How it Works for Borrowers

With Zillow® Mortgage Marketplace, you're in control: You remain anonymous to mortgage lenders throughout the loan request and quote process — no one will call you or e-mail you -- until you want to make contact.

How it works:

Create a Mortgage Request
You create an anonymous mortgage request to purchase a home, refinance, or take out a home equity loan. Your name, address, phone number or Social Security number is not required. However, you need to be accurate in providing other background information — such as the type of mortgage loan you want, your income level and an assessment of your credit rating — through Zillow's secure system. Being truthful and accurate is important and required under our Code of Conduct. Lenders see your anonymous request and begin submitting real mortgage loan quotes to your private account on Zillow.

Borrowers fill out a mortgage request, which is anonymous to lenders, as accurately as possible and include information about the property, credit history, income, assets, and debts and then submit it into an open marketplace of mortgage lenders that compete for your business by providing competitive rates and good customer service.

To protect your anonymous information, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace uses a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system to encrypt your entire session. SSL is an industry standard for keeping data and information secure and is used by lending companies, banks, and credit agencies.

Lenders review mortgage requests from borrowers and submit mortgage quotes for those requests. A mortgage loan quote consists of an interest rate with specific lender fees, easily broken down into average monthly payments that meets the requirements of a particular loan product (e.g., 30-year fixed rate). While we expect a lender's mortgage quote to be as accurate as possible based on the information provided by the borrower, the lender has not yet had an opportunity to verify the borrower's credit rating and other information in order to provide a Good Faith Estimate.

Choose the Best Quote
Based on the information you provide, customized mortgage quotes — from an unlimited number of confirmed mortgage lenders — will be sent to your Mortgage Quotes section on Zillow. You will not receive generic marketing rates; each quote will be customized to fit your loan request by confirmed mortgage lenders. Each lender that participates in the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is required to divulge all quotes, rates, and fees in the mortgage quote that is returned to you. You compare the information provided — including rates, and lender ratings — and then you choose the mortgage lenders to contact.

A confirmed mortgage lender is a mortgage professional on Zillow whose professional status has been confirmed either by a leading independent third party hired by Zillow or by their mortgage institution. The review may include identity authentication, employment verification, broker license confirmation, and checking standard sources for complaints.

Contact the Mortgage Lender
Contact the mortgage lender you like — either by e-mail or phone — and ask more questions about the loan quote or begin closing your loan. Please remember that once you contact the lender through our site, your e-mail (identity) will no longer be anonymous to that lender. Later, you can rate the lender based on quality of information and service provided so other borrowers can learn about your experience with the lender.

When a borrower contacts a lender, the lender is obligated to pay Zillow for this connection; it's what we call a "customer-initiated contact." Zillow provides a service to bring lenders and borrowers together, and lenders pay for the opportunity to connect with borrowers.