
Google Launches Mortgage Shopping Tool in California - uptown
http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/23/google-launches-mortgage-shopping-tool-in-california-more-states-coming-soon/
======
millstone
Surprising they're working with Lending Tree, which is very nearly a scam
site. When you sign up with LT, your information is sold immediately, your
credit is pulled multiple times (making it harder to get a mortgage), and you
get an endless torrent of spammy calls. See CreditKarma reviews of LT:
[https://www.creditkarma.com/reviews/auto-
loan/single/id/Lend...](https://www.creditkarma.com/reviews/auto-
loan/single/id/Lending-Tree-Auto-Loan)

Edit: A question about the mathematics of mortgage brokers. From what I've
read, mortgage leads are sold for ~$30 and have a conversion rate of ~1-3%.
This means that the purchaser of the lead has to recover ~$1500 per closed
loan to pay for buying the leads. Doesn't this mean that loans from a broker
site like this will cost you a lot more than working with lenders directly? My
mortgage (from a direct lender) was a much better deal than I ever found on
Bankrate.

~~~
asuffield
> your credit is pulled multiple times (making it harder to get a mortgage)

That's a myth. All mortgage credit queries within a 14 day window count as a
single query. Lenders have _not_ biased the system to penalise you for
shopping for a good deal - they want to make offers to people who show good
financial sense by doing that.

~~~
HelloMcFly
Also, when I signed up for Lending Tree I did not provide permission for hard
inquiries. Every interested lender had to contact me and get my permission for
a credit pull.

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vlucas
> To power this tool, Google partnered with Zillow and LendingTree.

I hope Google isn't just pulling in LendingTree data and using their backend.
I just moved 4 months ago, and thought I'd give LendingTree a try. I singed
up, and the only real "offer" I received was from Quicken Loans, which I
suspect was actually just a blanket offer/advertisement in the system. I also
got a lot of bad credit-fixing "advice" that actually wouldn't help me at all
- Get another (better) credit card! Take out a personal loan! Reconsolidate
student loans! (when all mine were already consolidated at a low rate with
EdFinancial). Overall, a bad experience that were clearly just ads/referrals
that made me never want to use LendingTree again. Who knows what they have
done with my personal and financial data.

In the end, I went with a local bank, and secured a mortgage with no hassles
at a much lower rate than the only LendingTree "offer" (ad) for Quicken Loans
gave me.

If you're shopping for a mortgage, just call a few local banks and credit
unions. You will most likely get a much better deal there.

~~~
iheartmemcache
Mmm, the HN affluent community with 820 credit scores and dual-six figure
incomes probably won't see much value from this as it stands. But, I see it as
jumping point - one more layer of transparency that Google can potentially
offer us. Previously, shopping around for car insurance was a pain. Now, I
don't have to deal with some guy who's making commission (which isn't bad) on
some products but not others (which is bad). I can go to Geico, Progressive
and a few other sites-- immediately get quotes-- compare them, and in under 30
minutes I'll have a car insured. Every step of the process was transparent,
and I didn't have to deal with a salesman.

My parents walked my sister and brother-in-law through the process of getting
a mortgage underwritten for their condo as a wedding gift. It involved so much
BS such as documentation of employment despite the fact that my father has
been receiving faculty checks from the same institution in Cambridge direct-
deposited to _same bank_ for more than two decades. Hopefully Google will
"Geico" this up and by the time I decide to purchase a condo or home, I don't
have to deal with the same tedium that they did.

That being said, I hold my personal money at a credit union (Alliant, it's the
New INGDirect![1]) because hey, I'd rather support them than Bank of America.
The business house bank is with a local bank, again, because my co-partners
and I would much rather keep a balance with a small-ish business rather than a
conglomerate who exploits poor people and college kids with ridiculous
compound overdraft fees.

[1] [https://www.alliantcreditunion.com/](https://www.alliantcreditunion.com/)
Post CapitalOne360, INGDirect has been on a steady decline. I'm now a happy
customer. If you happen to be :cough: a former employee of any of the
companies within the co-op, you can make an account. Support them or your
local CU.

~~~
copperx
Thank you for the Alliant recommendation. I story my money at CapitalOne360,
and although I still like it, I worry what will happen to it after the
acquisition. I think I'll switch to Alliant.

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bigethan
This feels like Elon Musk opening a Denny's restaurant. You do other stuff,
why get into this business, especially if they're just rebranding the Zillow
mortgage feed.

There's a lot of money to be had (a well qualified mortgage lead is worth ~$90
a pop), but it seems inappropriate for google.

~~~
billions
Google is likely doing this to quantify your buying power. Advertisers will
pay Google premium CPC for targeting buyers with deep pockets. Google can do
the math backwards and estimate things like buying power and income provided
an applicant can afford a mortgage of X per month.
google.com/compare/autoinsurance serves Google's ad targeting in the same
fashion.

