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Apr
2
Opening Bell for the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace
By: Rich Barton, CEO | April 2, 2008 |
At Zillow we believe in information transparency. We believe informed consumers are empowered consumers. We believe these informed consumers make better customers for real estate professionals. We believe consumers should be able to shop anonymously, so that they are not approached by a salesperson until they ask for assistance. Finally, we believe in open and free marketplaces.
With these beliefs in mind, we are very pleased today to ring the opening bell for Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, extending our leadership position in real estate information and community into a related, but new market for Zillow. One need not look much further than the headlines of the day to understand that mortgage borrowers and lenders are all searching for a better way.
Borrowers have told us via focus groups and surveys that they spend woefully little time shopping for the mortgage they have – 5 hours. About the same amount of time they spent buying their last computer and nearly half the time they spent shopping for their last car. They also tell us that they want their personal contact information to remain private and that they want to see real rates that are accessible to them, not “teaser” rates that don’t reflect reality. They would also like to shop across their options and be able to do an apples-to-apples comparison of loan quotes from multiple lenders in a standard format. Finally, they’d like to be able to understand the reputation of the broker or lender as seen from the perspective of other borrowers, much like they can judge a seller’s reputation on eBay or a hotel’s reputation on TripAdvisor.
Brokers and lenders have told us that they spend too much money and time buying “leads” on the Web. They’ve told us they don’t like calling people at dinnertime any more than borrowers like to be called. They love the idea of free access to an anonymous marketplace of quote requests from borrowers who fit their desired criteria for providing a loan.
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace attempts to connect the demand side (borrowers) and the supply side (brokers and lenders) in a powerful new way that satisfies all of the needs we heard in our research. Will it work? We’ll see, but we sure hope so - and will be listening to your suggestions and feedback to make it better. However, we have cause to be optimistic. Zillow currently has millions of borrowers coming to the site today to look at Zestimates, shop for For Sale and Make Me Move homes, and to participate in lively discussions about real estate and mortgages. So, we think demand for mortgages is there. Importantly, as well, early in Zillow’s life we discovered something that surprised us: 1 out of every 3 individual mortgage brokers and loan officers visit Zillow every month. Last month, more than 125,000 mortgage professionals visited Zillow. Outside of search engines and portals, this likely makes Zillow the largest congregation point for lenders on the Internet. They come to Zillow because of the rich and up-to-date information we have in our database of all homes in the country, including recent sales, comps, current houses for sale, Make Me Move homes, bird’s eye images and Zestimates. So, the demand is already here on Zillow and so is the supply. It is now our challenge to connect these two sides of a marketplace in a friction free way, one that does not currently exist– at least not before today.
So, if you or someone you know is shopping for a mortgage or a HELOC, give our new service a try. If you are a mortgage professional, please sign up to become a confirmed lender (requires a $25 payment to cover the cost of our confirmation process) after which you can respond to quote requests at any time for free. Finally, please give us feedback, as I know we will be evolving Mortgage Marketplace quickly.
Last 5 posts in Mortgages
- Determine Whether Your Loan Officer Is Reputable - May 14th, 2008
- Lenders, We Are Listening - May 13th, 2008
- New Mortgage Calculators and Tools - May 12th, 2008
- 45,192 people think Sally should not have to bail out Bob - May 9th, 2008
- New Scroll Box Offers Window to Lenders’ Quotes - April 24th, 2008
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Total Comments: 3479
[…] From Zillow’s Blog. […]
[…] Tonight, Zillow officially launched the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace! […]
[…] Todd Carpenter, Rich Barton, John Cook, Drew Meyers, […]
[…] Further explanation from Rich Barton, Zillow CEO. […]
[…] More from Rich Barton, Zillow Founder, Chairman and CEO. […]
[…] then me telling you about it, just read Rich’s blog post. He has a way with […]
[…] online lead generation. I had a sneak peak at the platform and I’m duly impressed at the way Zillow has put consumers in control of the transaction right from the […]
[…] Mortgage announced its Mortgage Marketplace today with the ceremony of the opening bell on the NYSE. I applaud them for bringing transparency and reputation management to an industry that needs […]
Thanks for the great tool. I just responded to a request. Very easy tool to use but I do have a few questions. Please let me know how to contact someone for help.
Thanks again, this will help many homebuyers!
Tony Grego - Indiana Mortgage Company
Actually, I’m still not used to this idea yet. I’m new to mortgage and would still prefer the tried and tested way of approaching real people face to face.
But I’m stil open to this
Fara - www.pickmeuptoday.com
[…] more on Zillow Blog Leave a comment Comment […]
[…] Rich Barton, Zillow’s CEO, said the Mortgage Marketplace comes in response to research the company conducted on how borrowers shop (or, to the point, don’t shop) for their home loans: Borrowers have told us via focus groups and surveys that they spend woefully little time shopping for the mortgage they have – 5 hours. About the same amount of time they spent buying their last computer and nearly half the time they spent shopping for their last car. They also tell us that they want their personal contact information to remain private and that they want to see real rates that are accessible to them, not “teaser” rates that don’t reflect reality. […]
[…] More info from Rich Barton, CEO of Zillow. […]
[…] Opening Bell for the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace (via […]
[…] Read […]
[…] done their homework. From the CEO’s blog post: At Zillow we believe in information transparency. We believe informed consumers are empowered […]
[…] around on the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. So excited that when I got on line around 5:00 am and saw the announcement, I felt like it was Christmas morning and I had a new toy to play […]
[…] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments […]
[…] Mortgage MarketPlace rang the opening bell and loan requests came flying in the door. I was pleasantly flabbergasted! It’s no secret […]
Would it be possible to get leads to certain zip code? I would like to work within my community, instead off all over. If you can please let me know if we can focus on a small area and be exclusive to that area for the leads?
Please let me know, my email is a great way to communicate.
Thank you in advance.
Clara.
[…] A few days ago, they made even bigger waves in the mortgage industry with the announcement of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Here’s how it works: […]
Clara,
Yes, you can use the saved search function to help you focus on specific areas. Just go to the How it Works for Lenders page http://www.zillow.com/mortgage/LenderGateway.htm (or just click on the Mortgage tab, then click on ‘Learn more’ under Are you a lender?) and then type in the location you want–city, state or Zip–in the search box in the middle of the page. You will then be shown a list of loan requests in that area. At the top of the Loan Requests page, there is a link that says “Save this search.” Click on that, and you will be asked how often you want to receive emails that will notify you when a request comes in that matches your search.
[…] has given the best and most detailed overview of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.Zillow listened to borrowers, who were frustrated with their current mortgage “shopping” experience: Borrowers have […]
This appears to be a lead generation model.
Aren’t you on record as saying lead-gen is a broken business model that you would not invest in?
http://tinyurl.com/2n7jhp
[…] to work tomorrow?” I’m thinking about “what cool new products we are working on (like Zillow Mortgage Marketplace) and what strategic partners we should be focusing on.” When you enjoy your job, work […]
[…] Charles E. Kirk wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWith these beliefs in mind, we are very pleased today to ring the opening bell for Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, extending our leadership position in real estate information and community into a related, but new market for Zillow. … […]
[…] Read more on Zillow Blog […]
[…] internet has created an ideas explosion not seen since the days of the industrial revolution. Zillow created a revolutionary marketplace but the believers still look in the newspaper to get their mortgage. The enlightened call out the […]