Results from a recent on-line study indicate that not all consumers are wedded to traditional lenders when it comes to their mortgage needs.  Eighty percent of those surveyed, in fact, said they would consider obtaining a mortgage from a non-bank.

Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group (CG), a management and technology consulting firm serving the financial services industry surveyed consumers in September to learn about their views toward home ownership, how recent changes in the mortgage industry impacted their application experience, what factors are most important in the mortgage application process, and if consumers would be willing to consider an alternate mortgage provider.

According to the 618 consumers who participated in the study, almost half (48 percent) would consider obtaining a mortgage from PayPal and one in three said they would consider a mortgage from Walmart.

Satisfaction with primary banks was a respectable 81 percent but study participants expressed frustration with some current mortgage practices and indicted that these could drive them to consider alternative providers.  The most frequently referenced issues were high interest rates, high payments, and dealing with taxes and escrow.  Slow execution was another problem mentioned by 56 percent of respondents while 32 percent cited the difficulty of communicating with their lender and 31 percent said they were unable to track the status of their loan application.  Twenty-six percent said they had received untrustworthy advice from a traditional lender.

"Consumer attitude is driven by three things, price, service and trust," said Doug Hautop, Senior Manager and Lending Practice lead for CG. "Institutions looking to gain market share must target customer values instead of traditional asset segmentation."