In the spring of 2019, “Zillow Home Loan” was launched by its parent company Zillow.
You probably know them best for their popular Zestimates, which are quick and dirty home value estimates.
Given their strong engagement with potential home buyers and existing homeowners, they eventually decided to start their own mortgage division.
The goal was to “become an end-to-end provider of housing-related services”, as many other companies are trying to do.
For you as a customer, this is another mortgage lender to consider when seeking financing. Read on to know more about them.
Zillow Home Loan Quick Facts
- Direct-to-Consumer Mortgage Lender
- Offers home purchase and refinance loans
- Founded in 2019, it is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas
- The parent company is publicly traded Zillow Group
- Licensed to do business in 49 states and the District of Columbia
- Nearly $1.5 billion financed in home loans last year
- Most active in California, Florida, Georgia and Texas
Zillow Home Loans, LLC is a subsidiary of Zillow Group (NYSE:Z).
The company was officially launched in April 2019 after acquiring Mortgage Lenders of America in the fourth quarter of 2018.
This allowed them to enter the mortgage business faster rather than starting from the ground up.
They continue to operate out of Mortgage Lenders of America’s former headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. and also has offices in Irvine, CA and Seattle, WA.
Mortgage Lenders of America was founded in the year 2000 and had about 300 employees when Zillow purchased them.
It’s unclear how many remain and what the company’s workforce looks like now. But according to NMLS, today they have about 230 licensed mortgage loan originators (MLOs) on staff.
The original plan was to streamline the home buying process for consumers who used its iBuying service, known as Zillow Offers.
But that division was shut down in November 2021 because they could not accurately predict future home prices.
They also operated a title insurance and settlement division called Zillow Closing Services, which was also discontinued.
Despite this, they grew to become a full-service mortgage lender that now offers both home purchase loans and refinances to consumers in 49 states and DC. They are not licensed in New York State.
Last year, Zillow Home Loans financed approximately $1.5 billion in home loans, with a roughly 50/50 split between purchases and mortgage refinances.
They are most active in the state of California along with Florida, Georgia, Texas and Washington.
How to Apply with Zillow
To get started, you can visit their website and click on “Buy a Home” or “Refinance my Home.”
The online form appears to be a sales funnel that requires your contact information at the end, so it may be faster to call.
To drop off the form, you can call the phone number listed to speak one-on-one with one of their loan officers.
Assuming you like what you hear and you’re ready to move forward, they say the pre-qual only takes 3 minutes online and won’t impact your credit score.
The good thing is that if you have an existing Zillow account, you don’t need to sign up a second time.
You can also generate a verified pre-approval letter if you complete a hard credit check and submit supporting documents.
Like many other lenders, they offer a digital mortgage application that allows you to complete most of the process electronically.
This includes the application itself, linking bank accounts, securely uploading documents, and e-signature disclosures.
Plus, they have a human loan team that includes loan officers and loan processors who can guide you through the entire process.
Once your loan is credited, you can visit the dashboard to check loan status, meet due diligence terms, or message your loan officer 24/7.
loan program offering
- home purchase loan
- Refinance Loan: Rates and Term, Cash Out, Streamlining
- Conforming Loans Backed by Fannie/Freddie
- FHA loan
- va loan
- jumbo loan
- 1% down mortgage
- Fixed-rate and adjustable-rate options available
Zillow Home Loans offers a wide range of loan options to satisfy most home buyers and existing homeowners.
This includes both purchase loans and refinance loans, including rate and term refis, cash out refis and streamlined refis.
You can get a conforming loan backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or a jumbo loan that exceeds the conforming loan limit.
They offer both FHA loans and VA loans, but do not offer USDA loans at this time.
However, you can get a 1% down mortgage in select areas where they offer a subsidy for 2% of the purchase price.
Both fixed-rate and adjustable-rate options are available, including the popular 30-Year Fixed, 20-Year Fixed, 15-Year Fixed, and 7/6 ARMs.
Zillow Home Loans offers financing on single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums, including vacation homes and investment properties.
They do not lend on mobile or manufactured homes, investment property condominiums, construction/land, or cooperatives.
Zillow Home Loan Rates & Fees
Unfortunately, Zillow Home Loans does not list its daily mortgage rates online, nor do they have a list of lender fees readily available.
As a result, it is unclear how competitive they are compared to other banks, lenders, credit unions, mortgage brokers, etc.
When you speak with a loan officer, be sure to inquire about both the interest rate and any lender fees, such as an application fee or loan origination fee.
Although you won’t see the rates on their website, you can see them if you compare rates on the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, which also includes third-party lenders.
Either way, be sure to collect quotes from multiple lenders to make sure you don’t miss out on a better offer.
If you have other mortgage rate quotes, you may also be able to negotiate better with Zillow.
My guess is that their pricing is competitive with other online lenders, and probably cheaper than brick-and-mortar banks. But don’t make assumptions, get quotes.
zillow home loan reviews
On the Zillow website (yes, their parent company), they have a 4.82/5-star rating from nearly 8,000 customer reviews. This is an excellent score, especially considering the very large sample size.
You can browse the many reviews there to see what previous customers thought about the interest rates and closing costs. And if it was a home purchase loan did they close on time.
On LendingTree, they get another solid 4.5/5 rating with a 94% recommended score from over 950 reviews.
On Bankrate, it has a 4.8-star rating out of approximately 100 reviews, and on Consumer Affairs it has a 3.8/5 rating out of approximately 120 reviews.
They have a better 4.8/5 rating on BestCompany and a lower 3.7/5 rating on Trustpilot.
Additionally, their Overland Park headquarters has a rating of 3.6/5 out of 117 Google reviews. So there is no shortage of reviews to read.
The company has an ‘A+’ rating on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website and a 3.53/5-star rating from approximately 32 customer reviews.
To summarize, Zillow Home Loans offers the latest technology, has thousands of excellent reviews, and may even be able to get you to the closing table faster than other lenders.
He noted that according to the ICE Mortgage Technology Survey, the average lender took 43 days to close a home purchase loan between March 2023 – May 2023.
Meanwhile, their average closing time was only 31 days, 12 days or 28% faster than the industry average.
They also say that they provide best-in-class service and complete transparency along with local market expertise.
The only question mark is the pricing, as they do not publicize their rates or fees. But if you find them competitive relative to other options, they may be worth considering.
Zillow Home Loan Advantages and Disadvantages
Good
- You can apply for home loan online
- Submit a digital mortgage application
- Close loan 12 days faster than the average lender
- Lots of loan programs to choose from including 1% down option
- Thousands of excellent customer reviews
- A+ BBB rating
- FREE MORTGAGE CALCULATOR AND ONLINE GUIDE
maybe not
- no branch location
- Don’t Offer USDA Loans
- Not licensed in New York State
- Do not list rates or fees online
