Daily Briefing Weekend Edition

Mortgage Grader's Online Loan Shopping Site Gets Patent

By Anthony Garritano

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA-Mortgage Grader here has been issued a patent by the United States Patent and Trade Office that describes various features of Mortgage Grader's current and upcoming online shopping service.

Mortgage Grader plans to provide anonymous, online loan approvals, guaranteed interest rates and settlement costs, delivered in seconds to all of America. Creating comparable, simple-to-understand, transparent mortgage market offerings insures price competition. Mortgage Grader's goal is to expose and provide fairness in the mortgage process to the consumer's advantage.

"The significance going forward is that I think our model will be the next generation of mortgage origination," noted Mortgage Grader's president Jeff Lazerson. "From a regulatory standpoint, e-signatures are allowed and there's a push toward productivity. Lenders also want to increase productivity and decrease cost, which this will do. You never have to deal with an LO again. There's also green elements. From a legal standpoint, lenders are constantly on the watch for 'gotcha' lawsuits. Some civil liberties groups are looking to sue as a means of extorting money in some cases. This will be a powerful defense because if the lender is using this system they can more unbiased. This is like free insurance to lenders."

Mortgage Grader wants to change America's mortgage shopping process by empowering consumers to anonymously find their best mortgage options through this patented process. Fair Closing Costs, located at http://www.fairclosingcosts.com, is a d/b/a for and a division of Mortgage Grader. In the near future, the Fair Closing Costs site will offer mortgage shoppers information transparency and contact information for nine categories of settlement services on a national basis, consistent with the new good-faith estimate that HUD recently proposed as part of its RESPA update.

"Everything takes time to evolve. It won't completely replace LOs, but it will modify the job," said Mr. Lazerson. "Certain people prefer a self-service online experience, while others want to speak to a person and some others want to do some things online and talk to people in person some time, too.

"The technology will save the consumer because we have an idiotic system. The real estate provider takes the consumer around and they pay. A lot is dependent on who you know, what kickbacks you're getting, etc. The consumer just cares about price and service level. We've seen a very condescending relationship evolve where the borrower is basically patted on the head and told this is how we're going to do it."

Recently, Mortgage Grader received a $100,000 grant to create this nationally scalable Web-based information directory connecting homebuyers and refinancers to America's real estate settlement services providers. All-Ahead (http://www.allahead.org) provided the grant.