The percentage of mortgage holders who were behind on their payments dropped to the lowest level in two years during the fourth quarter of 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report today.

At 8.22 percent, the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate was down from 9.13 percent during the third quarter and 9.47 percent from a year ago.

The percentage of mortgages in foreclosure climbed from 4.39 percent during the third quarter to 4.63 percent during the last three months of the year, matching an all-time high.
Fewer loans are entering the foreclosure pipeline: the percentage of loans only one payment past due — 3.25 percent — was at the lowest level since 2007, and the foreclosure start rate fell from 1.34 percent during the third quarter to 1.27 percent.

The percentage of loans three payments or more past due was down from an all-time high of 5.02 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2010 to 3.63 percent at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010 — a drop of almost 28 percent over the course of the year.

All but two states saw a drop in the 90-plus-day delinquency rate, and the increases in those states were “negligible.”
“While delinquency and foreclosure rates are still well above historical norms, we have clearly turned the corner” in the foreclosure crisis, MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann said in a statement.

While unemployment remains high, the economy added more than 1.2 million private-sector jobs during 2010 and first-time unemployment claims fell during the second half of the year, Brinkmann said. Absent a significant economic reversal, he said, “the delinquency picture should continue to improve during 2011.”

I unknowingly used this strategy when I was severely struggling and it launched my career. And now that I’m a veteran agent with a lot of ‘market lessons’, I understand the psychology behind why it works so well and I use it all the time.

In fact, I just sent out the email I describe in the video – and within a week, I got 2 listings and sold a buyer a home.

Check it out…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Put this into practice, and let us know your results.

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that’s fantastic for gathering and tracking  information and for sharing information with your Center of Influence. That’s a wordy way to say it’s not just for the Kardashians to let everyone know where they’re eating lunch

It is a great tool for serious business application as well. This helpful video will give you the basics to get started. Then going forward I’ll share more advanced training on using Twitter from a real estate sales perspective.

My best advice to agents that are interested in learning how Twitter is to go ahead and create a Twitter account,and get started.  After you’ve completed that task begin to slowly follow others who have Twitter accounts.

Don’t be bummed if initially no one is following you.

You have to  begin by following others and then as you Tweet others will pipe up.

I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback on this post. (If you’re an advanced user, please share your best tips below)

You can let us know your thought by simply leaving a comment below. Or once you have your Twitter account up and running, Tweet me @EricPointer

I think about clients that I’ve had the pleasure to serve, many of whom I call friends. I look at the deal folders and I am reminded of how blessed I am. I think about the relationships and the people that I’ve served and the lives I’ve been invited to participate in and I’m grateful.

I think about my family and especially my wife and how through the hard times she remained full of grace and I’m grateful.

I think about our kids and how much they’ve grown, both of whom have careers of their own now and I’m grateful.

I think about the resources that have been generated by serving others and how now in turn I’m able to use those resources to serve other through micro-lending, child sponsorship, etc.

Those are just a few personal things I’m grateful for, but here are 5 things Luke and I came up with that we are thankful for as real estate agents:

#1. I’m Still Here.
The market meltdown has dramatically reduced the number of people in our profession. And I thank God that he has guided my steps and allowed me to thrive not just survive. I have incredible respect for all the agents that are left. If you’re still here – you should be thankful and PROUD.

#2. My Knowledge Is Needed Now More Than Ever.
With the market change, buyers and sellers need our help now more than ever. Most still don’t know what or how Short Sales, Foreclosures, Deficiency Judgments, REO purchases, BPOs, etc. work. I’m grateful that I get calls for advice in all these areas.

#3. The Internet Has NOT replaced me.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet hasn’t replaced the agent. According to the most recent NAR statistics – it’s true 74% of buyers use the internet to find a home. But, the stats also show that 69% of them also say they used an agent to find a home. So I don’t fear the internet – I harness it. Instead of replacing me, it just makes business and property searches for my buyers easier.

#4. Mortgage Rates Are LOW.
Besides making home ownership super affordable, buyers will be jumping over each other now at the slightest hint of rate increases. The talking heads and media headlines that hint at ‘impending rate increases’ will keep our pipeline full of buyers that are worried they’ll miss the boat.

#5. The Foundation Is Being Repaired.
Let’s face it. Things got out of control: Artificial inflated prices, shady lending practices, everybody with a pulse getting loans (and real estate licenses), etc. – this is not the stuff a stable and viable housing market is built on. Though we may not be done with the carnage, the housing market’s foundation is being stabilized. And my business’ future with it.

There are many more things we could add to the list, but those are the top 5 that we discussed.

As we were working on this post, I was thinking about you, your family, your struggles and triumphs and I wonder what you are grateful for?

Check out the Preview Here
What It Takes to Be Number 1

The Wisdom of Wolves Movie

“What about traffic to my web site?”

It’s not what people say it’s what they don’t that’s important, right?

