There’s always something to howl about.

Mortgage Complaint? Welcome to The World Of Consumer-Policing at Zillow Mortgage

How can Zillow Mortgage become the online edition of the Better Business Bureau for mortgage lending?

It just did.

The future of consumer complaints is in transparency; breaking down the walls of the “smoke filled rooms” where industry insiders shear sheep and protect their own. This mortgage crisis has seen government response, spun as “consumer protection” but clearly designed to protect the mortgage industry. It sucks.

It sucks because the mortgage industry was a drunken frat party, from 2002-2006. Hustlers invaded our business and gang raped the borrower. First we slipped you a mickey by confusing the mortgage product offerings. Next, we practiced prestidigitation by getting you to focus on payments while reaping in enormous profits through secondary market transactions. Finally, when you couldn’t handle the intense pressure of your “new” loan, the government rallied around us like a college administration protects a red-shirted football star.

You (the consumer) are culpable, as well. You stuck your head in the sand and defined a long-term financial plan as the length of a mortgage prepayment penalty. You eschewed due diligence for the immediate gratification of an SUV or ATV, paid for by your withdrawn home equity.

Done. It’s time to heal.

You (consumers) need to start getting educated. You need a forum where you can get transparent answers to hard questions. You need to know that you’re talking to a mortgage professional who knows the difference between principles and principal.

We (the mortgage originators) need to know that we’re competing for your business against legitimate competitors, not some lead.bot service that parses your volunteered information and sells it to six of us.

You ( the consumer) need a public forum to air complaints about our service offering; real complaints. We’ll take forever to return phone calls, forget to disclose a loan condition, and change up loan terms as loan programs are canceled by lenders. That’s an unfortunate reality of the world I live in today. Demand for mortgage money is high while supply is low.

You can complain against me on the wide-open platform Zillow Mortgage provides.

…and I can respond to your complaint on that platform. I can disclose the nefarious practices the few dishonest borrowers employ designed to “trip up” loan originators. I can point out attempts to game the system, and the double-application methods disingenuous consumers use. I can take my lumps for not communicating properly (it still happens) or overpromising and underdelivering.

I can respond to those complaints under the transparent eye of the community. The community can decide who is an isn’t credible.

Zillow Mortgage has the ability to become the Better Business Bureau on steroids and this is a good thing. Mortgage originators are basically good and honest professionals who have borrowers best interests’ at heart. Borrowers are basically good and honest people who are willing to pay a fair price for good service. We can connect and monitor our behaviors in the fishbowl of Zillow Mortgage and the community can decide if we’re behaving responsibly, professionally, and in mutual good faith.

We need to have these conversations with each other. We need to learn how to trust one another. We need to start working together to determine which originators are hustlers and which borrowers are fraud risks. I’m willing to open my kimono and show you everything inside. I’m willing to do it on Zillow Mortgage because there’s no other place to display it, today.

Are you?