I Submitted My Information, So Whats Next?
June 20th, 2008 Categories: General
We ’soft launched’ a working demonstration of the RateSpeed application late Monday afternoon and it’s created a storm of activity and opinion from those in and outside the industry. If anyone’s interested in reading a mile long comment thread thats far more interesting than the post, click on over to Active Rain.
There is such a love/hate relationship over this little application. While the love is great, its the hate that fascinates me. Hearing the virile comments from those in the mortgage industry reminds me of what happened in the real estate industry when greater access to property listing data was feverishly debated. RateSpeed is similarly akin to cracking open Pandora’s Box in the mortgage industry for consumers and professionals…opening Pandoras Box always sets off fireworks and usually changes how people percieve a given reality…once open, its almost impossible to close.
So what’s next? Well I didn’t plan on such a flurry of activity and interest so quickly. The plan was soft launch, contact some well respected folks in the mortgage industry get their opinion and see if 25 of them would like to take part in a Beta test over the next week to ten days. We would run the beta period for about 4 weeks, collect some invaluable feedback, make some adjustments in how the application worked and then do a formal launch. Well, I’ve been contacted by far more than 25 interested parties, ranging from the individual mortgage broker to technology companies to real estate agencies all inquiring as to how they can get involved with the RateSpeed initiative on too many levels to discuss at this time.
At this time on Friday, June 20th the plan moving forward is to go through the database of interested parties over the weekend and begin to select our 25 beta testers. I’ve already got a few hand selected with verbal commitments and will announce who they are starting Tuesday of next week. If you’ve submitted your information via the site or email, thank you, I’ll be reaching out to each one of you very soon. If you are not selected as a beta tester please don’t take it wrong, this wont be an easy process for me with so many quality mortgage professionals expressing interest, I just ask that you be a little patient and welcome the chance to be amongst the early adopters when we hard launch.
On a different level, a very common question I get is: What happens when I provide my (email) information to RateSpeed?
It’s privately filed away on our secure servers, so don’t expect a call from a mortgage professional or anyone else for that matter. We do not, will not sell or disclose your information to anyone. The application running on the www.ratespeed.com site is redisplaying rates and pricing available on the wholesale market so consumers, mortgage professionals and real estate pro’s can get a feel for it’s accuracy. It’s basically out there so everyone can put it and the quality of information it returns to the litmus test. So far, so good. I’ve had dozens of licensed mortgage professionals contact me and verify that what is being displayed is exactly the same information they receive from their wholesale or correspondent relationships and can deliver. Huzzah!
Anyways, its been a long week. I need a beer.
