My first day on the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace

By Matthew Kelly | April 3, 2008

I don’t get the opportunity to originate many loans due to my other responsibilities, so was really excited to be able to play 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 with.

From the standpoint of the Manager working with a wide variety of Loan Officers, and my over two years experience in working on-line leads, here are my initial thoughts:

Be honest with your quotes. I was quite surprised today to not see anyone on Zillow that appeared to be low balling quotes. They all seemed very competitive and honest.
Accurately describe your fees, all of them. If you look at the vast majority of my quotes, you will see I am charging a .25 discount. Which is actually an escrow waiver fee.
Keep your description short, and relevant. I saw many descriptions on my competitors quotes that were long drawn out sales pitches. Online customers only want to “see the baby, not hear about the entire birth.”
Be patient. Just because someone doesn’t respond back doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. The selling cycle with online consumers is much longer than it was several months ago.
Offer to send them a Good Faith Estimate in your description upon request.
Working Zillow Leads is sort of like a well disciplined work out regiment. Even though your not getting instant gratification you shouldn’t give up. Quote 20-30 deals a day and my guess is that it will pay off.

In general, I am really pleased with the platform Zillow has presented. It is easy to use, and fairly intuitive. I’m sure they have more in store shortly.

Guy Kawasaki says in Rules for Revolutionaries “Version 1.0 is about not having to say your sorry.” Zillow has nothing to apologize about with their first release!

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Author's Website: http://www.rmcv.com

Topics: Mortgage |

3 Responses to “My first day on the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace”

Rich Says:
April 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Actually my guess is that you might need to leave 1000 quotes to get one or two people to call or email you to discuss. Due to the annominity of the requester, I think it is safe to assume that most leaving requests are tire (foundation) kickers. If there is anyone serious then perhaps they are trying to keep their LO honest.
Matthew Kelly Says:
April 5th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Your guess of 1000 quotes to get one or two phone calls or emails is significantly higher than what we have experieinced in the past couple of days.

If someone would like to compare our quote on zillow versus their current offer, we are glad to participate. If they are a tire kicker or early on in the process, that’s ok as well. Happens with our other on-line lead sources all of the time. Being able to compare quotes really empowers the consumer doesn’t it?
David G from Zillow.com Says:
April 5th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Rich -

In focus groups borrowers told us that anonymity would encourage them to take internet shopping seriously. Smart borrowers are tired of having their personal details sold and their phone ring off the hook. And so we may well see more serious shoppers in the Mortgage Marketplace.