Commonwealth Bank and Wizard Home Loans yesterday endeavoured to generate some spoiler commentary to take the gloss off Virgin Money's typically energetic product launch.CBA said it was reducing interest rates on some of the home loans marketed under its HomePath brand, which, like Virgin's new mortgage product, is essentially a "direct" channel.Wizard promoted research to the media that shows between eight and nine out of 10 people prefer to deal with a mortgage adviser at their home or work, or local branch, in order to finalise an application for a home loan.The issue of the best model for the distribution of mortgages is central to the success, or otherwise, of Virgin's push into the mortgage market.Aussie Home Loans managing director John Symond in an interview yesterday said "its not a pricing thing anymore. Everyone is within a smidgin [of the same rate]. It's all about distribution."And from our point of view, if they [Virgin] just sell their own product, it's going to be a hard slog. There doesn't appear to be a great difference."Symond said the two to three hours work undertaken by his 600 mortgage advisers was essential to sourcing new business."It takes an average of two visits. Customers want someone to sit down at their work or home at a time to suit them."We've got a large panel of funders; over 1800 different configurations of mortgages, so we represent across the whole spectrum of funders. They will have their work cut out."My question for Virgin is more the value regarding the service on offer. I don't believe their pricing differential is enough to give them the edge."