LendingTree rumorville has been making some recent noise.

First, lets start with items that are not rumors. This Monday marked the last days at Tree.com for both the CMO and CTO. Both apparently resigned from their positions at Tree.com two weeks and are now on to bigger and better things. Good luck to them both.

These resignations are fairly strange in my opinion, though. To have two key positions resign on the same day leads people to make a number of speculations. Did they really resign or were they asked to leave? Is the company simply cutting employees with high salaries, regardless of the persons contributions? This would seem strange, in light of LT renewing its PGA partnership in a year where PGA viewership will be way down with the absence of Tiger Woods on tour. Who knows, maybe they received a significant discount for the sponsorship this year.

The word on the street also claims that LT was in discussions with Quicken Loans regarding an acquisition, however the QL offer was lower then Lebda’s expected. I think for a company to acquire LT they will have to fully understand the risk. Yes, the company has been around for a while, but their new brand message is still fairly unproven. I speculate that the new branding and messaging is not gaining the response they were looking for.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that Lebda is scheduled to make a big announcement at LeadsCon this year during the “Launch Spotlight” session. I guessing it is not going to be their new iPhone app. Any ideas?

It is going to be an interesting to see what LT has in store for 2010, let alone LeadsCon.

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While all the hoopla went on today about the new iPad a smaller Apple application was released.

Today LendingTree released their own iPhone application called the “mortgage rate finder”. This new app allows iPhone users to shop mortgage rates on their phone. Frankly, not all that exciting. I am not really sure how you make searching for mortgage rates exciting and this app probably won’t make the top 25 list for free apps either, but I think the app can be useful for some.

Here are a few images of the application.

The tool is actually kind of cool. It requires that the user completes about 8 fields of personal data and then from that data is given up to 30 results. From those results the user can then browse through the different rates and choose companies they would like to receive more information from. The app is very easy to use and presents results very quickly. Overall the app was built very well.

Who would get the most out of this app. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is Joe Home Owner. I think the people who are going to benefit most from this app are going to be real estate professionals. The ability to quickly pull rates based on just a few key specifications could be very helpful when discussing a new home purchase with a client. While viewing homes or discussing  loan prices with a client an agent could easily reference real rates. They could even introduce the client to a bank that is posting the lowest rate and I think there is a value in app like that.

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There is nothing worse then being laid off, I know personally. I also know there is nothing worse then having to lay people off. What I don’t know first hand is having to go through either of these two scenarios right before Christmas.

Unfortunately, Tree.com employees, approximately 70 or so , were laid off today and know that there is nothing worse then being laid off right before Christmas. First, I hope the best for these people and hope that this turns into a blessing rather then a curse.

This recent cut was a dramatic move by management and coupling it with the recent pricing model change only leads me to speculate that LendingTree is still struggling in the mortgage space. I can’t imagine that this statement is completely shocking to anyone, however based on what other mortgage lead gen companies have discussed with me and the gradual recovery they are currently claiming, it is slightly surprising. I have to further speculate that the change from the closed loan fees to the more traditional upfront CPL fee, that are in most cases higher then their competitors CPL fees, is going to stifle new sales and make a recovery difficult. As I mentioned in a past post, lenders are looking to mitigate their risks and one very attractive way of doing so was by paying a smaller up front lead price and a significant closed loan fee. Even then, and frankly is probably why LT went to the up front fee, lenders struggled to close enough loans to back out an appropriate cost per loan. Additionally, there are fewer lenders in the industry which does not help the recovery.

2010 is going to be interesting for Tree.com. I don’t suspect Lebda is going to simply lay down. Remember he has got his own money on the line now. As evidence, he is already making the tough changes at the toughest times with today’s cuts.

I wish all of those people who are left without a job the best and hope for a quick rebound.

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Last week Mortech put out a press release announcing that there were big things to come in 2010 from their company. The release follows the dismissal of a lawsuit brought on by former business partner LendingTree. We all know about the LendingTree/Mortech suit so there is no need to go into it again, but if you are not aware you can get your self caught up here and here.

This announcement is interesting and humorous at the same time, because clearly has an underlying  agenda. Here is what I interpreted it to be saying, “Yeah, we got the shake down from LT. Yes, they don’t want to work with us any longer, but we are still going to serve their clients and guess what, we are still going to work with Search Engines. In fact, we are also going to take our technology and build out our own rate marketplace and compete directly against you.” This was no kiss and make up press release. Here are a few key snippets:

“By partnering with businesses that have a high degree of visibility to this audience, we can help improve that process. Additional companies in the space, whether it is a search engine company or another lead aggregator, will only solidify and advance the future of online lending. Mortech is ready for that future.”

