The competition includes both other Web startups and big offline lenders like Countrywide. With such high stakes, the list will only get longer. The online mortgage industry is divided into two camps. One group uses a referral model, while the other processes loans internally. Intuit's QuickenMortgage, Microsoft's HomeAdvisor and LendingTree use a referral model.
Referral firms are essentially marketplaces.
They deliver quotes from lender partners and get paid upon delivery of new customers. Whether the industry has room for both camps is an unanswered question. With that model, you have to keep banks and consumers happy. In fact, all you really have to do is keep consumers happy. Intuit's QuickenMortgage, a close second in the market behind E-Loan, is still debating internally about whether the referral model will survive.