Zillow Unveils New “Mortgage Marketplace” Offering
Written by Mike Perlman (contact - e-mail) -- July 2nd, 2008 | Recommend This
About eighteen months ago we wrote about the emergence of Zillow.com - the innovative real estate site that allows one to obtain a “Zestimate” of a residential property’s market value based on the company’s proprietary formula. While most people associate the Zillow brand primarily with home value estimation services, the company has increasingly expanded its product offerings.
In April of this year Zillow launched a mortgage service called “Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.” The marketplace enables consumers to create a request for a purchase mortgage, home equity loan, or refinance loan. However, unlike other home loan aggregators, Zillow enables the potential borrower to remain completely anonymous throughout the process. For instance, consumers are not required to enter their social security #, address, or even their name at any point during the online application experience. Borrowers ultimately receive loan offers from multiple lenders sent directly to an anonymous Zillow account. Clearly Zillow believes that by keeping the application process anonymous users will be more likely to fill out an application to gauge potential home loan financing options without fear of being inundated with marketing solicitation from lenders.
At this point you probably are wondering what type of traction the “Mortgage Marketplace” is gaining with consumers. As the chart below illustrates, traffic to this section of Zillow’s site has steadily grown from the time of product launch.
It is clear that this offering is an increasingly important piece of Zillow’s overall portfolio, as ~25% of total site visitors in May went to the Mortgage Marketplace. It certainly will be interesting to keep an eye on the rate of consumer adoption for the Mortgage Marketplace in the months ahead.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Well…….just was wondering how you would explain the slump in the housing industry?
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July 4th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Brett Shaw from Cyberhomes:
I see the that people are coming to the site, but what is the percentage of people that actually procure a loan through this offering?
July 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Being in Real Estate & The Stock Market, for over twenty years, when I first saw Zillow, I knew they were going to hit the mark. After reading their bio, I saw that their goal is to level the playing field, in a big way, between consumers and companies, involved in industries, that are complex in nature and hard to digest and understand in a short amount of time.
Look at the mess we’re in now…
I think the Zillow Mortgage is brilliant, and will force mortgage companies, lenders, and banks, to really give the consumer, the best bang for their buck. Go Zilliow…
I know they were also working on a project with the legal system….(sounds interesting)
July 15th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I think it is really great that all these new mortgage sites are coming out with unique tools to help home buyers. I recently found a great one called Property Maps - http://www.propertymaps.com This one has a cool google maps/mls mash-up. Maybe someday all the features will be combined and we’ll have a perfect tool for finding the perfect home.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
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