In the News

Two New Websites Can Help Buyers Save on Closing Costs and Mortgages

Published by the Los Angeles Times: June 28, 2009
By Lew Sichelman

Reporting from Washington — One of the problems with new Internet-based ventures is that they often lack critical mass. Jeff Lazerson, a Laguna Niguel mortgage broker, found that out firsthand.

Lazerson had a great idea: a website that would allow home buyers to hunt anonymously for the lowest prices for most of the services that lenders require before a mortgage can close — things like settlement agents, title insurance, surveyors and termite inspectors. But alas, his grand plan for www.fairclosingcosts.com eventually fizzled...

Now come two new Web-based enterprises, one remarkably similar to Lazerson's and the other offered by a group of nonprofits. This time, both appear to be rich enough to make it beyond the start-up stage.

Closing.com, a site that can create instant closing-cost estimates as would-be borrowers search for the best or least expensive real estate service providers, has a vendor database of nearly 150,000 firms in 14 categories. And fairmortgage.org has dozens of lending organizations that promise to offer safe mortgages at fair prices...

The savings also can be considerable at fairmortgage.org. And so can the peace of mind, because the site lists only those lenders that promise to adhere to a set of core standards established by the Fair Mortgage Collaborative, a collection of advocacy organizations, consumer-protection groups, loan-counseling and lending networks, and secondary-market intermediaries.

With major funding from the Ford Foundation, the collaborative is an effort to put would-be borrowers in front of lenders and brokers who promise to work on behalf of the customer.

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