Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

closingwtf.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 175 posts

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#91

Post by lolinder »

AntiRush wrote: post #37
adamtaylor_13 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legitimately curious, what’s the worst they could do with this data?

The most common scams around home buying are wire fraud - contact the buyer pretending to be the title company and steal their money. The data in a mortgage is exactly what you need to enable these scams and you're getting people to hand it to you and at the same time tell you they are about to wire money.

Yep. When we closed on our house we got a whole lecture from the title company about how frequently data breaches lead to wire fraud and to not trust anyone. Mortgage originators are constantly under attack to try to get at the information that OP is asking people to just casually upload.

Their aggressive dismissal of the concern is not a good look.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#92

Post by aoppaol »

Good job on the product and launching @aaln!

I can see it being useful for many home buyers.

I’m curious if AI tools like this are just wrappers around ChatGPT? Do they use their own LLM?

If you upload mortgage documents directly to ChatGPT can you get similar results?

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#93

Post by ryandrake »

ziddoap wrote: post #81
fragmede wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42150219 was highly constructive. It was direct and actionable. kojeovo's original comment was less so. When you build a product, you're going to get random, in-actionable comments from people who just like to complain. Separating the signal from noise is difficult, and while there is a underlying concern about privacy, not giving anything actionable moves it towards to the noise…

Absolutely agree. Neither are "haters", though. And, speaking on quality of feedback, "ignore the haters" seems fairly low.

Yea, "ignore the haters" is terrible advice. It basically means "stay in a bubble where the only feedback you listen to is positive".

I won't even get into how ridiculous it is to consider anyone who disagrees with you a "hater."

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#94

Post by lolinder »

egorfine wrote: post #53
aaln wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, Aaron the builder here. The scamming that happens to homebuyers is not even comparable to the risk in uploading docs to a website which promises they won't share user data with anyone. This is genuinely a pro buyer tool with no association with any 3rd party. The tool has already helped many people negotiate and get a better deal on their mortgage. Please before judging understand that 70% of buyers overpay in t…

I am genuinely surprised by the comments in this thread. Privacy concerns are real but the importance of that matter in your project is overestimated here by an absurd level. What I read is not a constructive criticism and the suggestions laid down are not realistic nor business relevant at all. I feel like this is some sort of mass wishful thinking.

> Privacy concerns are real

This isn't about privacy, it's a security concern. People's life savings are on the line here, and the information OP is requesting is enough to pull off very sophisticated social engineering attacks. It's entirely reasonable to ask what they're going to do with that information and how they're keeping it secured, and their reaction to the questions is entirely inappropriate for someone who's asking for this degree of trust.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#95

Post by lawls »

aaln wrote: post #14
lawls wrote: post #3

I uploaded a mortgage I know well, and the results were pretty accurate.

Thanks, did you see any interesting insights you're comfortable sharing?

I was really just testing that the system works. I gave it a VA Home Loan and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary in the analysis.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#96

Post by lolinder »

293984j29384 wrote: post #9
kojeovo wrote: post #2

The privacy and security part is not inspiring confidence. Scrolling to the next section got me thinking "Don't get scammed at closing, get scammed before closing after uploading your mortgage documents to a random website." Cool idea though.

What sensitive data do you think is on a loan estimate? I've received a dozen over the years and it's literally just your name and the address of the property you want to buy. Both of which are public information if you do purchase the property.

We're talking about enough information to create a list of people who are in the process of making the largest purchase of their lives, coupled with the name of the businesses that they're considering sending money to and the exact dollar amounts that they're considering sending.

Scammers pay a lot of money to people who can get them those kinds of lists.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#97

Post by cj »

ziddoap wrote: post #83
cj wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The percentage of regular people who care about any of the risks discussed in this thread is approximately zero. For better or worse. Your typical home buyer isn't reading the contract they sign when they buy a home, let alone the privacy policy of a simple tool they use to check if they have a mortgage with decent terms.

When people who do care about privacy and security make their voices heard, such as the case here where the owner has committed to improving their policy & processes, it benefits everyone using the product or service.

It’s not in the spirit of a “Show HN” to attack the guy’s privacy policy and shut down the idea over security concerns that the general public wouldn’t think twice about.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#98

Post by ziddoap »

cj wrote: post #97
ziddoap wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people who do care about privacy and security make their voices heard, such as the case here where the owner has committed to improving their policy & processes, it benefits everyone using the product or service.

It’s not in the spirit of a “Show HN” to attack the guy’s privacy policy and shut down the idea over security concerns that the general public wouldn’t think twice about.

No one "attacked" the author.

The first comment said "not inspiring confidence" and then WaitWaitWha gave a very thoughtful comment with actionable advice, based on that comment and the reply. These are not attacks.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#99

Post by chourobin »

aaln wrote: post #5
kojeovo wrote: post #2

The privacy and security part is not inspiring confidence. Scrolling to the next section got me thinking "Don't get scammed at closing, get scammed before closing after uploading your mortgage documents to a random website." Cool idea though.

Hey, Aaron the builder here. The scamming that happens to homebuyers is not even comparable to the risk in uploading docs to a website which promises they won't share user data with anyone. This is genuinely a pro buyer tool with no association with any 3rd party. The tool has already helped many people negotiate and get a better deal on their mortgage. Please before judging understand that 70% of buyers overpay in t…

Great idea and execution. I understand the privacy concerns, but I believe implementing a client-side redaction step could alleviate some of them. This step would allow users to preview their uploaded content before submitting it. While designing this feature, it’s crucial to ensure user trust and convince them of its benefits. Personally, I would feel more comfortable uploading a PDF knowing that it will be anonymized or redacted before being submitted.

Re: Show HN: Free mortgage analysis tool to avoid getting screwed by closing costs

#100

Post by doctorpangloss »

asdasdsddd wrote: post #74
doctorpangloss wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The goal is to help mortgage borrowers get better deals on their mortgage. I don't get it. Better, LendingTree, Credible, Bankrate, and a dozen other firms all aggregate mortgages. If there are some "best" mortgages in absolute terms, show them, you don't need anything on the form to do that; if there are offers that have lower upfront costs in exchange for higher rates, because the buyer is sensitive to upfront co…

The things you're mentioning allows you to compare mostly rates and points, but they don't do anything for origination or third party fees which can vary wildly from lender to lender. These fees MUST be disclosed in the loan estimate or the closing disclosure and its pretty much the only place you'll find them

Once I selected the offer, Better partner’s disclosure exactly matched the numbers shown in the comparisons. In other words the prices they quoted were accurate. Are you saying that they still are not?

Anyway, if you aggregated mortgage offers, you can do whatever you want. Make them as truthful and accurate as you want. Then you’d fulfill your goal, and you’d never need to see my documents. So why do you really need the documents? What is the angle?

Post reply on HN