Shopping for a home purchase mortgage on the Internet is a lot like Web shopping for a new car.

Car shoppers log on to search out invoice vs. mark-up prices, options, colors and performance features, but when it's time to plunk down their cash, they take their findings to the local auto broker to make the purchase.

Those habits bode well for local mortgage brokers who stand to up their slice of the home purchase mortgage pie from the current 65 to 70 percent market share to 80 percent by 2005, according to Scott Cooley, president of Campbell, CA-based Contour Software, an electronic mortgage software maker with some 40,000 outstanding licenses.

"If that car turns out to be a lemon, you want to be able to go down to where you made the purchase. There's a lot to be said for the local company's involvement in your purchase," Cooley said.

Cooley's comments were recorded recently on his annual look ahead at the online mortgage market. They point to a future where mortgage consumers' choices flourish in the virtual world just as they have in the brick and mortar market place.

He says the hand-holding first-time home buyers need will boost local mortgage brokers' hold on the market as larger wholesalers like Countrywide and Norwest Mortgage continue their stronghold on the refinance and home equity markets.

"Large servicers of the world are going to have one-click refis. You go to the Web site and they pretty much do it for you. Home equity is going to be pure Internet play. You don't need the hand holding. It's all rate, rate, rate. There is not the service level you need to close on a house," said Cooley.

In his annual forecast for the online mortgage industry, Cooley's forecast includes:

For the industry

Published: January 13, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.