An email sent to consumers is offering them up to $25 to provide the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with information about potential homebuyers as part of a federal research study.
And it’s partnering with Zillow to help reach those consumers, reported Housingwire today.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked Zillow for help in contacting prospective homebuyers to participate in a research study about home buying,” reads the email.
“The CFPB is particularly looking for people who are actively shopping or planning to shop for a home in the near future.”
The CFPB will pay consumers $5 for completing the initial survey, and subsequent “check-in” surveys will be offered at later dates. Those will pay $20 if the consumer completes all of them.
The email was sent from Zillow (no-reply@email.zillow.com), and the CFPB used Zillow’s email list to reach consumers, said Amanda Woolley, Zillow Group’s communication manager. “We’ve had a relationship with the CFPB’s Office of Consumer Education and Engagement for many years,” Woolley said.
“Recently, they asked us to help them reach homebuyers so they could understand more about the homebuying process and improve their consumer education tools. We were happy to help.”
It’s not clear exactly what the CFPB is looking to understand about consumers — this could be a general survey, or it could be an attempt to gather feedback about how the relatively recent TRID (TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure) rules are impacting the consumer experience. Implemented October 3, 2015, the rules involve new consumer forms that are supposed to make it easier for buyers to understand their financial obligations.
However, according to a recent ClosingCorp survey, consumers are also paying higher closing costs than they were pre-TRID, and there have also been several reports that the new rules are causing transaction delays, too.
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