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

closingwtf.com

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

#121

Post by KPGv2 »

effingwewt wrote: post #35
mannyv wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignore the haters, they will probably never be your customer.

Ah the Disney approach. Bold strategy Cotton. Owner did the smart thing and listened to the constructive criticism which made me feel infinitely better about using his tool. Which I will now do, and would not have before. I am also his exact customer.

> Ah the Disney approach. Bold strategy Cotton.

The Disney approach, if successful, would make you very rich. Their approach has made them one of the most powerful companies in the world.

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

#122

Post by stouset »

aaln wrote: post #110
lolinder wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am not dismissing the concern, I was stating the tool solves an even larger concern. I'm doing everything I can to setup it up to be secure, private, and worthy of trust and addressing the feedback points. If you have suggestions more than "don't trust this random internet tool even if it gives you free advice, regardless of the value it offers", please let me know [thanks emoji]

With all due respect, that is the fundamental problem here. Your tool may provide value to your users but uploading mortgage documents to random third parties is de facto dangerous and encouraging users to act irresponsibly.

A great analogy would be a website that asks users to provide their usernames and passwords for sites to see if it’s a strong password or if it’s been compromised. “Sorry, the credentials stouset / hunter2 were found in our database for Hacker News.”

Sure maybe you’re a saint and don’t store or misuse this data. But such a site would in the best case be training users to do a very wrong and dangerous thing. In the worst case you get breached by attackers who do use the collected data to do evil.

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

#123

Post by t0mas88 »

ryandrake wrote: post #85
gsharma wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The deal isn’t always about the price. For example, a $1M house bought with $100K down and $900K mortgage is a worse deal for the seller as compared to $500K down and $500K financed. Assumption here is that it is more likely to get a $500K loan irrespective of the appraised value of the house. A lower all cash offer (say $975K) is likely a better offer for the seller because it reduces the risk for them and closes th…

As a home buyer, I've been beaten many times by an all-cash offer that was significantly lower than my financed offer. For example, a $450K all-cash offer where they'd close in 7 days beat my $525K 80/20 offer where it would have taken me 25+ days to close.

This makes sense for the seller depending on how often a financed offer falls through. Our agent mentioned that in Amsterdam for example over 1/3rd of the offers with a financing condition fall through. And they do so weeks after the signing of the agreement so it costs the seller significant time and money.

With such a high chance of not actually getting the sale done, sellers are motivated to take 475 immediate cash instead of 525 with a 1/3rd risk of having to do it all over. Especially if they need the cash to buy their next home.

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

#125

Post by blitzar »

davchana wrote: post #116
zie wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire Transfers are not undoable and instant, much like Zelle. So I always recommend people send $10 first, and confirm everything works, before sending real money. When doing the confirmation, try using a different channel of communication, to ensure you are getting the right person. i.e. call them directly from known good phone numbers or something. Yes many banks charge $30 or more for a wire transfer, but I'd rath…

Is it too paranoid that even for first time Zelle (with people I know in real life) I send a $ and ask them to see if they received it, before sending anything else?

I do / did this between my own bank accounts when entering details the first time.

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

#127

Post by trollbridge »

aaln wrote: post #13
niyogi wrote: post #4

here, take my data but tell me nothing about yourself.

It's a really new tool I quickly launched last week, there's a terms of service and privacy policy that gives info. https://closing.wtf/terms-of-service https://closing.wtf/privacy-policy I plan to go through SOC 2 / other compliancy certification in the near future. Happy to answer other questions

What, exactly, does SOC 2 have to do with anything?

Can you answer the question of why this tool doesn’t work when redacting irrelevant personal information? I took my own info, redacted personal information you don’t need, and it doesn’t work.

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

#128

Post by trollbridge »

A side business I have is people who contact me because they just got scammed or need help knowing if something is a scam.

One of the things I tell them is to never upload financial documents containing personal information unless:

- The company they’re uploading it to is well known like a major bank and the domain in the address bar matches.

- They know the company they’re dealing with - which means a business address at a minimum and preferably a phone number.

- Avoid anything which claims to save money or be necessary which has a call to action to start uploading personal, documents.

This site fails all 3 tests. I was able to find the founder via the name and LinkedIn link. But at least put up a legitimate business name and something like a PO Box.

Registering a business name is $35 where this developer is located. A PO Box is around $80 a year. The name “closing.wtf” doesn’t seem to be registered with the state as a legitimate business. These are all red flags to “avoid”.

If you’d like a free cybersecurity analysis of your site, I’d be happy to offer a few free expert consulting hours to aain. Reply here and I’ll contact you on LinkedIn.

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

#129

Post by taxcoder »

aaln wrote: post #110
lolinder wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am not dismissing the concern, I was stating the tool solves an even larger concern. I'm doing everything I can to setup it up to be secure, private, and worthy of trust and addressing the feedback points. If you have suggestions more than "don't trust this random internet tool even if it gives you free advice, regardless of the value it offers", please let me know [thanks emoji]

On a per individual basis, I think most individuals would prefer to overpay mortgage fees slightly rather than lose the entirety of the money they wire.

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

#130

Post by lolinder »

stouset wrote: post #122
aaln wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not dismissing the concern, I was stating the tool solves an even larger concern. I'm doing everything I can to setup it up to be secure, private, and worthy of trust and addressing the feedback points. If you have suggestions more than "don't trust this random internet tool even if it gives you free advice, regardless of the value it offers", please let me know [thanks emoji]

With all due respect, that is the fundamental problem here. Your tool may provide value to your users but uploading mortgage documents to random third parties is de facto dangerous and encouraging users to act irresponsibly. A great analogy would be a website that asks users to provide their usernames and passwords for sites to see if it’s a strong password or if it’s been compromised. “Sorry, the credentials stouset…

> A great analogy would be a website that asks users to provide their usernames and passwords for sites to see if it’s a strong password or if it’s been compromised. “Sorry, the credentials stouset / hunter2 were found in our database for Hacker News.”

This is actually a really good analogy because it does illustrate that it's not a completely crazy ask—people do trust Troy Hunt to run such a site. But OP should be much more understanding of how dangerous the concept is and offer options to resolve concerns (Troy allows downloading the passwords list to check locally), especially while they're not Troy Hunt-level famous and still are trying to build up trust.

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