Mortgage Site Boasts Wealth of Information

Mortgage Associates of Northwest Arkansas Inc.
Bella Vista
www.mortgageassociatesnwa.com

This Web site has to have the longest URL of any we’ve reviewed. It also probably has more useful information and interactive tools than any other local Internet presence we’ve seen.

Mortgage Associates of Northwest Arkansas Inc. gives its customers a truly interactive edge for buying or prospecting new homes and real estate over the Internet. We especially liked the home loan prequalification pages and Mortgage 101 — a tutorial section with more than 174 pages of information and interactive tools for learning about home loans.

This section alone could cut down on tons of questions during the actual buying process. Add the sections for rate information and submitting an actual home loan application, and potential homeowners have a one-stop shopping site for property in Northwest Arkansas.

The site also has mortgage principal, amortization and affordability calculators that enable surfers to completely plan their payment schedules.

One of our reviewers described the site as cleanly formatted and efficiently organized. The site is maintained by LionInc.com Network of Renton, Wash., which manages a number of interactive real estate sites for organizations around the country.

We assume that because of a posted copyright, the site was started in 1998, but there is no history of its development online.

Another reviewer said Mortgage Associates made good use of its “golf pin” logo on the home page. Too often, companies forget that their Web site is another good place to build name/logo recognition.

Our final reviewer said she liked the fact that the application section included a ton of additional calculators, including ones for debt consolidation and a cost-of-living analysis. Tons of financial information is available on this site, she said, and anyone thinking of buying a home should visit www.mortgageassociatesnwa.com.

The reviewers agreed that the real estate firms listed on the site are smart to take advantage of a co-optation opportunity, since the five in question can benefit from referrals and exponential Web traffic while still competing individually.

The only real problem we had with the site, and it was a big one, was that we tried e-mailing the company twice through its “contact us” page and never heard back. Generally, our reviewers only try once, but after several days with no response, we figured we would give it one last shot. The second strike lowered the site’s rating by an entire point.

We hope, for the sake of the business, that Mortgage Associates is more accessible by telephone.