4 ms·

Aside from the personal details (name, address, etc), they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics, and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer or

Aside from the personal details (name, address, etc), they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics, and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer or better yet, sell it to wholesale buyers, reits, and whoever is interested in stealing the deal.

scottishbee 2y ago
That...is not how mortgage servicing companies operate.
- gruez 2y ago
  People aren't concerned about giving their details to a mortgage servicing company, they're concerned about giving their details to a random website called "closing.wtf", which promises to provide mortgage advice for free with no other obvious revenue source.
  - aaln 2y ago
    Lol no revenue source and a promise to never sell or share their data. Gotta figure this one out...
    - baldeagle 2y ago
      At least put a patron link on there or something, so people can have a legitimate way to pay for the cost associated with running the website. Perhaps make a suggested amount of 10% of the savings. This gives you a obvious profit motive, and makes you seem more sketchy because you now have more skin in the game to keep it operating as a valid and useful business service
Kiro 2y ago
> name, address, etc In my country all that plus your social security number and tax declarations etc are public information. What's your opinion on that?
gruez 2y ago
>they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics AFAIK house sale prices (ie. property transactions) are open in many (most?) jurisdictions. >and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer How does that even work? The winning bidder is presumably someone who gave the highest offer. Why would another company pay above and beyond that, considering that there's probably several other serious buyers who aren't willing to pay more?
- dumbfounder 2y ago
  The terms are not public until the house is sold. In the contract pending state you don’t know how much it is going to sell for. Theoretically if they saw a buyer accepting a crazy low offer they could alert the troops. But it doesn’t need a lot of the data in that document, so really they need a way to redact all the unnecessary data to require less trust. Edit: words.
- gsharma 2y ago
  The deal isn’t always about the price. For example, a $1M house bought with $100K down and $900K mortgage is a worse deal for the seller as compared to $500K down and $500K financed. Assumption here is that it is more likely to get a $500K loan irrespective of the appraised value of the house. A lower all cash offer (say $975K) is likely a better offer for the seller because it reduces the risk for them and closes the transaction much quicker than a mortgage transaction. I have been a buyer in two transactions where my offer was slightly lower than the highest bidder, but with better terms.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    As a home buyer, I've been beaten many times by an all-cash offer that was significantly lower than my financed offer. For example, a $450K all-cash offer where they'd close in 7 days beat my $525K 80/20 offer where it would have taken me 25+ days to close.
    - t0mas88 2y ago
      This makes sense for the seller depending on how often a financed offer falls through. Our agent mentioned that in Amsterdam for example over 1/3rd of the offers with a financing condition fall through. And they do so weeks after the signing of the agreement so it costs the seller significant time and money. With such a high chance of not actually getting the sale done, sellers are motivated to take 475 immediate cash instead of 525 with a 1/3rd risk of having to do it all over. Especially if they need the cash to buy their next home.

scottishbee 2y ago

That...is not how mortgage servicing companies operate.

gruez 2y ago
People aren't concerned about giving their details to a mortgage servicing company, they're concerned about giving their details to a random website called "closing.wtf", which promises to provide mortgage advice for free with no other obvious revenue source.
- aaln 2y ago
  Lol no revenue source and a promise to never sell or share their data. Gotta figure this one out...
  - baldeagle 2y ago
    At least put a patron link on there or something, so people can have a legitimate way to pay for the cost associated with running the website. Perhaps make a suggested amount of 10% of the savings. This gives you a obvious profit motive, and makes you seem more sketchy because you now have more skin in the game to keep it operating as a valid and useful business service

Kiro 2y ago

> name, address, etc In my country all that plus your social security number and tax declarations etc are public information. What's your opinion on that?

gruez 2y ago

>they can collect pricing info on houses, run analytics AFAIK house sale prices (ie. property transactions) are open in many (most?) jurisdictions. >and swoop the deal with a slightly better offer How does that even work? The winning bidder is presumably someone who gave the highest offer. Why would another company pay above and beyond that, considering that there's probably several other serious buyers who aren't willing to pay more?

dumbfounder 2y ago
The terms are not public until the house is sold. In the contract pending state you don’t know how much it is going to sell for. Theoretically if they saw a buyer accepting a crazy low offer they could alert the troops. But it doesn’t need a lot of the data in that document, so really they need a way to redact all the unnecessary data to require less trust. Edit: words.
gsharma 2y ago
The deal isn’t always about the price. For example, a $1M house bought with $100K down and $900K mortgage is a worse deal for the seller as compared to $500K down and $500K financed. Assumption here is that it is more likely to get a $500K loan irrespective of the appraised value of the house. A lower all cash offer (say $975K) is likely a better offer for the seller because it reduces the risk for them and closes the transaction much quicker than a mortgage transaction. I have been a buyer in two transactions where my offer was slightly lower than the highest bidder, but with better terms.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  As a home buyer, I've been beaten many times by an all-cash offer that was significantly lower than my financed offer. For example, a $450K all-cash offer where they'd close in 7 days beat my $525K 80/20 offer where it would have taken me 25+ days to close.
  - t0mas88 2y ago
    This makes sense for the seller depending on how often a financed offer falls through. Our agent mentioned that in Amsterdam for example over 1/3rd of the offers with a financing condition fall through. And they do so weeks after the signing of the agreement so it costs the seller significant time and money. With such a high chance of not actually getting the sale done, sellers are motivated to take 475 immediate cash instead of 525 with a 1/3rd risk of having to do it all over. Especially if they need the cash to buy their next home.