I started my day, finding my feed reader packed to the gills with posts from various blogs about Zillow. You know, the company with the website that provides “Zestimates” for the value of your property. Well, apparently, last night, Zillow introduced a new feature on their site that allows consumers who are shopping for a mortgage or for a refi, to anonymously receive quotes and proposals from interested mortgage professionals. The service is free to both consumers and mortgage pros, although mortgage pros have to pay Zillow a one-time $25 fee for a background check. Zillow does not stand to receive any revenues from this program, as their business model is based on serving online ads to visitors of their site.

Consumers, once they have received a number of quotes, then choose a mortgage pro at which point their anonymity ends. Zillow’s involvement ends at that point as well, until the loan closes, or the refi is funded. Consumers will then receive an opportunity to rate their mortgage pro’s performance via an Ebay-type feedback system, on Zillow’s platform. Really, not much to get excited about, from my point of view, although, I don’t yet want to discount Zillow’s new offering as another Lending Tree (when banks compete, you win) “me-too”. If you’re currently in the market, shopping for a mortgage or a refi, have a look at Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. It may aid you in your quest to find a mortgage professional who can hook you up with the right mortgage or refi program that is tailored to your specific needs. And if you end up using Zillow’s offering, come back here and let us know how it worked out for you.

Image courtesy: Zillow

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