Today’s Wiki Wednesday Feature: Determine Whether Your Loan Officer is Reputable

Once you actually find a home to buy, the last thing you have time and energy to vet is whether your loan officer is reputable. Just show me the money, honey and let’s get on with it.

It turns out, however, that this is the place and time in the home buying process where you need to be v-e-e-r-r-y careful. In today’s Wiki Wednesday feature article, “Determine Whether Your Loan Officer is Reputable,” mortgage planner William Doom offers three things to look for when scouting around for lenders and in each case, if you’re not getting straight answers, you should walk. They all have a similar theme, which is trust.

1. Look for a Mortgage Planner whose values are focused on helping individuals achieve their financial goals in both the fastest and the safest way possible.

2. A responsible Mortgage Planner will present you with financial information that goes beyond the point of the transaction, and will illustrate the total cost of the loan over time.

3. If your loan officer is advising you on issues other than mortgages, you could be working with someone who is compromising your best interests.

Obviously, not all lenders are created alike and it’s up to you to find someone who you trust and who can give you a great rate with outstanding customer service. And, if they balk at any questions asked, you need to say bye-bye. Lenders in the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace are rated according to the quality of the loan quote, as well as customer service (screenshot below). If you need a loan quote, the Mortgage Marketplace is super transparent for borrowers and if you make a loan request, you don’t even have to provide your name, address, phone or Social Security number! There’s no commitment and no personal information to reveal. The Marketplace is similar to Craigslist in concept where you post information anonymously — no one knows who you are. We think that’s a nice way to shop for loans.

Ed: Wiki Wednesdays is a weekly feature that highlights helpful or interesting articles from the Real Estate Guide.

If you’re an observant person or a fanatic of maps and aerial imagery, you probably already noticed that we updated our map images late last week by integrating the Microsoft Virtual Earth maps/aerial imagery with our underlying maps platform. As a result, you’ll now see aerial images that are more clear, crisp, and actually a bit closer when searching on Zillow.

Prior to integrating Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, we were hosting maps and satellite images we acquired from various sources. We have been using Microsoft Virtual Earth’s Bird’s Eye views of homes for some time now, and with the mapping technology of Microsoft Virtual Earth now integrated into the site, you’ll see improved maps and satellite images along with an expansion of coverage.

I’ve included some examples of some of the things you might notice off that bat:

New construction. Some of our developers who recently attended and lived on the University of Washington campus pointed out changes to the UW college apartments, which you can now see in the After image.

Closer aerial map views. Notice in the Before example there are more homes and streets showing at the most zoomed in-level,  whereas on the After map view, the image is closer resulting in a more detailed view of homes.

Points of interest. In the top view, museums, stadiums and other prominent POI did not exist, but now you can see how close you live, or could live, to some interesting hot spots.

 We hope you enjoy these updates.  As always, if you have feedback on ways we can further improve the site, please do let us know!

Each quarter Zillow releases Quarterly Report data on housing trends from a national and local (down to the neighborhood) level. As a buyer’s agent this data can be very useful in helping your clients use trends when figuring out where to purchase their next home. As a seller’s agent the data is equally as useful when explaining to a seller how their local neighborhood real estate market is performing when working to set a sales price.

Learn how to interpret and use the rich data released in the quarterly reports by joining us for free Webinar on May 22nd at 10 am PDT/1 pm EDT.

The call will be hosted by Jorrit Van der Meulen, Zillow’s vice president of industry relations and Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics.

Important: Registration for the webinar is required.  Register for the free Webinar here.

