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Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Launches: FREE MORTGAGE LEADS

By Spencer Rascoff

Services for Real Estate Pros with Zillow

April 03, 2008 03:33 AM

We've been hinting at it for a few weeks, but tonight I'm pleased to announce that Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has launched. Here's the 411:

How it works:

1. Borrowers fill out a form for free, entering their financial information but NOT their personal info. No name, email, phone # or Social Security #.

2. Borrower's loan request gets posted into the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace anonymously.

3. Lenders access free leads, choosing which loan request they want to respond to.

4. The borrower then decides which lender they want to reach out to, and contacts the lender via email or phone. In addition, borrowers can leave feedback on lenders (like ebay's rating system), so lenders with great customer service can shine.

Benefits to lenders:

1. FREE LEADS. FREE LEADS. FREE LEADS. Did I mention free leads?

2. Lenders only need to communicate by email or phone with borrowers that reach out to them. No more chasing down leads that don't want to be pursued.

What's the catch?

1. Lenders allow themselves to be rated by borrowers.

2. Lenders have to enter their SS# and credit card info and pay a $25 application fee. We then use a 3rd party to run a background check and vet them as legit lenders.

3. In the spirit of an open and transparent marketplace, the lender's quote to the borrower is available for all to see. Everything is out in the open.

Benefit to borrowers:

1. Borrower remains anonymous and doesn't have to offer up their phone # until THEY decide that THEY want to reach out to the lender.

2. Borrower can receive an unlimited number of quotes.

Benefit to Zillow: We make $ on advertising.

Check it out!

Update on RE.net coverage:

Todd Carpenter's review on Lenderama. He writes: "In the long term, I think the package is great for both consumers and for honest and ethical loan originators. Really, it couldn’t be any better timed either. Consumers are suspicious of the entire mortgage industry. Originators are struggling to find new business without spending a ton of marketing doe. If Zillow can drive in enough early traffic, I think it’ll be a winner for everyone involved."
Jay Thompson's review on Phoenix Real Estate Blog:"You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain — multiple lenders, transparent information, anonymous quotes, complete control, contact who you want to, and don’t contact who you don’t. Zillow hit a home run with this one."
Rhonda Porter on Rain City Guide: "I’ll still stick to my guns and say that referrals from the people you trust and respect are the best way to select a Mortgage Professional…however for those of you that have a need to shop rates on line, Zillow’s mortgage tool could be the ticket."
Joel Burslem on Future of Real Estate Marketing
I can't keep up on the coverage, so I defer to my friend Drew Meyers who is keeping tabs on all of this.

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Doris Freeman

Zach Taylor Real Estate - Gallatin, TN

Broker/Agent, 615-961-7799

Another source for leads is always good, how about finding out if they need a realtor.

Apr 03, 2008 07:06 AM

Jeff Belonger

Social Media - Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc - Cherry Hill, NJ

The FHA Expert - FHA Loans - FHA mortgages - USDA loans - VA Loans

Spencer... I guess I am going to be the negative on this. Lead generators have been around for ages. And no matter the background check and the small fee, these can and will be abused. Many lenders are just that, lenders who are sales people. When many have shoppers, they treat them just as that, shoppers. Rates and fees aren't always accurate. In all honesty, it doesn't matter who is allowed on that site, greed can take over. Just my .02.

Overall, it's not like I am not wishing you luck. Rhonda Porter says it right on the money and should have stopped there. She ends up endorsing this in the end.I have known lenders that have done this and to even sell to other lenders. I prefer referrals and blogging.... yes, I have paid for these in the past and you will always get someone on the other side that will over promise. I just won't put forth my time and energy to spin my wheels against another loan officer that is promising something that won't happen, giving the client false hope, or misleading them. Again, a lead generator, not matter how you sell it, will come down to this.

You say that the consumer will get unlimited quotes. With todays ever changing times... with declining home values... credit scores that are sooooo important in deciding a true quote... there are too many unknowns... and in my opinion, there will be many mis-quotes. Some just because of the unknown and some because it was intentional. My very first quote needs to be an interview of that consumer. I need to ask many questions and asking them in an e-mail, could be confusing or result in mis-information. Again, just my .02. Good luck with it.

