Deron White's Discussions

That comment isn't directed at anyone in particular.  Just a general thought. I agree with shapiroamg no War and Peace, but I do think it's a good idea to think about what your message is, condense it, and use this as a way of getting it out.

Makes me hope the consumer takes the advice and finds a professional.

For argument sake in the spirit of friendly discussion....1. Will automating the process prevent low ball offers?  Or, will it just systematize them?2. If they automate quotes (#1)  then capping them will turns this into a service driven purely by the quote machine.  That won't address low ball quotes.  It will narrow the market place significantly.3. The grand experiment here is the value of anonymity.  Without that one differentiating factor, why bother?  There's leads sites that do that already fulfill that mission, and it appears zillow has recognized that consumers haven't received a benefit from it.4. The simplest way to avoid low balling. Is for zillow to scrub the fannie mae website and refuse quotes that won't meet the 60 day delivery prices.  There may be very short and narrow periods where someone will offer less, but in the grand scheme of things the service will be more successful without that input. This won't work on jumbos though.  An alternative is for zillow to acquire daily rates from a broad spectrum of wholesale operations, scrub them, and only accept quotes that don't fall below the average par rate or below 1 standard deviation of the average par rate.  A reporting system might work, as well, but may just add to the noise.5. A management console would be helpful, but at this stage it's low on the list for me.

I'll post this here rather than start yet another suggestion thread. On any loan over 80% Zillow is tossing a calculation in for mortgage insurance.  It does not appear that this is controlled by the person making the quote.  The issue with this is that if a quote includes lender paid MI then the automatic MI calculation misrepresents the payment  in a way that prevents the consumer from making a comparison.  

QuoteCop, Name the three lenders.

I'm all for submitting YSP.  I see no long term disadvantage to brokers from  correspondents and banks.  I suspect that brokers will work hard enough to turn it into an advantage.  It might even help eliminate  a lot of the BS quotes on this site. Here's something to think about.  This is a service for CONSUMERS not lenders.  There are already lead sites that allow every one of us the opportunity to quote rates and fees.  Zillow has correctly identified that these sites fail consumers.  They have dreamed up this service as a solution.  They have promised tranparency.  They have put faith in anonymity and back ground checks.  Why not push a little further towards transparency and include this bit of information?  It won't hurt consumers.  It will differentiate Zillow's service in a very useful and unique way.  Does it make it harder on lenders?  Perhaps, but is this a service for consumers or for lenders? 

I agree about the LPMI.  I had quoted many loans with it before I realized that the monthly amount was being automatically input.  In lieu of html why not just post the link and request that they cut and paste it to the address bar? Alan's comments are helpful as well.  It would be nice to have a bench mark on rate and term refinances.  It would also be nice to have a mechanism to state why you can't do certain loans.  I received an e-mail from Zillow prodding me to quote

Shoot... Hit the button some how. Anyhow, zillow sent an e-mail prodding me to follow a link to quote a bunch of loans that have gone unquoted. So far there have been a lot I haven't quoted for various reasons:  100% LTV is not available in my market, the details have a requirement that just isn't possible, the FICO's too low, etc. It might be helpful to have a switch a means to not quote, and say why.  Maybe this isn't something that gets e-mailed like the quotes, or gets aggregated into one e-mail.   

Can't speak for Tom, but I'd rather have the market place make the call.

Mark's idea isn't that bad.  It's an imperfect system, and the solution will be imperfect as well. I think the argument that rates change hourly is a huge exageration of reality.  The range of change is not large, typically to price, and when it is it's an occasional event in a volatile market.  I wish the market were more volatile at the moment, but it isn't.  Second, it's a disservice to consumers to pretend otherwise.  The number of volatile days in a year where change of price moves rates is very small.  Zillow gets enough quotes, with enough FICO, LTV, occupancy, MI, factors to have a reasonable sample, to take an average and a standard deviation and toss out the ones that fall below two second standard deviations.  That would be generous, and still allow too many false quotes.  If it needs to be adjusted for the market, then there are public sources of information that Zillow can use to override the mechanism.  It's not hard, and it can be done with a spreadsheet. There are two huge basic flaws in this experiment.  One is that people looking for quotes will lock now.  They aren't locking now and that allows all the BS to keep going.  The second is that a company who quotes a low rates (assuming no lies) has a long term market advantage and can deliver lower rates in the future.   That just does not exist.  Given those two things.  The game is to get people to call you, and accept (believe even) your apology for why you can't give them the 5.5% rate you quoted.  Lie and beg for forgiveness is still the rule, and this is just one more enabling tool.