Daily Real Estate News  |  April 3, 2008  |   Zillow Launches Mortgage Marketplace
Real estate Web site Zillow.com has launched a program for home shoppers to remain anonymous while they obtain custom loan quotes online from a variety of lenders.

"Loan shoppers tell us they want real quotes--not just teaser rates--when doing their research online, and they want to control who and when they contact by shopping anonymously until they are ready to talk," says Rich Barton, CEO and cofounder of Zillow.com.

The company calls its new program Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, and characterizes it as an open and transparent lending marketplace, offering borrowers an anonymous and hassle-free way to request custom loan quotes directly from registered lenders. In turn, lenders can respond to an unlimited number of loan quote requests directly from borrowers, for free.

To access Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, home shoppers click on a new "Mortgages" tab on Zillow.com, then fill out a detailed loan request form that doesn't ask them to provide any personally identifiable information to the lender: no name, address, phone number, or Social Security number.

What borrowers provide instead is detail sufficient for lenders to generate quotes with rates, customized to the borrower’s circumstances.

Source: Zillow