Short Takes: Name-Your-Price Site Adds Home Loans

An on-line service is inviting mortgage shoppers to name their own interest rate and terms.

The service, priceline.com, which opened for business in April offering name-your-own price airline tickets, has allied with Charlotte, N.C.-based LendingTree Inc.

The program requires the user to make a nonrefundable deposit of $200 toward the loan he or she wants. LendingTree will forward mortgage requests to the 22 lenders in its network, taking into account the prospective borrowers' credit profiles.

Users can request either pre-qualified mortgage and pick the house later, or a mortgage for a home they have already selected.

Users can expect to receive a response within two business days, according to Priceline, which said bids are posted on-line 24 hours a day.

Priceline said it also plans to launch name-your-own-price services for home equity loans and mortgage refinancing this quarter.

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