Mortgage Marvel, which operates a site where consumers are able to shop for mortgage loans and rates while at the same time maintaining their privacy, has made some upgrades to its functionality.
The company is a service of Mortgagebot LLC and the site provides quotes from the lender clients of that company. It does not collect any personal information about the consumer, explained chief operating officer Rick Allen. It does take the emails of those who have signed up for its rate watch service.
This ensures that the consumer will not receive any email or calls directly from lending institutions.
The look and feel of the Mortgage Marvel website has been rebuilt, he said, and there is a new logo plus new colors which makes it “cleaner and crisper and more credible.”
Allen said the consumer can get started on the site merely by entering the loan purchase price, loan amount and property ZIP code.
The consumer is presented with a number of loans that fit the above criteria. Mortgage Marvel's upgrade adds filters for narrowing that list, based on interest rate, annual percentage rate, closing fees, monthly payment, lender location and first-time homebuyer eligibility. There are sliders the consumer users, similar to those seen on many travel shopping sites.
The advanced quote page to do things such as allowing the user to change loan type. Allen noted if the borrower seeks an adjustable rate mortgage, the appropriate disclosures are presented to the consumer as well.
There are some assumptions made to provide the initial quote, including about the consumer's credit score. Allen said there is a link that provides the consumer the opportunity to get an estimate of their credit score without providing any identifying information.
Another new feature allows consumers to compare rates on a side-by-side basis. This lets them “narrow down their search and look at the offerings that make the most sense to them,” he said.
There is a show details button on each loan offer. When the borrower clicks on that, rather than a pop-up, there is an “accordion,” the page expands to accommodate those details.
At the right of each listing, there is a check box where consumers can select up to four quotes where they can get a side-by-side view.
Each quote gives the lender's name, phone number, email and an “Apply Now” button which links to their online applications. “All of the participating lenders have a direct-to-consumer, online Internet application that's hosted by Mortgagebot,” Allen said.
“From our perspective, it's all about consumer choice. Give them information without providing personal information; give them accurate rate quotes without providing any personal information. Then let them make their choice of the lender that they want, and when they pick that lender make it easy for them to interact and apply immediately online.”
Because of the tie to Mortgagebot, the site also includes industry statistics. Mortgage Marvel is not open to those companies that are not Mortgagebot clients.
Many in the mortgage industry are expecting the HARP 2.0 program to generate plenty of new business in the next few months. But it might be safe to say that many of the consumers who are potential borrowers are not going to be using sites like Mortgage Marvel to look for lenders.
Rather, the servicers and originators are going to have to look to make initial contact with these consumers. Towards that end, information provider DataQuick, San Diego, has developed an offering for originator to use for marketing to eligible borrowers.
It is not a one-way street in offering this service, explained Randy Wussler, vice president of product management and marketing. While expecting to help its clientele to identify HARP 2.0 candidates, DataQuick is also looking for credit, flood, valuation and settlement services business in return. “We see it as a pretty broad opportunity for us,” he said.
DataQuick has a nationwide database of 120 million properties and it applied an overlay of eligibility requirements (in terms of property value) of both HARP programs. It determined there are 6.7 million borrowers who meet the new program's standards.
It does not take into account the credit requirements for HARP 2.0, Wussler said. To address this, DataQuick is partnering with TransUnion to segment the list of products based on those credit requirements.
The information is not being sold exclusively. DataQuick is screening for compliance with do-not-contact rules.
“We look at it two ways. Take somebody who has a portfolio of loans already and they want to go in and see of the folks in their existing book of business, who are going to be qualified for the new program.
“They have some of the information at their disposal. What they likely don't have is a current estimate of the combined loan-to-value ratio,” Wussler said.
They can take that book of business and run it against the DataQuick database and prioritize candidates to market HARP 2.0 refinancings to.
The second thrust is to other originators who are looking to take advantage of the program to build market share.