Apr 03, 2008 07:24 AM

John Lockwood

Lockwood Real Estate - Sacramento, CA

Well, there you go. Now the homeowner who has a broken idea of how much his house is worth based on a Zillow Zestimate can now pick his lender based on the one that does the best job about lying to him about rates and how much home he can afford! They can build a completely wrong picture of reality in one convenient location without even having to stop at the crack house! All they need now is a button on Zillow to tell them they're not overextended and no, this dress doesn't make them look fat.

Apr 03, 2008 07:39 AM

Joe Virnig

RE/MAX Gold Coast REALTORS, Ventura County, California - Ventura, CA

No Ordinary Joe

I have to agree with last few comments. I'm skeptical. I remember when one fo my clients got a mortgage through Priceline.com and they promised him a local lender. The house was on the coast in Ventura, California and the "local" lender assigned to him was in Jacksonville, FL. At least it was in the same country. The interest rate wasn't great and there were numerous problems closing a "slam dunk" transaction with almost 50% down.

Apr 03, 2008 07:49 AM

Spencer Rascoff

Zillow - Seattle, WA

Tracy - Chasing bogus leads is a huge issue with lead gen sites, no doubt. Zillow Mortgage Marketplace helps remedy this problem because you only have to communicate with the borrowers who reach out to you based on the loan quote that you returned to them. At that point they're not a lead, they're a customer. True, you have to respond to loan requests online using the web form and some of those leads won't close a loan. But it takes much less time to return a quote using Zillow Mortgage Marketplace than it does to get a phone # (which you paid $50-$100 for!) from a lead gen site and have to call and call and call.

Jeff - Thank you for the feedback. Hopefully our rating system (which allows borrowers to leave feedback on lenders, and allows lenders to respond) will help minimize games that lenders might play.

Dave - This most definitely is not LendingTree. Not even close Here's why.

For lenders: Zillow is free, whereas LendingTree costs a small fortune. For borrowers: Zillow allows borrowers to get customized quotes ANONYMOUSLY without revealing their name or phone #. With LendingTree, the borrower enters their phone # and then gets called by lenders. The differences between Zillow Mortgage Marketplace and LendingTree and pretty comparable to the differences between Zillow's real estate product and Housevalues.

If you're interested, there is an excellent analysis in today's New York Times explaining why Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is much better than LendingTree. Here's the link.

John -- your comment did make me smile, so thank you for that! But seriously, the borrower in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace can select from a drop-down indicating whether their estimated property value is based on a Zestimate, an appraisal, a CMA, or some other indicator of value.

Thank you all for your comments.

Apr 03, 2008 08:03 AM

Richard Lecinski

Long Realty Company - Oro Valley, AZ

That is really a great idea. Good luck and hope works our very well.

Apr 03, 2008 09:13 AM

Jessica Horton Jessica Horton Realty

Jessica Horton - Jessica Horton & Associates - Griffin, GA

Jessica Horton: I'm not #1... You Are!

I hope you guys (and gals) are up for some work. You've got a hard job ahead...to turn around being known for the Zestimate thingies. When it comes to driving the consumer to the site for this service...you guys really branded that well and created the buzz for it. No doubt.

You may have overdone it. Big ship to turn around....

Sounds like a very expensive proposition to bring in the kind of awareness needed. However, you definitely have the team to do it.

So, when will you begin selling leads to agents to see how low listing agents will go and how much of a kick-back buyers will get from their agent? Seems like the next step...

I'm not upset or angry about this possibility. I think about 15% of the population picks off lowest price. 5% picks off highest price. The other 80% are willing to pay a fair price when value is perceived. I have no problems demonstrating value.

Apr 03, 2008 09:58 AM

Spencer Rascoff

Zillow - Seattle, WA

Jessica - No question that it will be a big challenge to get consumers to start thinking of Zillow for mortgages rather than just for home valuations. It took Amazon a long time to get consumers to stop thinking of them just as online bookseller.

Apr 03, 2008 10:02 AM

Trevor Jules

2 Blue Chip Professionals, LLC - Ellicott City, MD

I'm signed up and did some quotes today...free leads

Apr 03, 2008 02:06 PM

Justin Williams

Independent - Virginia Beach, VA

Loan Officer

I signed up and started noticing people were doing a lot of teaser rates out there, is there going to be any type of control/verification on this? like for instance where the lenders upload the GFE quote??