Since launching Zillow Mortgage Marketplace a little over a month ago, we’ve received all sorts of recommendations and feedback from our users. We have been busy fixing a few things since then, but we’ve also recently added features the our lender community has asked for. We appreciate the great suggestions we’ve received and hope the new offerings we added will be useful tools for the 2,000+ lenders in the marketplace. Here they are:

Quote Pre-fill
This is a time-saving feature that allows you to name quotes when you submit them so you can re-use those quotes to pre-fill fields for future quotes. The quote pre-fill feature automatically fills in all fields except for interest rate, saving you time if you’re are quoting the same loan multiple times (like a template). There is also a message pre-fill that lets you save notes to borrowers and customize them as needed. All of this functionality can be found on the Create Quote page.

Loan Quote Flags
We’ve made it easy for lenders to tell us if they see an inaccurate quote or one that otherwise violates the marketplace code of conduct. We’re learning that one of the benefits of a transparent mortgage marketplace is the fact that professionals will keep each other honest. This feature allows anyone to flag quotes by clicking on the “Flag quote” link under the Tools section on the left-hand side of the Quote Details pages. Flags alert Zillow’s moderators who will review the flagged quote. Don’t forget that lender reviews that don’t meet the requirements discussed in the code of conduct can also be flagged by clicking on the “flag content” directly under the review.

Lender Leaderboard
Ok, so this wasn’t requested, but we thought it would be fun to showcase the top lenders in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace based on the quality and number of reviews they’ve received. You can view the leaderboard on the lender home page, the loan request search page and a few other places in the marketplace.

Thanks again to our lenders for making the marketplace site a success. We will continue to work on improvements to the site so please keep the suggestions coming!

The effects of foreclosure are becoming more strange by the week. Here’s the lineup of weirdness we’ve had on the Zillow Blog lately:

• Foreclosed homes with pools become a breeding ground for West Nile Virus
• Foreclosure bus tours packed with people looking for a bargain
• Mosquito fish used to battle infestations in pools of foreclosed homes

Here’s another one we can add to the list: Foreclosure victims turn to self-storage centers as last step before losing everything. In last Sunday’s New York Times, the front-page article, “Losing a Home, Then Losing All in Self-Storage,” unveiled the latest side effects of what happens when people foreclose on their homes: they stash everything in self-storage, but cannot make payments on the unit and as a result, their final possessions get auctioned off — sometimes for only a few dollars.

The auction itself is run almost like a game show: the auctioneer opens the door of a unit and interested bidders must assess in a matter of minutes the value of what’s inside. They are not allowed to touch or enter the unit; they can only do a visual once-over to determine its worth. Some units are filled with personal affects such as photo albums and keepsakes, but some can contain entire living rooms, including couches, chairs, televisions and rugs.

Self-storage operators are seeing another side effect: people are actually trying to live in the units. Dubbed “residential unit,” one self-storage operator said he would see one or two residential units a month, but with the foreclosure crisis, he’s seeing as many as 8 or 10 per month.

Observed something strange lately? You might be able to trace it back to foreclosure.

Dr. Stan Humphries, VP Data & Analytics, and the man behind our housing data, will be giving a speech to the Real Estate Roundtable at the Rainier Club in downtown Seattle on Monday May 19. He will be discussing Seattle home prices and US housing data in great detail over lunch.

I am a member of the Rainier Club and am on the organizing committee of the Real Estate Roundtable. The lunch is only open for members and their guests, but I’m happy to host the first 10 people who email me at spencer AT zillow dot com.

Last summer I posted on an unsanitary (and sometimes dangerous) side effect of foreclosed homes in warm climates — abandoned swimming pools. These pools, when not drained of water, become infested with mosquitoes, which in turn

create the perfect breeding ground for the West Nile virus. Some of the highest rates of negative equity — and resulting foreclosures — are also in some of the states with the warmest climates, creating a major problem in the summer months.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, one method officials in certain areas of Arizona, California and Florida are tackling the West Nile problem with is a fish. The aptly-titled “mosquito fish” has the ability to survive in an oxygen-depleted swimming pool, eat up to 500 larvae a day, and spawn rapidly. These fish were also used for stagnant swimming pools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; they’re also presumably less expensive and more environmentally friendly than pesticides.

