Customer: Zillow Home Loans

Unlocking the path to homeownership

Zillow Home Loans’ mission is clear: to give homebuyers the power to unlock life's next chapter. For the millions of Americans in the market for a home, this means making the mortgage process faster, easier, and more transparent. 

With real estate prices at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever for the company to understand how much borrowers can truly afford. Doing so requires access to accurate, verified data about their assets. 

That’s where Plaid comes in.

More pre-approvals—faster 

Prior to integrating Plaid, verifying prospective borrowers’ finances could feel slow and arduous for Zillow Home Loans loan officers, despite the company’s use of a digital verification solution. 

As Mari Masolini, Director of Product Management at Zillow Home Loans, explained: “We were looking for a way to better understand what borrowers could afford while simplifying the mortgage process for them. Streamlined access to verified financial data is critical to our ability to offer the right solutions—and we found that in Plaid.”

Indeed, the company is now able to automatically pull real-time cash flow data directly from a potential borrower’s connected accounts, eliminating the need for manual document uploads. 

The resulting report from Plaid—which offers a single consolidated summary of the borrower’s accounts across financial institutions—has enabled Zillow Home Loans to pre-approve 3.2x more loans that have digitally verified assets than with their previous vendor. It also sped up the underwriting process: Applications with Plaid are pre-approved 29% faster than those without.


Reducing obstacles for borrowers

But those aren’t the only numbers that have improved substantially. Since integrating Plaid, Zillow Home Loans has seen a remarkable 511% increase in the number of loans eligible for representations and warranties relief through GSE programs. This reduces the need to request additional documentation, saving time and lowering friction.

Coupled with a general decrease in human error, this enhanced the overall efficiency of loan officers, who save time with the easy-to-navigate reports. As a result, they can shift their focus away from handling paperwork and concentrate on building stronger customer relationships.

A partnership built on trust

According to Masolini, the fact that Plaid is a well-known product experience can’t be underestimated in relation to these upticks. “One in three consumers that have a bank account have already used Plaid to connect their financial accounts. It’s a solution our customers know and trust—and that means a lot.”

Plaid is appreciated internally, too, as is its ease of integration. To get started quickly and with little drain on resources, Zillow Home Loans initially opted for Plaid’s low-code solution, Hosted Link, before eventually integrating Plaid into its own system.

“From the very first day, the entire experience has been a positive one,” continued Masolini. “Plaid’s support team was outstanding to work with, and they’re consistently proactive about alerting us to changes in their product. 


More success ahead 

Despite fluctuations in the housing market, Zillow Home Loans has remained steadfast in its mission and objectives for growth. In fact, the company’s mortgage revenue increased 63% year over year in the most recent quarter.

“Plaid has been an integral part of our success,” said Masolini. “By leveraging its capabilities, we’re able to better help our customers finance their next home with ease.”