Zillow won’t just help you find a house, it will be your mortgage lender, too

Zillow is already in the business of helping people buy, sell, and find homes. Now it’s also getting into the mortgage lending business. The company announced that it is launching Zillow Home Loans, a new service designed to offer home shoppers a more streamlined experience to secure the funding they need to get the home they want.

Zillow Home Loans has been a bit of an inevitability since the company acquired Mortgage Lenders of America. In fact, Zillow Home Loans is the same mortgage business just rebranded to fit within the online real estate company’s portfolio. The service will be available as part of Zillow Offers, a platform that Zillow introduced in 2017 to make real estate transactions simpler. Zillow Offers is currently available in nine markets and is viewed as the company’s attempt to get into the business of flipping homes.

Homeowners using Zillow Offers will be able to secure financing for their transaction using Zillow Home Loans. It allows the homeowners to request what Zillow calls a “free, no-obligation cash offer” to purchase a home, which enables them to shop for a new home while in the process of selling their current house. Those transactions will now be handled by Zillow Home Loans, though the mortgage lending service won’t be restricted to just Zillow Offers. Home shoppers will be able to use Zillow’s mortgage marketplace to shop for lenders, as well.

“Getting a mortgage is often the hardest, most complicated part of buying a home. Since our inception, Zillow has been empowering people with information and resources to make smarter real estate decisions, including helping borrowers shop for the best lender and loan for their new home,” Erin Lantz, vice president and general manager of mortgages at Zillow Group, said in a statement.

“With Zillow Home Loans we are taking an incredible step forward to deliver an integrated payments platform to complete the financing for Zillow Offers that delivers a more seamless, on-demand real estate experience today’s consumers expect. We continue to offer consumers the power of choice to shop for loans directly through Zillow Home Loans or through our popular mortgage marketplace.”