las Vegas with a concentration in Marketing and Finance.

With family ties to the real estate industry, I have always loved the business of buying and selling properties.  There is something about that excitement and pride a new homeowner feels when they close on their first deal.

I was fortunate to gain some valuable experience building and selling a real estate company with a few friends between 2004-2006.

However, as a numbers and finance fan, with a preference to having the perception of control, the mortgage business has always been better suited for my personality type.

I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, especially after meeting my beautiful and patient wife during my senior year at UNLV.

We have a 3-year-old daughter who is already practicing to be the next Hanna Montana, and we love spending the weekends with both sets of her grandparents who live nearby.

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Social Stream:

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