“After a record-breaking 2009, we’re really looking forward to a successful 2010,” said Kracl. “All the changes in the mortgage industry haven’t slowed us down at all; actually they’ve inspired us. Not only are we growing our partnerships with search engine companies, but we’re also partnering with several loan origination software providers, real estate businesses and title insurance companies in order to provide additional resources to the mortgage community.”

Another significant product Mortech is currently developing is a service called The Marksman Marketplace. This dynamic solution includes leveraging established websites to create a unique revenue stream. The lead generation process involves instantly linking borrowers directly to lenders. For example, when a home buyer visits a real estate website, locates a home and then wants to get mortgage information, The Marksman Marketplace solution will launch and provide current rate quotes directly from lenders. Without leaving the website, potential home buyers will be able to see instant rate offers from lenders within seconds.

I can’t imagine Doug Lebda is too pleased with this release, being that he tried to stop many of these things from ever happening with the recent suit.

A little over a week ago LendingTree sent out an email to its lenders stating that they will be working with LoanXEngine as their preferred pricing engine. What does preferred mean for the lenders? Basically it means if you are working with any other pricing engine you are going to be hard pressed to get any technical support. They also stated a cut off date for the support of “other” pricing engines to be Feb. 18th 2010.

While I am on the topic of LendingTree, I might as well mention that they removed their closed loan fee from their fixed filter leads. No more will lenders need to pay their hefty fee for every closed loan, but that does not mean the leads just got cheaper or your ROI is going up. Instead the up front fees went up to compensate for the change. Prices are now range from $20 to $100 per lead. Now let us not forget that you are paying for a long form lead, so with the premium prices you are getting additional data and hopefully a consumer with strong intent to borrow. This puts LT in a the same boat as their competitors with regards to upfront risk of buying a lead. Prior to this change a lender would have no problem paying a fee for a loan they profited on, but now to pay a premium with out the guarantee of closing the lead makes LT look a whole lot riskier for the new lenders coming aboard their network. This will probably not affect the established lenders on the network, because they are already familiar with the conversaion rates of LT leads and will know if the CPL’s will work or not.

This is certainly shaping up to be an interesting 2010 for the mortgage lead gen space!

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Big news today.

As reported early LendingTree has dropped the lawsuit against Mortech. The lawsuit claimed that Mortech broke the confidentiality agreement between the two companies and infringed on their contract by working with Google on their new mortgage rate tables. This lawsuit leaked news that Google is currently working on a U.S. based mortgage rate table that could possibly open the door into the lead generation industry for Google.

The announcement today now brings up new questions about the facts of this case. Did LendingTree have a leg to stand on with this lawsuit. The allegation were very serious and to simply resolve the issue outside of court doesn’t seem to make sense. If in fact Mortech was sharing information or violated the contract, and judging by the severity of the allegations, why would LendingTree simply drop the case? Maybe there was no case at all. Maybe this was simply an overzealous power trip move created from the ego of CEO Doug Lebda.

Regardless, a message was passed along to LendingTree lenders that the dispute was over and LendingTree would begin having discussion with other pricing engines. So, while the dispute is over inside the courthouse it certainly isn’t going to be business as usual for the partnership.

Word is that LT is looking for another exclusive relationship, which may be difficult to find. My guess is that they are weighing the pros and cons of acquiring a company with the technology already built out. In many cases it easier to partner with a company and demand an exclusive relationship, but if the choices are few they may not have a any other option other then to build out their own technology or acquire it from another company.

I am sure we will here more from LT in the coming days.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LendingTree, LLC and Mortech, Inc. have resolved their lawsuit to the mutual satisfaction of both parties, and the lawsuit has been dismissed.

More details to come.

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I don’t have the privilege of attending the LendingTree Summits, but this year I was able to follow the daily happenings via good’ol Twitter! So here is a ValleyWag type twitter summation of what went down at this years event in Las Vegas courtesy of these twitterers:

So let me try to piece together these tweets so they make a little sense. The first topic that popped up was regarding John Amatt, Mt. Everest expedition leader.

Next Darren Beck, the CMO of Tree.com, discussed the new strategy that puts the consumer in control.

