QuickenMortgage offers online applications, five new lenders

Real Estate Weekly, Oct 21, 1998

QuickenMortgage, a web service offering consumers one-stop shopping for competitive, low price mortgages from a set of the nation's leading lenders, will expand its service to include an online mortgage application, five new lenders and direct access to over 500,000 home listings around the country.

Consumers can save hundreds of dollars and speed up the mortgage process by comparison shopping and applying for a loan with QuickenMortgage. The online mortgage application shortens the loan process because QuickenMortgage applications are electronically transmitted to participating lenders at consumers' request.

The five new lenders, including Allied Mortgage Capital Corporation, American Finance & Investment, Inc., LoanWorks, LaSalle Home Mortgage Corporation and Wells Resource Real Estate Services (a joint venture between Wells Fargo Bank and Cendant Mortgage Corporation), are known for competitive low pricing and excellent customer service. Together with the six current QuickenMortgage lenders (Chase, CountryWide, Homeside, North American Mortgage, PNC Mortgage and Principal Residential), Intuit's site will now be offering access to loans from 11 national lenders.

"QuickenMortgage gives consumers the freedom to not only shop, but also to apply for a mortgage at their convenience, delivering true apples-to-apples comparisons on mortgage rates with no hidden costs," said Bill Harris, executive vice president, Intuit. "The new QuickenMortgage online application and additional lenders will help consumers save even more time and money, two qualities consumers have come to expect from Intuit and its family of products, including Quicken and TurboTax."

QuickenMortgage allows consumers to search through thousands of loans, prequalify themselves online for free, and submit an online mortgage application. Users can drill down and get detailed information about their loan, including an itemized list of closing costs along with an online "Good Faith Estimate." In addition. new, faster and easy-to-use sorting tools allow consumers to search by their loan preferences (30-year fixed, ARMs, etc.). To save consumers even more time, QuickenMortgage has teamed up with Moore Data's Cyberhomes.com site to provide users with access to over 500,000 national home listings, so now consumers can shop for their home and mortgage in one place.

To help consumers Organize for the closing, QuickenMortgage now features a detailed checklist of all the documentation needed to close a loan. The new version of the site also includes the "QuickenMortgage Credit Center," which helps consumers find out how their credit affects the loan process. where to go for help and provides access to order credit reports online.

The recent Intuit partnership with America Online and existing relationships with Excite and CNNfn gives QuickenMortgage the potential to reach millions of consumers. QuickenMortgage rounds out Intuit's web offerings, which include personal finance, tax and insurance tools, advice and resources.