Lending Tree Mortgage Review

Author: Rob K. Blake | Date: October 20, 2008 | Filed In: Mortgage Company

LendingTree, LLC is primarily a lead generation website located at LendingTree.com. In reality most mortgage website are lead generation website, but Lending Tree was one of the first and most profitable due in part to their omnipresent TV commercials shouting the dubious message, “When Banks Compete, You Win”.

Lending Tree claims to have garnered more than 23 million loan requests since going online in 1998. The parent company Tree.com Inc, is traded on the NASDAQ: TREE.

Our review is only of the mortgage side of Lending Tree and is not flattering. We located three telephone numbers, one website, a list of complaints and lawsuits against them.

LendingTree Website and Phone Contacts

Lending Tree Website: http://www.lendingtree.com/
Lending Tree Phone:
(800) 399-9514
(704) 541-5351
(704) 943-8726

Fax: (704) 944-8625
Address: 11115 Rushmore Dr, Charlotte, NC 28277-3442

Lending Tree Mortgage Review

Lending Tree is a glorified lead generation website, only they profit more from referring clients to retail mortgage originators than most. Lending Tree gets paid two ways…by those originating companies who want to benefit from referrals and from the clients themselves in a roundabout way.

Participating mortgage companies pay a sizable fee to be on the system…up-wards of $20,000.

Clients pay a “pass through” fee at closing for what HUD calls a CLO (Computer Loan Origination) fee…usually between $600-$800. However, Lending Tree is clever. They say this is NOT paid to Lending Tree by the client, but the by the eventual Lender…which technically is true. Of course, the Lender most likely will increase their fees to you, the client, to cover the CLO fee to Lending Tree. So in the end, you pay for the “luxury” of have 4 originating mortgage companies hound you to death to get your mortgage business.

This clever semantic game with their CLO fees does two things: It skirts any RESPA regulations that prohibit “unearned fees” or pass-through fees, since the RESPA reform in 1996 conveniently failed to address “lender paid CLO fees” (only addressing “client paid” CLO fees) and it enormously helps Lending Tree in marketing to the public since they can claim they have no user fees as they do in their “Fees” paragraph on their website …

“Fees. LendingTree does not charge you any fee for its services. LendingTree receives its compensation from the Lenders or Providers for the goods, facilities and services provided by LendingTree. LendingTree’s compensation varies by product and service. Computerized loan origination fees paid by the Lender may be included in your rate, points or term and will be shown on your settlement statement. Although some state licensing laws treat fees paid in exchange for computerized loan origination services as mortgage broker fees or origination fees, this is not the case under federal law. See the Terms of Use Agreement for details.”

Lending Tree also cleverly sidesteps any State or Federal credit consumer protection laws by stating once again your use of their site is NOT an application for credit (sure looks like one to me) just a simple provider matching request. There are no laws covering “matching services”, but there are a ton of disclosure laws covering mortgage applications…none of which apply to Lending Tree…the credit disclosure from their website reads….

“Credit. Any loan request you submit is NOT an application for credit. Rather, it is a request to be matched with Lenders to receive conditional loan offers from Lenders. You may have to complete an application with a Lender before they will extend an unconditional loan offer. A Lender you select may require you to pay an application or other fee to cover the costs of an appraisal, credit report or other items. The Lender will determine the amount of any such fee and should provide information to you regarding the refundability of any such fee.”

In our investigation we uncovered a large number of customer complaints and at least one lawsuit. In my opinion, all computer based mortgage referral systems cannot hold a candle to an educated shopper when it comes to getting the best mortgage.

If you are seeking a mortgage and want to learn just how to find the best deal, the only true way to achieve this by learning how. There is no short cut. We have made it easier and the step-by-step process we developed in The Mortgage Advantage, is the easiest way available. More importantly it works! Click here to learn more…

I searched for complaints against Lending Tree, there are many. Click the linkto see all the Lending Tree complaints listed in Google.

BBB Activity on LendingTree LLC

“BBB processed a total of 289 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 289 complaints closed in 36 months, 61 were closed in the last year.”

BBB lists the following DBA names as well,
Lendingtree.com
Getsmart.com
Realestate.com
Domania.com

See Comments Below to Add/Read Customer Opinions On LendingTree Mortgage Services

Author: Rob K. Blake