From the Zillow Blog regarding their pending foray into the mortgage industry:

To participate in this new product offering, lenders must have their professional status confirmed prior to connecting with borrowers, so we want to give lenders a head start on the process:

1. Register with Zillow, if you haven’t already.
2. Then apply as a lender, and answer a few questions about yourself.
3. While access to borrowers is free, a one-time application fee of $25 is necessary to cover the costs of having an independent third party confirm your professional and employment status to Zillow. This is the only charge to participate; there are no other fees.

Hat tip to Blown Mortgage for the screen shot…

Gut reaction:

Zillow is taking measured steps to insure mortgage professionals who wish to participate in their pending ‘mortgage lead network’ are actually licensed and of generally sound character (on paper), to which I say:  Good call!

I’ve speed read about 5 articles regarding Zillows pending mortgage offering from the likes of Brian Brady, Morgan Brown, Greg Swann, Todd Carpenter and on the Zillow blog itself.  Since I’ve link loved to enough speculation to keep even the most rabid tabloid hungry reader satisfied, I’ll spare everyone my crystal ball predictions and just wait for Zillow to roll out their offering.

I’m a long time fan of the big Z and get good vibes from everyone I’ve met within their organization, so I’m optimistic based on this early tid-bit of news…not quite as much as Swann however, who is gushing with accolades about Zillow for ‘Reinventing and perfecting Capitalism’..?  Maybe BHB knows information I dont (maybe I should sponsor BHBU too).

What I do know is that Zillow is becoming a Name Brand to more and more of the consumer public, and their mortgage play will surely add to this…which is exactly what I believe they are looking for.  Zillow is trying to become to real estate (and mortgage) what Vasoline is to petroleum jelly.