MEQUON, Wis. — Mortgagebot is a provider of online mortgage-application technology for nearly 800 banks, thrifts and credit unions across the country, but the company wasn't satisfied that the online channel was doing everything it could have.
Chief Marketing Officer Dan Welbaum said the direct-to-consumer, Internet-based mortgage-origination solutions already available were lacking a wide range of choices, accurate rates, fees and closing costs. And one other major concern: privacy.
"There are other loan aggregation services out there, but every one of them asks for personal information up front, and they bombard you with ads. When people go to one of those sites they are usually just looking for a rate on a loan. They want information, but instead, they are asked to provide information. The truth is that you don't need someone's Social Security number, telephone and address in order to provide them with rate quotes," said Welbaum.
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That's one key difference with Mortgage Marvel, he said. But other differences between it and the other aggregation sites like Lending Tree, LowerMyBills.com and even BankRate.com make it a far superior product to them, he said.
"Mortgage Marvel is the most comprehensive, fastest and easiest way to shop for a mortgage online. It's that simple. We're the largest aggregator of financial institutions in the country. Our site is fully and deeply integrated with the databases of our financial institutions so that the rate you see is the rate you get," Welbaum said. "It's reliable and in real time. And you can do comparisons, see closing costs, all fees and much more. We also have full explanations of all the fees and charges, and it's written in plain English." Mortgage Marvel aims to provides instant, accurate rate and fee comparisons, and is designed to make online mortgage shopping convenient by displaying the exact office and branch locations of Mortgage Marvel lenders, including hot-links to each lender's Web site.
Mortgage Marvel was first introduced in October 2007 and has been continually enhanced since. "What we did initially was sit down at a computer and do what any consumer would when searching for a mortgage online. We might start with a Google search and that brings you to a number of sites to choose from. We found that all of them asked for personal data and had so many ad traps, teaser rates and made you go through page after page before you even got what you were looking for," Welbaum explained. "And even then, the information wasn't accurate or there was so little of it that it was an aggravating experience."
Mortgagebot could do better, he said. But, he added, better wasn't enough. It had to be the site that answered all the questions, provided thorough, accurate information and made a seamless transition from first query to application and approval. It had to be intuitive and so easy to use that consumers would not click off. And it had to do all that without asking for personal information until it was necessary to apply for a loan. There are only three required fields to start the search: loan amount, property value and zip code.
Mortgage Marvel has been compared with the travel sites Orbitz, Expedia or Travelocity because of its ease of use, Welbaum said. "The same way those portals revolutionized buying airline tickets, Mortgage Marvel has revolutionized searching for a mortgage loan."
Mortgage Marvel employs rate and fee comparisons created from the actual loan-product databases of the hundreds of mortgage lenders that use the Mortgagebot PowerSite system for taking online mortgage applications. And because it's done in real time, what they've seen online is exactly what they get. "There are no surprises," said Welbaum. The result is that it's possible for a consumer to complete an application and get an approval in less than 30 minutes. And because it's the Internet, it's always open, Welbaum added.
What about CU members that may want to start on the Internet but prefer to complete an application in person? With Mortgage Marvel, it's possible to filter a rate-search to display lenders that have branches within 5, 15, 25 or 50 miles of a specified zip code. It will also display locations (address listing and map view) of the 10 closest branches for each lender shown on the comparison table–and the estimated distance to each branch from the specified zip code.
"Mortgage Marvel is all about simplifying the mortgage shopping process and making it as convenient as possible for borrowers," said Welbaum. "The addition of our lender localization capability–which is not offered by other mortgage Web sites–makes Mortgage Marvel an even better and more personalized solution."
The size of the financial institution doesn't matter, said Welbaum. "The full product and service menu for all our community lenders is available. From a lender perspective, for the first time, traditional lenders like credit unions can compete with everyone else. Mortgagebot is committed to helping our credit unions compete in an even bigger way on the Internet. And like credit unions, Mortgage Marvel is consumer-centric."
To view a brief Mortgage Marvel video presentation, visit www.mortgagebot.com/marvelvideo2.
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