Q&A with Help With My Loan on Creating a New Platform to Streamline Loan Applications
After working together in the banking industry, Chris Karaguzian and Jack Artinian started Help With My Loan to streamline the loan application process. Their software automates underwriting, the process of verifying the borrower information, including assets, debt and equity, before approving a loan. This automation decreases processing time and reduces rejections. Today, Help With My Loan’s network includes over 300 lenders who have funded over a half billion dollars in loans. We sat down with Chris to talk about the challenges they faced when developing this platform.
How Does this Software Reduce Processing Costs?
Today, applying for a loan is a complex process. Customers have to go to several lead generation websites. From there, they work with a banker who has to collect and review the package, using several calculators to create a complete picture of the borrower’s financial situation. Underwriting a typical loan requires between 50 and 80 points of data gathered from several sources of financial information. That takes a lot of time, and errors are common. Even after all this work, there’s no guarantee the customer will qualify for a loan. These delays are frustrating for lenders and customers, and can lead to buyers losing out on real estate deals.
Co-founder of Help With My Loan
Our software does all of the data entry and calculations used in underwriting automatically. We use optical recognition and AI to scan documents and pull the relevant figures. From there, our software does the calculations for each bank according to their internal requirements. This does more than cut processing time. We have a 95% match rate, versus 55% for standard loan applications.
Brokers also benefit, since this greatly reduces workforce requirements for loan processing. For example, we recently signed a new residential brokerage firm looking to diversify into other financial products. In their first three weeks, they booked $12.2 million in loans for residential, commercial and business projects. That represents a pipeline of $192,000, at a cost of just $4,500 per year for their three user accounts.
Why Did it Take 20 Months to Develop Help With My Loan’s Software?
There were several factors working against us. Writing software from scratch takes a lot of time, and since this is first-to-market software, there was no baseline. Finance is complex, so there was a lot of back and forth on details between us and our development team. Eventually, we reached a point where our original partner, KiwiTech, couldn’t handle the scope of the project. The last 5 months of the development cycle were spent with Innotech, concentrating almost solely on bug fixes. They continue to provide us with tech support.
Of course, our launch was just the first step. We continue to refine our software as we work with clients and learn their needs. We’re also adding new features to increase the automation of the loan application process.
How Does this Software Improve Customer Service?
For customers, the biggest benefit is speed. Using traditional methods, it can take weeks to work out the details of a loan, only to find out financing isn’t possible. Our system can usually tell customers they don’t qualify in minutes. Total loan processing times can be a matter of days instead of weeks or months. This is especially important for new real estate projects, where customers need to act fast on purchases. Our site is also available 24/7, so they can start the process when it’s convenient for them.
We’ve also built a system that makes it easy to transfer projects between users. If you have an employee who’s on vacation or leaves the company, it’s easy for someone else to pick up the project. They have access to all the information immediately, instead of having to wait for the employee to return, or having to dig through emails and notes. This further reduces delays for clients, while helping teams better manage ongoing projects.
Our CRM software also saves information from previous loans. When the client needs money for a new project, or they need to refinance, they don’t have to send all their financial information again. It just needs to be verified. Likewise, adjustments can be made to the terms without starting the whole process over again. If they don’t qualify for a loan under the original terms they wanted, they can make a few quick adjustments to come up with something that works for them and the bank.
What Other Features are Coming to Help With My Loan?
By the end of Q3 2023, we at Help With My Loan will be launching our Leads Marketplace. We will have tiered leads that will be readily available for our users to purchase and call on. These leads come directly from our database of prospects. These leads will entail loan requests that were made by customers that have been matched to lenders and are ready to be closed.
We’re launching an advanced package in the first quarter of 2024. This new package adds portfolio and risk analysis, letting clients know if a commercial loan is risky based on updated banking guidelines. In turn, clients can give customers an early warning about these problems, so they don’t struggle to refinance when the loan term is up. While this isn’t normally an issue for personal loans, this feature is important for business clients. With loan terms ranging between one and ten years, it’s common for these clients to roll debt into a new loan. At the request of our clients, we’re also adding the ability to scan bank statements, pay stubs and W2s. This automates more of the underwriting process for personal loans.
Where Do You See this Software Going in the Future?
Currently, our software only deals with the front end of the loan process. We’re currently working on the middle of the process, including titles, estimates, and appraisal. From there, we’ll work on closing, creating an end-to-end platform. For example, we’re developing a way to photograph buildings with a smartphone and get value estimates based on the property’s location. Our end goal is to be the first place people and businesses go for loans, offering resources for borrowers, bankers and realtors. Ideally, we’d like to be one of the top online financial providers, alongside businesses like Apple Pay and Mint.
Related Categories