Getting a home mortgage used to take weeks of phone calls and paperwork. Now, real estate search platforms like Zillow and Redfin offer comprehensive, nearly one-click homebuying. But what are the hidden costs of trusting these industry giants with every step of the process?
Today on Lever Time, producer Natalie Bettendorf speaks with Lever reporter Helen Santoro about her investigation into how these one-stop real estate shops may actually be hurting homebuyers — and the U.S. economy.
You can read Helen Santoro’s story here, and a follow-up story here.
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A full transcript of today’s episode is available below.
TRANSCRIPT
Following is an automated, unedited transcription of this episode. If you plan to quote any part of this transcript, please first confirm that it is correct by listening to the audio.
[00:00:00] Natalie Bettendorf: From The Lever's reader supported newsroom, this is Lever Time. I'm Natalie Bettendorf, filling in for David Sirota. Getting a home loan used to mean weeks of phone calls and paperwork, but now it's gotten easier. Maybe too easy. A recent investigation from our team at The Lever found that real estate sites Zillow and Redfin are trapping consumers and pushing out competition with their one-stop shop models.
A lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission last week backs this up, claiming that the company's violated antitrust laws. So today on Lever Time, we're going to show you how these real estate titans are corralling users into bad deals. Seizing the reigns of the trillion dollar mortgage market and potentially heightening the risk of a financial meltdown.
