Even though some mortgage industry economists are expecting existing home sales to improve this year, affordability remains an issue holding many consumers back from acting.
On the lender side, the competitive landscape for whatever leads are in the market is getting tougher because of the uncertainty around mortgage rates.
A new
Afordal was driven forward with RatePlug's recent acquisition of HomeASAP at the end of 2024 and its IDX home search, lead generation and real estate agent marketing capabilities.
But the product was in the works before the merger agreement between
The idea was to give buyers this information at the point they're searching for a home, before they reached the buy stage.
"We thought of this for a number of years," Springer said, noting RatePlug started to work with HomeASAP a year-and-one-half ago, before it acquired the company.
HomeASAP has a very good national consumer search portal, "and what we wanted to see of our concept of not just searching properties by purchase price, but could you search properties by approved payments," Springer said.
The concept was very successful with different focus groups and a white label test was also conducted with a top 15 mortgage lender and one or two real estate brokerages "just to see, are we on to something here with this? We saw this is going in the right direction," he continued.
Springer created and sold three mortgage banking businesses, which gave RatePlug a pretty good idea of what real estate agents and brokers were looking for, including what content would reach a homebuyer and have special meaning for them.
RatePlug is integrated into most of the largest multiple listing services around the country. With the agent's permission and with the loan officer they worked with, RatePlug was also able to display payment and product information to the buyers
It is more than lead generation, Springer added. For lenders and agents, the product gives them a lead-nurturing engine which uses artificial intelligence to analyze life events, equity, credit behaviors and listing propensity. It identifies and ranks those customers who are most likely to act and when.
This information can be pushed into the user's customer relationship management system when the lead becomes hot.
"We're not in competition," said Springer. "We're bringing technology to help lenders really engage their customers at the top of the funnel."
It is the type of tool which allows loan officers to develop what has been a long-term industry goal of
When he was in the business, Springer noted that most loan officers depended on those Realtor referral relationships for customers.
"There's all kinds of data nowadays through [artificial intelligence] that you can look at the propensity of people's life events," he said. "You can tailor your communication to these people at the front, even a year before they're going to buy a house or sell or list, and keep them engaged with a lender."
The loan officer can get in front of these people before they work with a real estate agent, and it has to be more than just sending a birthday card; it has to be valuable content they can use, Springer said.
This is the direction the real estate industry is moving towards. "Searching homes by payments, to me, has always made sense," he noted, especially given the hidden costs to buyers such as insurance.
Springer strongly believes "lenders are going to jump on board with this thing, and the ones that do, I think, are going to get to those people and keep them."
