How Many Other Lenders Are Automating Their Quotes To Zillow Mortgage Marketplace In Your Area?

Many loan officers that I work with or that follow my blog, http://www.zillowautoquoting.com/, know that I am very focused on helping each of my clients with determining whether Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace is the right place for them to generate leads from. What I will discuss now are 2 factors that I believe are extremely crucial for success: 1) Automating Your Quotes To Zillow, 2)The Less Competition You Have In Your Local Market, The Better!

When a borrower submits their loan application on Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace, they immediately start receiving loan quotes from lenders that have registered on Zillow. (Follow this link to the lender signup page if you haven't yet registered as a lender so that you can start submitting quotes to borrowers on Zillow.)

As I have said in my previous blog's, one of the most important factors in getting business from Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace is to have all of your mortgage quotes automated from a mortgage pricing engine technology.

I have had experience with many loan officers that switched from manually quoting borrowers to automating the process and they have had a three fold increase in loan applications taken. The borrowers expectation on Zillow is to get a rate quote seconds after they ask for it, not a few hours later or even days later. Therefore, the borrower will most likely pick up the phone and contact a lender from the list of quotes they have received at that moment.

Check out the example Loan Request below which was submitted from a borrower in Houston, Texas. I have taken a snapshot of just the top of the page but I have noted that there were 23 quotes received within seconds of submitting the application. Therefore, you need to be one of those instant quotes the borrower receives in order increase your chances of being contacted by the borrower.

Now don't be discouraged by the fact that there are 23 other quotes that the borrower will be receiving as this brings me to my second most important factor: HOW MANY OTHER LENDERS ARE QUOTING FROM THE SAME AREA AS THE BORROWER?

As I mentioned, this loan request came from a borrower in Houston, Texas. So far, this borrower has received 23 automated quotes, but how many of those lenders are actually from Houston, Texas or work within a 50 mile radius of that borrower? Lets see!

When a borrower receives their quotes, they are able to filter through many of those quotes by payment, fees, APR, rate, Lender rating and Distance. Instead of having to read through every single quote, many borrowers will use some of those filters to narrow down their choices.

If that borrower in Houston decides that they would like to work with a local lender, someone within driving distance to be able to meet face-to-face, that borrower would only have 2 Lenders to choose from. There is no doubt in my mind that those loan officers would receive a call.

For a lender, having less competition in their local market is a HUGE advantage in getting business. Many loan officers that I work with have reported to me that most of their clients from Zillow have been local.

Now, lets say only 10% of the borrowers that have requested a mortgage from Houston, TX want to work with a local lender. I just checked Zillows Market activity within a 40 mile radius of Houston,TX and as of October 12, 2009, there have been approximately 500 loan requests in that area in the last month alone. If only 10% want to work with a local lender, that means 50 potential clients in the last month alone would be calling our 2 local lenders mentioned above!

To recap, these are the true advantages of Zillow as a mortgage lead provider:

• THE ABILITY TO AUTOMATE THE QUOTING PROCESS AND REACH CLIENTS INSTANTANEOUSLY
• THE LACK OF COMPETITION IN MOST MARKETS IF A BORROWER DECIDES THEY WANT TO WORK WITH A LOCAL LENDER