12/23/09

Real estate site Zillow has just blogged about a distribution deal with online real estate brokerage Redfin that allows visitors to the brokerage's Web site to request loan quotes from the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. The deal includes a share of revenue between the two.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told Inman News that while agreement terms are not finalized, he guessed that a portion of revenue generated by Redfin might well be returned to the mortgage customers.

"We just thought it would improve Redfin's customer experience if, in addition to our recommended lenders, we also offered consumers some ability to check prices in the larger marketplace," Kelman said. "By the same token, we don't earn any money from our recommended lenders."

Here's how the Zillow blog explained the collaborative arrangement:

"Visitors to Redfin’s Web site can now fill out a mini loan request form on the Financing your Home page of the site. This brings potential borrowers to Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, where they can complete the Zillow Loan Request Form and instantly get custom quotes—anonymously—from Zillow’s network of thousands of lenders." According to Zillow, the online loan request typically generates 22 custom quotes from lenders throughout the United States. Lenders don't call the borrowers - the borrowers initiate first contact.

Zillow is actively seeking other online publishers to house the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace on the publishers' sites.

For more on Redfin, and it's recent expansion, here's a recent AIM Group report.