Note: I think Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has a lot of great potential. However, as fast as it shows its appeal...it can be seen just as fast as a place of bogus leads and bogus rate quotes. As such, it is imperative that Zillow and the Mortgage Community communicate and address the issues below for the credibility of the website and we are trying to do for the benefit of all.
This post should be a place of constructive criticism for the benefit of all Mortgage Professionals and for Zillow to create a better user experience on both the Consumer and Lender side of the platform.
I'm just going to keep this spot as a running tally of things I notice as I go through Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Feel free to post your suggestions to Zillow and/or comments to my recommendations as a comment to the blog post.
1.) The days locked offers 15, 30, 60, days etc... a 45 day option is common and needed.
2.) When the "Interest Only" option is checked by the lender/broker, the payment reflected to the borrower should be the interest only payment. As of now, it's the fully amortized payment.
3.) How the heck is Zillow calculating APR? I put in $0 lender fees and the APR is bumped up anyhow...I've even seen rate quotes with APR's less than the quoted note rate?? WOW!
4.) I'll save a search with all of my preferred parameters and still get leads outside of the chosen parameters on the website and my email??
5.) Once I do a search and post a quote, there isn't a link or anything to go back to that original parameter search. If you click the back button on the browser..all sorts of other leads outside of the original set parameters pop up??
6.) The interest rates are rounded up the the nearest 1/8%...Why?
I have a product that offers 5.45%, yet it is shown to the borrower as 5.5%...If we are to create a level playing field, rounding up should not occur and it is a misleading offer to borrowers. Especially since Transparency is boasted on the website...
Scott Gormley
Broker/Owner
Oak Valley Mortgage
Email: Scott@OakValleyMortgage.com
Direct: 530-592-8362
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