double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Given the sorry state of the mortgage industry, the big question is: What can we do?

The attitude out there is keep your head down, fight through it, be a tough guy. There’s no other way to survive. You have lived through hell the last five years, and you’re used to pessimism and the negative nature of the economy. You know you don’t have the answers. Your peers in the industry don’t have the answers. They are going to see if they can merge, roll up or fight through it and continue to operate on their own. But margins keep dropping, and it’s not a fun time. Not fun at all.

On the other hand, you talk to some big investors, and they see an opportunity, as the market continues to shrink, they want to get in and buy low. So there are some companies that are growing.

Lead quality drops

You guys know, I like to say I’m one of the most optimistic people out there. But this one of the most frustrating time in my mortgage leads lifetime.

At DoublePostive, we are seeing lead quality drop. This is happening because the re-fi market is drying up and the lead providers are beginning to be desperate to fulfill their client quotas. I can see lead providers dipping into affiliate marketplace leads, and this plays out in lower quality leads.

Quality has gone down over all. In response, we’re trying to optimize transfer rates as best as we can, via our normal process. Also we’ve added a lot of innovative tools to enhance speed-to-lead, features like call-backs, the ability to put our client’s name on the caller ID and email follow-ups on each lead.

Tightening the chin strap

My goal, assuming things continue to get worse before they get better, is to work with the folks who will survive, and partner up with the lead providers who are going to make it through it. I will continue to be a good service provider, and help the people that need to be helped.

For example, the big banks don’t have an outbound dialing culture. They don’t have the high-commissioned loan officers who are banking on a big commission, so they are not aggressive outbound dialers. This favors DoublePositive, in the long run. These big banks are paying low-level, inexperienced people, who are not aggressive outbound dialers, and that works for us. But what we really want to see is a period of healing for the smaller lenders.

The best medicine

Sometimes, when the stress is really, really bad, all you can do is laugh. That’s probably why I am reminded of Woody Allen as I wrap this series of updates. He said, “I want to leave you with a positive thought, but I can’t think of one. Would you take two negative thoughts?”

Here’s a positive thought. Just stay true to your vision, guys. Embrace the pain for the opportunities it offers. Do what you must do. Keep fighting, sell, roll up – but don’t give up. The adjustments you make now will build your company, and strengthen you to face whatever is coming next. I hope, in the long run, those who stuck it out will be rewarded.

So that’s my take on the state of the industry. My next update comes next quarter. Meantime, feel free to get in touch, or leave comments in the fields below.