A Mortgage Originator's Guide to Using Zillow

Three ways a mortgage originator might benefit from the social networking features on Zillow.com:

1. Leaving tracks on the desired ZIP code with the intent to market directly to the consumer.  As a participant in the Home Q&A section of properties, an originator can post all listings in a particular ZIP code. Also, the originator can further provide financing information to correspond with the listed price.  Consumers, interested in that listing, will click through to the originator's profile and potentially contact the originator for property information.  Regardless of their willingness to preview that property, the mortgage originator gets an opportunity to "have a conversation" with the consumer at a critical juncture of the home purchase, which is BEFORE they have contracted with a buyer's agent.  Mortgage originators must learn how to initiate contact with the consumer to control the relationship.
2. Mortgage originators are sometimes privy to certain information about valuations or lien information about a home.  Consumers who recently refinanced a home may wish to have their appraised value posted on the Zillow site to reaffirm their opinion of the home's value.  Armed with that permission, an originator can establish her or himself as the financing and valuation expert for that ZIP code.  Variances from the Zestimate can be explained in professional commentary reaffirming her expertise.
3. Zillow EZ Ads provides an inexpensive way for an originator to plant the seed in the consumer's mind that he or she is the expert authority on financing for that ZIP code.  At just a penny per impression, this is extraordinarily useful as a refinance solicitation tool.  Consumers use the Zestimate BEFORE they contact lenders to get a starting point for their refinance options.

Contracted Realtors and homeowers will always "trump" a particular user's commentary as they are deferred to by Zillow as of greater interest to a property.  Still, the proactive mortgage originator will fill the void the less technologically savvy Realtor leaves and reap the resulting benefits from that void.