On the same topic, but the following day Doug Lebda discusses the direction of Tree.com and its future.

A very good question! I think what needs to be realized is that the LendingTree Summit will soon be inviting other verticals to attend. Its not going to be just mortgage anymore. The move into other verticals and the goal of being involved in every “big decision” in a persons life is obviously going to spread the focus from mortgage to other verticals. Now, they will add specific teams to focus on the new verticals, but regardless, the focus will not longer be solely on mortgage.

This is interesting, not sure what this means. Are they posting listings? Running ads on the site? Maybe someone can explain.

This is another interesting move. Similar to what MortgageLoan.com created years ago, LT will build on that same concept and create an LO directory. This will add locally targeted content to the site and boost SEO, which is much needed for LT. The side benefit is that it adds a social element to the site where the consumers will be able to grade the actual Loan Officers, not just the company.

Finally, they had their annual awards dinner and here are some of the winners:

CharterOne for Top HELOC performer:

That is Twitter recap of the LendingTree Summit 2009. Any comments or statements from actual attendees would be great! lol

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Over a year ago Google began testing a mortgage rate search within their Merchant Search platform in the UK. Not much more then a few blog post here and there discussed the new search tool. Most couldn’t imagine it going much further then just a simple test and the fact that it was circled around generating calls, not specifically data leads, added to the passive concern of so many.

With the new LendingTree suit against Mortech and the revelation of Google’s continued interest in breaking into the mortgage lead generation industry it has proven that the UK test was not performed on a whim and they did have long term intentions. What can be debated is what those intentions truly are. I think to do this we have take a look at more then simply the disheveled mortgage lead generation industry, but the online marketing industry as a whole.

Over the last 5-6 years the online advertising space has been shifting from the typical impression based pricing to click based pricing and more recently to the action based pricing model. In fact, in 2006 Google released the option within Adwords to work within the CPA pricing model, however I frankly don’t know what ever came of it. For that reason I don’t think much of anything ever did, but that may not be the case. Correct me if I a wrong. Regardless, Google noticed the shift and acted. Now, I speculate that they are continuing to act with the UK experiment and the current development of building out a mortgage loan pricing engine of sorts.

How are they going to use the Mortech technology, if LendingTree isn’t able to put a stop to it? Its my guess that they are going to allow people to price out their own loans, possibly allow the consumer to own their loan information or simply sell those inquiries on a per lead price. If this is their intent, my immediate question is where will it end? What will stop Google from running their own lead generation strategies in any other vertical?

I don’t think it is out of the question that Google would continue its push to a CPA based network and continuing to add more control over different verticals at the same time. There are verticals, like mortgage, where Google could easily bring clarity to the consumer as well as consolidate the wide range of quality and transparency issues. A platform similar to the UK merchant search, if positioned highly in the SERPs could easily affect a number of companies generating leads in the mortgage space. My guess, however is that it wouldn’t eliminate the competition completely, but it would make it much smaller. The shift to all encompassing portals with detailed content and information will have to be the norm. Simple arbitrage and landing page type marketing will not be able to compete.

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It was all over the Internet today that LendingTree has filed a lawsuit against service provider and 2008 “Innovator of the Year” , Mortech. The suit accuses Mortech of contract infringement and breaking their confidentiality agreement.

About two years ago LendingTree partnered with Mortech and recently became aware of their communications and possible partnership with the Google, whom over the past year has been quietly figuring out the real estate and mortgage lead generation industry. This suit may have inadvertently leaked the launch of a Google’s rate table application and lead generation process. This project has been rumored for a while and is an interesting topic on its own, but clearly is a threat to the mortgage lead gen world and more specifically LendingTree. This suit, while directed at Mortech, could be a foot in the door for LT to stall the launch of the new Google service. The reality is that there are a number of Mortech like companies and the actual pricing engine technology is not proprietary to just Mortech. If LendingTree can somehow prove that Mortech leaked information about LendingTree developments and future plans or have possibly used their knowledge learned from LendingTree to benefit Google, they may be able to throw a wrench into Google’s plans indefinitely.

“We will vigorously protect our contractual rights, our company, our customers and our clients in this matter,” CEO Doug Lebda said in a statement.

Regardless of the motives, LT seems to think they have a strong enough case to take this past the initial, “please, stop doing that” requests.

So what do you think? Is this all to disrupt Google’s plan to enter into the lead gen business or is this only a Mortech and LendingTree contract infringement case and that’s it?

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