The hard money lending industry has been around for ages & is growing like crazy, and yet there seems to be a lack of availability for modern technology designed for hard money lenders & brokers. I’m talking about a Loan Origination System more specifically. The conventional mortgage world has Calyx, Encompass, Byte, and numerous others ranging from every shape, size, and price. But none of them have a focus on the hard money lender, even though the business model is the same, but with less burdensome compliance regulations. We will save the answer to the question, Why haven’t they developed a version for hard money lenders yet, for another blog post.
Let’s talk about what software most hard money lenders & brokers are using today to get by. It usually starts with Excel, and typically ends up with a lot of super glue & tape to piece together various systems that barely talk to each other. OR If you have a huge budget in excess of $250k+, you may attempt to build your own software from scratch or jump on board with Salesforce and try customizing a solution. Both require expensive & extensive personnel with expertise, which will be an indefinite expense and both require a huge commitment of time from multiple department heads. Custom software will take well over 1-2 years to build, and will constantly require maintenance, while Salesforce may look turnkey on the surface, will require extensive customizations which takes time/ expertise and numerous bolt on products that add to the monthly cost per seat, in most cases regardless if they are users of the add on.
Alternatively, you will find a couple hard money lending software providers that seem to be the only game in town, and hence set the status quo with large up front setup costs that lock in you. These aged systems may have been designed for other sectors of the finance industry and lack the modularity & flexibility to conform to the wide array of hard money lending products that include Rehab loans, cross-collateralized loans, lines of credit, Joint venture loans, commercial properties, alternative assets, etc… Additionally, you will likely see a lack of customization or personalization to make the software work they exact way the lender wants, which ranges from setting up custom loan guidelines, work flow rules, file flow, statuses & sub statues, doc checklists, pipeline views, & exportable reports. With our hard money LOS system, lenders can take advantage of our turnkey solutions, yet personalize everything they need to make their version specific to their company. It gives your team everything the need in an LOS, plus all the bells & whistles you will find in a robust CRM software system. Finally, a CRM & LOS blended into one mortgage system!
The most convenient feature that every system should have is the ability to generate loan docs, forms, & authorizations. Icing on the cake, is having E-sign built in without having to pay extra & spend time integrating. With LendingWise.com we provide a Doc Wizard Tool & E-mail Template Wizard to help you build out a library of reusable templates that pre-populate your company info, and the borrower & loan info.
One of the most difficult features to develop or find in a software solution is a multi-tiered structure that manages the numerous parties & channels involved in mortgage lending with login portals for each user type. Specifically, LendingWise software supports the wholesale channel like never before, with Branches or Account Executive user roles that manage brokers/agents/affiliates, which in turn manage borrowers. You can even have a super user/account manager that manages numerous branches/ account executives. The software also supports 3rd party contacts, so you can assign an investor, appraiser, realtor, home inspector, etc… to specific loan files, where they can access their files via guest login portals.
No matter which system you operate, there is no denying the power of the cloud. We have been a 100% cloud based platform since 2006 and have adapted to all the changes and internet standards occurring every so often. This makes us easy to deploy within minutes vs. weeks/months or even years. A true cloud based LOS platform will make it easy to integrate with 3rd parties. At LendingWise, we are the bridge to all the various 3rd party service providers you could think of for valuations, lien searches, background check, financials validation, credit pulling, inspections, and more. At LendingWise, we want to be your strategic software partner making your business streamlined and more efficient.
Curious to see what it looks? Watch a quick video overview: https://youtu.be/ZPtIQYxrNC8
Contact Us for a demo at 888-400-6516 or schedule a demo/team webinar here: www.calendly.com/chrisfuelling
