Zillow Home Loans Mortgage Review 2024

How Bankrate scored Zillow Home Loans

• Affordability: You’ll need to complete an online prequalification request online in order to learn current mortgage rates for Zillow Home Loans. If you’re just beginning to explore options, this might make it more difficult to compare Zillow with other lenders.
• Availability: Zillow Home Loans offers conventional, jumbo and some government-backed loans. It doesn’t work with borrowers in New York at this time.
• Borrower experience: Zillow Home Loans has a user-friendly website and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

Affordability: 9.8/10

If you’re not ready for a conversation with a loan officer just yet, you might have a hard time comparing offers from Zillow Home Loans with others — the lender doesn’t display current rates on its website.

Availability: 10/10

Zillow Home Loans is available to borrowers in most states (not New York). It offers conventional (including jumbo) loans, FHA loans and VA loans, but not USDA loans.

Borrower experience: 3.8/10

Zillow Home Loans has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Often, you can get approved in two business days and close in just over 40, which is in line with the average application-to-closing timeline. Its website is designed to be easy to navigate, with homebuying educational resources and calculators to learn more about the mortgage process and estimate costs. Its customer service hours span Monday through Saturday.

Learn more: How to choose a mortgage lender

How to apply for a mortgage with Zillow Home Loans

You can apply for a mortgage with Zillow Home Loans online or by phone atl 888-852-2212. Here are some tips to prepare for the process:

1. Check your credit report. It’s important to take this step before your lender does, in case there are errors that could impact not only whether you get preapproved but also your ability to get the best mortgage rate. Knowing your credit score also helps you decide what type of loan to apply for. If your score is in the very low 600s, for instance, an FHA mortgage might be best for you, as its standards are more lenient than those for conventional loans.
2. Gather personal and financial documents. Provide documentation about your income, assets and debts. This includes pay stubs and W-2s and account and loan statements.
3. Provide details about the property. These details include the address of the home, and you might need an appraisal. (If you’re refinancing, you might or might not need an appraisal.)

Learn more: How to get a mortgage

Refinancing with Zillow Home Loans

Zillow Home Loans offers both rate-and-term and cash-out refinancing options. The lender doesn’t display its refinance rates or fees online, however, so you’ll need to connect with a loan officer to determine whether a refi is worth doing.

Learn more: When should you refinance your mortgage?

Special programs offered by Zillow

Zillow’s 1% Down Payment

Zillow Home Loans announced in 2023 its 1% Down Payment program. Initially offered on properties located in Arizona, the program lets borrowers who qualify put just 1 percent toward their down payment. Zillow Home Loans contributes an additional 2 percent at closing.

The program is for first-time homebuyers who make 80 percent of the median income in the area where they’re buying. So as a borrower, you have to thread the needle of making a low enough income to qualify for the program, but a high enough income to afford the monthly mortgage payments.

• Methodology

  To determine a mortgage lender's Bankrate Score, Bankrate rates lenders on a scale of one (1) to five (5) stars — with five (5) the highest rating — based on a variety of factors relating to the lender's products and services. To assign our ratings, we assessed each mortgage lender across three core areas:

  • Affordability. Annual percentage rate (APR) - 80%; assistance for first-time homebuyers - 10%; down payment - 10%

  • Availability. Loan products - 50%; licensing - 40%; credit score - 10%

  • Borrower experience. Rate transparency - 45%; customer service - 25%; convenience - 10%; days to close - 10%; rate locks - 10%; reputation (bonus)

  Learn more about our methodology.

  How we suggest lenders to compare

  To help you make the most informed decisions, our editorial team suggests two (2) alternative mortgage lenders for each lender reviewed in our comparison table. In most cases, these alternatives 1.) share the same strength (affordability, availability or borrower experience) as the lender reviewed; and 2.) rate highly for Bankrate Score. In the event more than two lenders meet these standards, we suggest the ones with the lowest APRs.