From time to time I spend the evening playing with Google Trends and Microsoft’s AdLabs. There are a few keywords that I always check in Google Trends. The first is Mortgage Leads and the second is Mortgage Refinance.
Here is what I found: According to Google Trends there is a decrease in searches for mortgage leads. Not really all that surprising, I guess. Especially with so many brokers and LO’s shifting out of the mortgage industry.
The second keyword I look at is mortgage refinance. I use this keyword as a reference, but there are many others that you can check out as well.
It looks as though searches for mortgage refinance have staid fairly constant the last two years. There are spikes here and there but visually it looks like the average has been fairly constant.
What does all of this mean? It means people are still looking to refinance. Okay, no huge revelation there, but what it also shows you is that the supply of leads is holding steady and demand for mortgage leads are actually on the decline. Those of you that are weathering the storm and buying leads with the proper filters should be receiving some pretty good leads with a lower level of competition.
In a time where it is easy to find things to complain about here is something positive you can think about today. That is if you are a lead buyer and not a seller 
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I thought refi demand would dry up completely. I’ve been surprised the number of borrowers seeking refinances has stayed somewhat constant. However, a good percentage of the borrowers attempting to refinance either have negative equity, horrible credit, a discouraging pre-pay penalty that would wipe out the transaction’s benefit and/or a lack of solid income. With weak Debt to Income Ratio’s along with the other factors mentioned there’s not much even the most motivated lenders could do.
As the numbers of qualified refinance borrowers is squeezed, it’s now even more important that prudent mortgage lead buyers use sophisticated lead management systems as well as fine tune their lead distribution protocols. In other words, give the leads only to their loan officers who have high closing percentages. In my opinion, not everyone’s well suited to close internet leads. Loan officer’s who close a lot of them are sharp and process oriented, have a natural ability to build rapport, are trustworthy, have excellent spelling and grammar, are self motivated driven professionals. For many, closing leads is like shooting ducks in a barrel and for others it’s a frustrating never ending disappointment. Surprisingly, our clients with tight operations and good salespeople continue to experience the same high ROI’s in spite of all the market pressure.
Contrary to Google’s trends our demand from new clients leads has also stayed about the same. Our volume of viable leads has dipped though so we’re very careful about coordinating bringing on professional and proven new clients while throttling up high quality lead volume. It’s a balance, as always.
David
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David Schneider
Founder/CEO
800.949.2919, ext. 107
david_01@zipsearch.com
http://www.ZipSearch.com
Yes David, With Guidelines being as tight as they are and a large number of unqualified borrowers in pipeline it is still very tough. I was trying to start the week off positive. Thanks for ruining it!