And what they really saying is, Eric, How do you get traffic to your site?

This is a the right question, and I am really pleased that so many of you are asking it – it shows that we have some really sharp readers. You see, a couple years back, every agent, including me were in the “build it and they will come” era and mindset.

That mindset didn’t spring from thin air…All of us were sold a bill-of-goods by” Webmasters” and their sales teams who were cold-calling us, and showing us some fancy looking site and giving us some pie-in-the-sky sales pitch about how they would build some fancy site for us (really just one of those brochure sites), and then they would tell them how many million users there were on the Internet… and if only 1% of those people visited the site, it would mean wealth beyond dreams.

OK, I am exaggerating a bit… but not very much! I spent $2,500.00 on my first “ego” site and  as if that weren’t enough, I spent $8,000.00 on  “Self-promotion” website # 2…What a waste.  It is obvious to me with all these questions I’m getting about traffic, that we have all gotten a little more sophisticated – the learning curve will do that to a man. But like my dad says, “Son what  doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger”. In any case, this is the deal with traffic (and remember, I am not a “Technogeek”, but I have been involved in online lead generation and internet marketing longer than most):

KEY POINT #1:

Traffic is important, but conversion vital…Understand that if your site doesn’t convert visitors into leads, it doesn’t matter if you are

getting 10,000 visitors to your site every day.  It’s really is that simple. The better your site converts traffic to leads, the more  opportunity you have to convert leads to appointments.  So you are not only getting more opportunities, you aren’t working as hard as you once did to get that business. Another key thing about conversion – the better your conversion, the more liberties you can take in spending money to get visitors to your site. You see, a lot of traffic sources are free.

However, you can also pay to drive traffic. Well,if your site is converting 30 visitors out of 100 versus your competitors site converting 5 visitor out of 100, then you can spend more money to drive people to your site.

KEY POINT #2: Sellers are searching too…

I don’t know where I got the idea that only buyers search for homes online but I was dead wrong!  As is turns out, approximately 30% of the closing  I’ve had with folks I met online were sellers. The cool thing about that is I got more than a twofer. The synergy created by both the buyer process and  the selling process is larger than the sum of its parts when it comes to lead gen.

I get leads from signs, listing syndication, from  every imaginable campaign I use to generate sales..

It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Obviously, I can’t give away too much here because I guarantee that my competitors are

watching me. But this is a key area of traffic that we are going to dominate.

This leads to another big point…

KEY POINT #3: The traffic game is not static.

This is the deal (and this is probably the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT thing about traffic)… I wish that the traffic question had one easy answer. Then we could get that solved and move on. Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.

The search engines are CONSTANTLY changing. Google goes through a major update about 6 to 10 times a year.

They call this the “Google Dance” and that is when they shake up how they list web sites. If you already have a site, you have probably seen this as your “rankings” change over time (usually for the worse). The truth is that sometimes this makes the game very easy, and sometimes we have to adjust the way we are doing things. In other words, you can’t just sit still.

That is why it is so critically important to have a team on-board that understands this stuff, and is constantly on the lookout to figure out what’s working NOW.

I have people on my team – Luke – who has driven literally hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to my sites and my clients’ sites. And when I say he’s on my team – that is not a euphemism. He literally is my partner in this business  and like me he is a veteran agent and broker who has seen it all. This system is not the “Eric Pointer System” – it is a team effort. I am just one small piece of the puzzle.  Luke is the whiz kids behind the curtain. And he is the one watching Google, and Yahoo, and MSN. When he notices a change, something new that is working he jumps on it and adapts our systems. And when they are perfected, those changes are instantly rippled throughout the system, so EVERYONE on the system gets the latest “unfair”advantage.

KEY POINT #4: This isn’t just a web site. It is a total web solution. As I mentioned up in Point #3, the traffic game is always changing. That makes this piece critical – you aren’t just going to get a world-class web system from us, but you will get ongoing training and support. Our member’s ONLY site is a living breathing ever evolving animal. When we uncover some new traffic secret, you are going to hear about it first. You see, sometimes the traffic game is really easy. Sometimes the slightest tweak in your web site will bring in a ton of traffic.

These are things you never knew about before (that isn’t your fault, of course – you have a business to run, you can’t stay on top of all this technogeek stuff)… but they can drive a lot of traffic to your site. With our system, we will either take care of that for you… or we will make sure you get the training to take care of it in an efficient and painless matter.

Don’t get me wrong – since things are always changing, there AREN’T always these magic bullets out there. But we are always looking for them, and when we find those magic bullets then we will get them in your hands ASAP.

BOTTOM LINE: Traffic is critically important. You need a system that CONVERTS that traffic to dollars, you need a system that captures leads like gangbusters, and you need the system and SUPPORT that will adapt to a constantly changing search engine battlefield.

So, if you have a website that isn’t capturing leads efficiently and effectively, shoot us an email and we’ll show you what we’ve got…