Why Mortgage Lenders Use Zillow

In 2024, the vast majority of people looking for a house — and, as a result, a mortgage — do at least some research online. In fact, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that 97% of homebuyers used the internet in their home search. 

That means that most people will look at online listings through platforms like Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, and Realtor.com. And that presents a prime opportunity for mortgage lenders. By getting onto those websites — where prospective borrowers already are — you can generate more leads for your business.

All of these sites have different potential for lenders. But because Zillow owns Trulia, it’s an excellent way to cover a lot of ground at once. In fact, it’s the largest aggregator of buyers and sellers on mobile and web. In a recent webinar with us (more on that below), one of Zillow’s team members reported that the website captures more than two-thirds of the total market share for the online real estate category in the U.S.

Clearly, there’s opportunity here. So let’s explore what Zillow can do for your mortgage lead generation, and how to get started.

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Mortgage purchase pipelines opportunities with Zillow

Zillow offers a couple of different avenues specifically designed to help mortgage lenders generate leads:

Custom Quotes

Zillow groups its rate table advertising and custom quote opportunities under the same umbrella, which it calls Custom Quotes. 

By displaying your rates on a Zillow rate table, you put your brand in front of high-intent consumers. If they’re interested in working with you based on the rate you provide, they can click your logo to move through a lead funnel on Zillow. 

This collects their information, after which it gets distributed to your team. By the time you get that lead, they’ve already expressed interest in being contacted by a lender. Plus, they’ve signaled that they want a loan that aligns with your current rates, your licensing locations, and the types of loan products you offer. 

To use this option, you need to have Mortech in place as your product pricing engine (PPE). Zillow then syncs with your Mortech data to keep your rates updated per the parameters you’ve set. 

Zillow’s rate table leads are generally fairly experienced in the homebuying world and somewhat far along in their house hunting journey. As a result, they generally close relatively quickly. 

Leads generated in this way range in cost from $30–$300, depending on the target lead type. Higher value loans cost more. 

With Zillow’s mortgage rate table advertising, your company only pays when a lead is actually generated for your company. The minimum monthly spend for this option is $2,500.

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Zillow Connect

Zillow has an early consumer lead generation opportunity called Connect. It operates based on locations that you select. 

Most consumers who use Connect don’t have a real estate agent yet and have limited knowledge around the homebuying process. Many are first-time buyers. This puts your lending institution in the driver’s seat, giving your team the ability to guide that lead. 

When you choose this option, you get connected to a dedicated Strategic Relationship Manager at Zillow. This person can provide guidance to help you convert Connect leads. 

Zillow adjusts the price to advertise on Connect to your lending institution and the type of loan products it offers.The company requires a minimum initial deposit to get started. Connect leads are generally more affordable than Custom Quote ones because they usually require more work to close. 

Getting leads from Trulia, too

If you want to capitalize on the opportunity to advertise your mortgage products on Trulia, Zillow makes it ultra-easy. When you buy leads from Zillow, those leads come in from all of its brands — including Trulia. You don’t need to lift a finger to tap into the Trulia market. Instead, that lead generation opportunity is already included when you partner with Zillow. 

Getting started with Zillow 

If you want to do a deeper dive into the mortgage advertising possibilities with Zillow, we’ve got good news. We recently hosted a webinar with Samantha Harless, Mortgage Sales Manager at Zillow. In that half-hour session, she explored ways mortgage lenders can maximize lead conversion when using Zillow. 

For guidance on creating a lender profile on Zillow for any of your individual loan officers, you can check out this guide. This resource will walk you through setting up your company profile. 

And if you’re ready to get started — or you’d at least like to talk to a Zillow sales rep to see if these lead generation opportunities could be right for your lending institution — you have options. You can either call (877) 661-3172 or fill out the form on this page.  

If you do dive in with Zillow’s Custom Quotes option, that means you have Mortech running. As Mortech’s only lender website partner, we can help you do more with that resource, like adding a live rate table to your own website. To explore that and other opportunities to further leverage Mortech, book a demo today. 

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