So what happens to the fish once a foreclosed home is sold? According to the WSJ article, new owners can collect the fish and return them to their local mosquito control agency. But more often, the fish just die after the mosquito larvae is depleted, or the new home owners discard the fish before draining the pool to get it ready for their own use.

“That’s part of the program,” says Chris Miller, a biologist at the Contra Costa mosquito and vector control district. “They are sacrificial.”

As you may have noticed, we recently made some additions to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace that help borrowers learn about their individual mortgage needs and the state of the current market.

Mortgage Calculators

We added 10 mortgage calculators to help borrowers answer important questions they may have before they begin shopping for a loan. They help calculate:

• How Much Can I Afford?
• Should I Refinance My Home Mortgage?
• Mortgage Payment Calculator
• Comparing Mortgage Terms
• Should I Pay Discount Points For A Lower Interest Rate?
• Should I Convert To A Bi-Weekly Payment Schedule?
• Fixed Or Adjustable-Rate Mortgage?
• Adjustable Rate Mortgage Calculator
• How Do Closing Costs Impact the Interest Rate?
• What Are The Tax Savings For My Mortgage?

Vibrancy Metrics

In addition to displaying the number of loan requests and quotes in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, we’ve added the number of confirmed, participating

lenders, which was almost 2,000 at the time of this post. What’s significant about this number is that when a borrower submits a loan request, it could potentially be seen by thousands of lenders, not just three or four.

Rate Table

We’ve also created a real rate table to show current average rates for 30-year fixed and 15-year

fixed rate mortgages. The table shows the average rate on Zillow for each of these loan types today, compared to last week. Live quotes from the marketplace scroll beneath the rate table, showing recently submitted individual quotes. To browse loan request and quotes across the U.S. or in any state, just select an area in the drop-down box at the bottom of the module and click GO.

We’ve had lots of feedback since launching Zillow Mortgage Marketplace last month. Thank you for all of your input, and please keep it coming. We will continue to work on additional improvements and new features that will help optimize the marketplace for both consumers and lenders. Stay tuned!

We’re seeing stars in the Carnival of Real Estate today since host Larry Cragun, who runs the Real Estate Undressed blog, judged and styled the 90th edition of CoRE using a star rating system. Posts he regarded as excellent received 5 stars and others received 4 and 3 stars. This CoRE is not on RE Undressed, but is instead posted on the Seattle Real Estate Professionals section of the Seattle P-I’s Web site where Cragun is a guest blogger. Our own Amy Bohutinsky, Director of Communications, was given a 5-star rating for “Not My House.” Nice work, Larry!

The carnival will make its next appearance on Monday, May 19 at Minneapolis Real Estate Blog. Please submit your best post by Sunday, May 18, to be considered. Are you a real estate blogger and would you like to host a future edition or take a more active role in carnival administration? If so, get instructions on how to do so here. Please check the complete FAQ list if you have other questions as to how to participate.

As of 9AM this morning, 45,192 people have signed the online petition at AngryRenter.com calling for Congress to not pass any bailout programs that reward risky borrowing and lending. According to the AngryRenter.com website, the preferred solution to the foreclosure crisis is to; “Let the free market sort it out!”

The $300 million mortgage bailout bill has made its way out of Barney Frank’s (D.-Mass.) Financial Services Committee with a vote of 46-21 in favor. President Bush on Wednesday threatened to veto the bill, saying that that “it would “reward speculators and lenders” (h/t Townhall.com.)

AngryRenter.com is just a month old but it seems to have struck a chord. Freedomworks, the non-profit, non-partisan group behind AngryRenter, clearly understands the dynamics of grass roots initiatives on the web. If you don’t know who Bob and Sally are, watch the short video clip I pasted below this. The cause, which posted this clever video to YouTube on April 10th has since been featured on CNN and FOX news and now … Zillowblog!

So, what do you think; should Sally have to bail out Bob?

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