For about the last 6 months, we have posted mortgage rates on a daily basis on our Arizona Mortgage Rates page. The process of quoting rates is time consuming. First, you have to go look up anywhere from 3-5 different lenders mortgage rates for the day. Then you have to factor in other items such as turn times, inside information about guideline changes you may have as a loan officer, etc. and then pick a rate to post on your rate posting for the day.
Start to finish, the process takes about 10 – 15 minutes.
And then…
Rates change about an hour later.
Everyone knows that mortgage rates are in real-time, so 10 minutes after I publish our Arizona Mortgage Rates, they may (or may not) be out of date.
Enter Zillow.
The super smart folks at Zillow (trust me, there is no shortage of brains at that place, I have seen it first hand and met enough of them in person to know) have come up with a widget that will give the most-up-to-the-minute average of mortgage rates nationwide.
Notice I said “average“.
Since I like to think I am at least slightly above average, you can reasonably expect that if you call me and ask me “what is your rate today” on any given product, I should be at least slightly better than the average!
So we all win.
I get to save myself an hour or two each week.
You get the most up-to-the-minute Arizona Mortgage Rate updates and can reasonably expect to get a quote that is slightly better than those posted from us.
Zillow gets better brand awareness because at least 2 or 3 people each month go there for the latest Arizona Mortgage Rates available.
Be sure to add the folks at Zillow to your Christmas list, they gave us all something to cheer about.
Oh, and if you happen to wander over to check out Zillow, be sure to see more of my ramblings on their Mortgages Unzipped blog – I randomly ramble about mortgage related topics and so far, they haven’t banned me for saying crazy-out-of-my-mind-things!