Thanks to everyone for your e-mails. Keep them coming! It's obvious from the questions I have been getting that the refinance lead inventory is certainly drying up. Lead companies selling leads as much as 7 times at this point. I did want to write about one topic that came up from one particular company I had the pleasure of speaking with. I promised I would not mention his company name but thanks Alex for the suggestion.

It seems that a big problem still out there is the inability to track the actual quality of the leads. And at what point is it the lead company doing something wrong vs. the lead buyer not doing something right. I am wondering if it's the fact that we don't have tracking systems in place or if it's the fact that we are just not taking the time to really "get into" the reports and analyze the data. Yes knowing how many leads were bad is one metric but we are really missing the boat if that is all we are reviewing at the end of the month. A few of the folks I spoke with have 3rd party platforms to track performance and yet when I asked a few questions they did not know the answers off the top of their head. There are a few key metrics that we should readily have answers to. It is important for the success of your platform and also to share that information with your lead company so they can modify their program accordingly.

1. Which lead company is costing you more in terms of a cost per funded deal
2. What is the spoilage rate for each of your lead providers
3. Which loan officer works a lead source better than the other loan officers
4. Where in the process is your lead vendor falling off the radar? Prior to ap; after credit is pulled?

What information can you give your lead provider that will allow them to modify their advertising to get you better quality leads? I really look at this process as relationship building. As the lead buyer you need to know everything about that customer when that lead comes in. You should know the type of ad the person clicked on to get to the lead form. You want to know the sites/sites that hosted the banner ad. Your lead vendor should be willing to share that information with you. You also want to know how other lead buyers are doing with their leads that come from the same source as yours. So here is my little sales pitch. Home123leads provides you with all the information on that customer including the marketing around what caused that person to complete the lead form. As always feel free to give me a call about any topic here or if you have a particular question about mortgage leads. We are here to help!