After already receiving several high profile investments into their “mortgage savings” company, Home-Account this week announced a sizable investment from personal finance site Bills.com, bringing Home-Account’s investment money at near $1M. Although terms of the investment were not revealed, Home-Account says they have been acquired by Bills.com.
Home-Account is similar travel site Kayak.com (that compares other travel sites like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc) and has free or paid options for mortgage purchases or refinancing. The concept is not exactly original, we’ve all heard of LendingTree.com, but like RateSpeed, Home-Account claims to streamline the process of finding “the right loan” with a dash of transparency.
Bills.com’s stated goal is to help people to improve their financial decision making capabilities, so their acquisition of Home-Account make perfect sense.
Home-Account offers users a free credit report, AVM, LTV calculation, DTI ratio, predicts likelihood of a consumer’s chance of getting the “best mortgage rates,” rates (“not market rates”), true cost comparison (including fees and “all costs”), and ability to lock a loan “which the lender has to abide by and cannot bait-and-switch (a common mortgage practice).”
The quotes above are from Bills.com’s description of Home-Account. Do you think this radical, almost anti-lender tone will attract users or will it empower lenders by pitting them against the automation of such a nuanced profession? It’s been around for nearly a year now and claims to have helped hundreds of people, so what do you think of Home-Account?