~~~
elsewhen
do you have a source for this idea that they take your inputs and use it for
further ad-targeting? i don't see this specifically mentioned in the privacy
policy for this auto-insurance product:
[https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance/form?p=privacy-...](https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance/form?p=privacy-
policy)

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aresant
This is the inevitable fate of all lead gen IMO - Google - between Adwords and
analytics - has absolute visibility into the cost per lead metrics and, in
many cases, backend close rates for every search category in the world.

~~~
fludlight
Next up: Google Mesothelioma Attorneys

~~~
Animats
Right. Instead of stopping search spam, Google has figured out how to monetize
it. Search for "credit card". Instead of spammy sites being at the top of the
search results, you get Google's own spammy ads.

Ten years ago, there was a Web Spam Squashing Summit.[1] Google was a sponsor.
The next year, Google was a sponsor of Search Engine Strategies, the web
spammer convention. That was the moment Google turned to the dark side.

[1] [http://www.sifry.com/alerts/2005/02/web-spam-squashing-
summi...](http://www.sifry.com/alerts/2005/02/web-spam-squashing-
summit-2242005/)

~~~
solotronics
I am not disagreeing with you but google flights is really good and google
hotels is somewhat ok.

~~~
zaroth
Does it matter how objectively good it is when Google gets to just put it on
top of the search results? Personal opinion's aside, I'm convinced that Europe
will answer, "No." Google will be the next Microsoft of our time, trying to
split the company in order to get their own products listed in their own
Search. Perhaps we've already seen the groundwork being laid for just such a
split with Alphabet?

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thrownaway2424
Article link is useless wrapper around
[http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/11/introducing-google-
compa...](http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/11/introducing-google-compare-for-
us.html)

------
johnhattan
Google had a mortgage-finding tool quite a few years back, but I think they
killed it for legal reasons.

I remember it, because I found a good rate on a re-finance. The mortgage
company was in Pennsylvania and I'm in Texas, so we did the whole thing
remotely.

~~~
Symbiote
The UK mortgage comparison tool was launched in December 2012¹. Possibly the
market for comparison tools is more developed in the UK — there are high-
budget advertising campaigns from comparison websites encouraging people to
switch energy provider, ISP, insurance etc.

The service isn't run by Google: "Google Compare, the trading name of
BeatThatQuote.com Limited..." ²

²
[https://www.google.co.uk/compare/mortgage/qs](https://www.google.co.uk/compare/mortgage/qs)

¹ [http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/12/google-launches-
mortgage...](http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/12/google-launches-mortgage-
comparison-site-305516/)

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vdaniuk
This is just an example of ad networks moving down the supply chain. Lead gen,
customer retention systems, even support services are a possible evolution of
core ad networks services. The reason for this is quite simple: ad blocking.

------
20years
Google is turning more and more into a lead gen company every day. They have
been testing something similar with insurance, hotel bookings and solar. Soon
enough search results will be dominated by Google's lead capture pages/forms
and those leads will be sold to 3+ companies.

If Google is confident about being able to capture the leads, they can make a
lot more money from this approach vs what they make from a click.

If they continue to go more into this direction, would that make them more of
a marketplace vs a search engine?

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aetherson
I... don't see a way to search by type of loan. You can't just say "I'm
interested in a 30 year fixed" or whatever. That seems a bit crazy to me.

~~~
quantumet
Once you have a list, there's a dropdown to filter by type of loan (defaults
to 'All')

~~~
aetherson
Thanks!

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Animats
Google's relationship with the real estate industry has a history. At one
point, you could see foreclosures on Google Maps. The real estate industry
hated that, and Google took it out.

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r00fus
I tried their auto insurance comparison tool [1], and the UI is pretty
decent/simple for comparison. Just wish it allowed for some better comparison
- i.e., my current policy has comprehensive for my older car but all the
recommended policies don't so prices will of course be off...

[1]
[https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance](https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance)

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jhallenworld
Will they offer lower rates than Amerisave? I thought there was no room for
improvement beyond them, but it would be interesting to know otherwise.

I refinanced through them and I check them from time to time to see current
rates. I own a two-family house, and it is convenient that their web-site has
an option to take this into account (rates slightly higher).

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mladenkovacevic
"M" is for mortgage?

~~~
enahs-sf
"M" always has been, and always will be, for money.

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chuhnk
I was part of the BeatThatQuote.com acquisition back in 2011. We built Google
Compare UK and then the team eventually moved onto to building the US
comparison products also. Great to see this progressing forward.

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melted
The service will be for like 500 people who still can afford (and are stupid
enough) to buy real estate in California.

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fred256
5 years ago Google had a very similar service, which was canceled in 2012. I
wonder why they decided to resurrect it.

~~~
fireworks10
Yes - was based on acquisition of UK based
[http://www.beatthatquote.com](http://www.beatthatquote.com). It is still in
operation under Google's brand.

[http://www.google.com/compare/mortgages](http://www.google.com/compare/mortgages)

[https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance](https://www.google.com/compare/autoinsurance)

[https://www.google.com/compare/creditcard](https://www.google.com/compare/creditcard)

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dpierce9
They did this for solar lead generation with project rooftop.

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msoad
I noticed the website is not using a secure connection!

