America Online, Inc. today
unveiled its Mortgage section in the online service’s Personal Finance Channel featuring financial software provider Intuit Inc.’s QuickenMortgage.
Today’s QuickenMortgage launch on AOL is part of a three-year, multi-million dollar alliance reached between the two companies in February.
The agreement named Intuit as a main financial content provider for AOL’s Personal Finance Channel, and provider of Quicken.com content and programming in the Personal Finance Web Channel on AOL’s Web site.
Overshadowing the launch is news that Microsoft plans to debut its
Microsoft Home Advisor real estate
Web site next week. Divided into Getting Started, Neighborhoods, Homes, Financing, and Offer and Closing categories, the site will feature national loan companies including American Finance, HomeSide Lending, and Principal Residential Mortgage.
Other sites that will compete with both AOL and Microsoft in the online real estate arena include Yahoo!, E-Loan Inc., GetSmart and HomeShark Inc.
Intuit’s QuickenMortgage presence on AOL’s Real Estate Center includes mortgage editorial content, prequalification applications, comparison rates and mortgage applications from 11 U.S. lenders. QuickenMortgage also displays more than 600,000 real estate listings, and claims a monthly audience of 500,000 visitors, according to the company.
In addition, AOL said that through use of QuickenMortgage features, its
members will be able to determine current mortgage refinancing strategies
and get current rates and other relevant local data in their area.
The AOL Real Estate Center contains categories such as Looking, Selling,
Renting, Moving, and Mortgages, and includes financial calculators and more
than a million home listings through content partners such as Realtor.com.
“Our partnership with AOL brings a leading online mortgage service the
leading consumer Internet
online service, providing big wins for consumers and access to millions of
online customers for our
participating financial institutions,” said Bill Harris, Vice President of
Intuit. “This extends the reach of QuickenMortgage and Quicken.com to many
new consumers, and provides them apples-to-apples comparisons of mortgages
from 11 different lenders–helping them to find the mortgage that best
meets their needs.”