Apr 03, 2008 02:26 PM

Bob & Carolin Benjamin

Benjamin Realty LLC - Gold Canyon, AZ

East Phoenix Arizona Homes

This will be interesting to watch and see how this new feature unfolds and evolves. There is always a new tool available.

Apr 03, 2008 02:33 PM

Lola Audu

Lola Audu~Audu Real Estate~Grand Rapids, MI Real Estate - Grand Rapids, MI

Audu Real Estate~Grand Rapids, MI ~Welcome Home!

Interesting project. I have to admit that your post brought Lending Tree to mind for me too. A question...regarding the HouseValues comparison....What safeguards are in place to prevent buyers from giving bogus information and wasting a lot of time for lenders. How are the leads vetted to ensure they are real?

Apr 03, 2008 03:28 PM

Tom Davis

Harrington ERA,DE Homes For Sale, $$ Save $$ Buy Today ! - Dover, DE

FREE Delaware Homes Search!, $$ Save $$ - Find Homes! Delaware Realtor

Going to Forward this to the team lender...thanks :)

Tom Davis - DE Realtor

Apr 03, 2008 04:54 PM

Christy Powers

Keller Williams Coastal Area Partners - Pooler, GA

Pooler, Savannah Real Estate Agent

Hmmm...sounds interesting. Can't wait to see how it works out.

Apr 04, 2008 09:40 AM

Jeff Belonger

Social Media - Infinity Home Mortgage Company, Inc - Cherry Hill, NJ

The FHA Expert - FHA Loans - FHA mortgages - USDA loans - VA Loans

Spencer.... I hope I didn't sound too harsh or rude.... but even a rating system could be misused and abused. And I agree with Brian's statement, who beat me to the punchline, which is why I came back here. You are pitching this as "free leads"... even though $25 a person is extremely cheap... I think a low price will bring more loan officers with $25 to this site... no matter what kind of back ground or credit check you do.... you could look squeaky clean and still be bad at what you do... still lie... still bait and switch... it doesn't stop everyone.

Apr 05, 2008 07:51 AM

Konnie Mac McCarthy

MacNificent Properties, LLC - Cobb Island, MD

Broker/Owner - VA & MD "Time To Get A Move On!"

Free....???

Apr 07, 2008 12:19 PM

Dominic Zendejas

KASE Real Estate - Mission Viejo, CA

Sounds very interesting. Guess i will sign up and see how it works

Aug 08, 2008 06:21 AM

Ginger Moore

Wilkinson & Associates Realty - Gastonia, NC

Spencer, did not get to read entire blog. Is this just mortgage leads? I need South Carolina Mtg leads, as I am a new loan officer with Amerisave, and can only do SC mtgs right now. Do you also have real estate leads NC/SC (buyers, sellers)? Please let me know, thanking you in advance, Ginger Moore

realtorginger@yahoo.com

Jun 29, 2009 02:29 AM

Sara Bonert

Zillow - Atlanta, GA

Real Estate Internet Marketing

Hey Ginger- Sara from Zillow here. The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is a little different than the typical site you just buy leads from.

Here, the person needing financing fills out a form with everything you would need to know to produce a quote except their personel information. Then lenders publically respond to loans requests with quotes. Then the person who entered the information decides who they would like to reach out to potentially work together.

Right now it only costs you $25 to sign up (this money is used to pay a third party to verify you), once approved, you can quote as many times for as many loans as you would like and can legally handle. You can even set up alerts to let you know when there is a loan request that meets your criteria.

Here is a short video on the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, detailing the process I just described.

You can get started here.

Jun 29, 2009 12:20 PM

Ginger Moore

Wilkinson & Associates Realty - Gastonia, NC

Thanks Sara, So what do you have for us Realtors? Do you have leads for realtors as well? I would be interested in these. The mortgage company I was with, (amerisave mtg.) could no longer have recruits that were not within a 60 mile radius of the Durham area ; so therefore i am not an active loan officer right now, but I am an active realtor. I am also looking for part time loan officer position near charlotte/gastonia nc, if anyone knows of one. thanks so much!

www.charlottelakewyliehomes.com

e-mail: realtorginger@yahoo.com 704 865 4290

Aug 03, 2009 06:51 AM