Time to Get ZMMing!!

Where are mortgage rates headed?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  Next month?  Next year?  Nobody really knows.

Where do you, the mortgage borrower, obtain your information as to where mortgage rates may head?  Your local bank or credit union?  Your local newspaper’s business section?  The Wall Street Journal?  CNN?  Fox News?  Your local radio station? How about Bankrate.com or Bloomberg.com?

All the above are fair and reasonable places to get an idea what mortgage rates are and where they might be headed.  But, I happen to know a better place … Zillow Mortgage Marketplace (ZMM). Yes, I know this blog was started by Zillow and I was asked to write for it by Zillow, but that is not the reason why I am endorsing this Zillow product. The reason why is because I truly and honestly feel that ZMM is the only place where a borrower can get competitive rates in real time. That is the unique feature that sets Zillow’s ZMM apart from all the others.

Let me give you an example:

Client calls me up on a Monday morning about a month ago and says “Mike, did you hear!  Mortgage rates are down to 5.875% on a 30-year fixed!”  When I told this client that rates ‘were’ at 5.875% on Monday before the Sunday, and asked him why he did not read the email I sent him the very day rates ‘did’ go to 5.875%, he said … “But, the real estate section of the San Diego Union said ….”  I informed my client that the news reported in the paper was nearly a week old.  Oops.

The places I mentioned above and even the online sources are giving you mortgage rates and pricing a day or even a week behind current rates. Day-old, or week-old information is not useful.  Mortgage rates are too volatile currently to take a chance.  We mortgage professionals get rate corrections from our lenders almost daily, sometimes several times per day.

Here’s another example of getting outdated mortgage rate information:

I had a client recently tell me that he read on Bankrate.com that the ‘average’ rate in his area on a 30 year fixed was a certain rate and that he uses Bankrate.com email alert on rates all the time to keep him informed.  I said to client, ’Bankrate.com’s still at least a day behind, even with the alerts.’

So, if you haven’t visited ZMM and you are shopping for a mortgage, there is no better place (in my opinion) to start.  Also, for the most part, you will be working with knowledgeable mortgage professionals who want your business and will give you REAL TIME, LIVE, competitive mortgage rates.

It can be quite frustrating for a mortgage borrower to read in their Sunday morning paper what mortgage rates are and then call their mortgage professional Monday morning and find out they are not the same.

So, get ZMMing!

October 3, 2008