ZMM - I’m working on my plan

by Mike Mueller on April 7, 2008

You can count me as one of those in favor of Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace.

zmmscoresheet

Almost.

I haven’t quoted yet.
I need to finish working on My Plan first.

Plan Your Work - Work Your Plan!

Pricing? - no problem there.

Fees? - same thing.

Profile? - updated! (you did update yours didn’t you?)

I know I’m competing with “Quote Mills” from LA and back east. They’ve already spammed almost every request. Bait and Switch is their preferred SOP. I simply won’t compete on their level.

One of the issues I need to nail down before I start quoting is the text I am going to include in the Lender Message Box. I see it as a key part that will differentiate my quote from the slime of others. I plan on only quoting local requests (10 to 20 miles away from the office).

I’ll ask the Lenderama Readers the same thing I asked the ActiveRain mortgage people:

What text would you suggest to put in this box, that the average homeowner could read, and decide to look deeper into my quote?

Here is a sample of some other lenders text:

lendermsg

  • I like the text used in the NOTE FROM LENDER.
  • Thanks Mike,

    That seems like the right plan. It does appear that taking the time to write a compelling note to the borrowers is an important step in submitting a custom quote.

    I like your scoreboard and also enjoyed Bill Rice's observation this morning that those who like it seem to be those who've tried it:
    http://leadmarketwatch.com/index.php/2008/04/07...
  • I'm definitely not against Zillow in any way, shape or form. I've merely provided my argument that the consumer will receive inaccurate quotes.... the second part of my argument is about their business model and how it will HAVE to change if it is successful.....Any one of my first four points can easily create an inaccurate quote that produces a very unsatisfied / irate borrower.

    On a side note, I don't think brokeroutpost is a measure of anything..... if you had 25k posts and didn't produce, you wouldn't like anything either! If you readjust your chart now there are more people for then against.....
  • Diane - Actually, I don't like it. I want something more compelling than that.

    David - Thanks for popping in! The scoreboard was more than a little tongue in cheek.

    Let me ask you this concerning the "Quote Mills" we're seeing. Rating System aside, does Zillow have any plans on limiting the quotes (as in a max of 20 quotes per day) to hinder these guys or is it a something you are going let roll until there's a problem?

    As for the non participants, read the thread on Broker Outpost started by Todd. Almost a Caveman mentality (sorry Geico) "Let's bash anything new first, then find out what we just pummeled."

    Trace you are spot on. I saw one this morning (once again this is a request for a property less than 10 miles from me).
    The "Monkey" had zero fees AND a rate for a Fannie 30 Yr fixed drastically less than PAR.

    My guess is that he was quoting a POA with an underlying 30 yr note rate but using the min payment rate for P & I.
  • Trace - good to hear that the momentum is in the "for" camp.

    Mike - we don't plan to limit the number of quotes a lender can submit. I'd hate to cap a lender whose quotes are accurate and competitive and we're actually looking into providing an API for automating quote submissions. I do however think your suggestion may be a great punitive measure e.g. we could look into doing something like ... "Hi, you've received 3 poor reviews from borrowers within the last week and so, we're limiting the number of quotes you can provide to no more than two per day for the next week." What do you think?
  • David - I can see the not capping argument just fine. It follows along the same lines as most every civil liberty argument going. So I'm ok with that.

    API? Not so good. Unless there's a huge amount of requests going unfulfilled. I see the API as a way for the big guys (who can offer lower rates, lower fees, and lower customer service due to the sheer volume) to further squash us little guys (who can't operate on the same volume platform and have competed on customer service and attention to detail instead)

    Now, I would like the ability to download the quote details as a .csv or better yet all the quote details that match a particular search. That's my personal version of an API.

    I do like the idea of limiting quotes for a period of time after a poor review. I like that a lot!

    If in the end, if the quote mills find their rate of return isn't worthy of their continued participation, I'm all for it. Market forces rule.
  • Guys, if reviews are based on anonymous users then they hold absolutely no value. In fact they very quickly become the tool of less desirable lenders looking to stifle competition.
  • Dave, great info. Im still not sure who Zillow will pan out, it is going to be great for the chop shops as you stated but maybe we need to focus in on the customers we really want.
  • trace-

    Wonderful observation. RE: less desirable lenders.

    THat's why I like you.
  • Good conversation. I like the idea of limiting quotes for lenders who are getting poor reviews.

    Are the reviews really anonymous if they need to "sign in" to Zillow? Wouldn't Zillow still know who they are?

    Great stuff!
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