By AK Patel
Founder, CEO
Lendsmart.AI
Seamless and Streamlined: Lendsmart.AI Delivers Ease and Deepens Ties
“Why did it take so long? This process should be automated!”
Almost one year ago, my wife, who happened to be seven months pregnant, and I were buying a place in Atlanta. Frustrated when a simple, 60-day process turned into a 90-day ordeal, we started thinking about finding a way to redefine the homebuying experience. We said, “It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to close on a mortgage!” Then, the idea for Lendsmart.AI was born, and we built a team dedicated to making it a reality. Today we have a fully integrated platform that delivers high-level time reduction on the entire homebuyer’s journey.
We are driven to make our solution available to as many people as possible because streamlining the home buying process to this degree is invaluable. It means that people get in their homes quicker, with more joy, with less frustration, all of which strengthen the community bankers’ relationships.
From putting an application in to automating all the milestones required to close on a home, for a customer, the Lendsmart.AI process is simple. They’ve found a house, gone to the bank, and have started the application process. After they hit “apply now,” the customer would go to a white-labeled platform through their bank and instantly import the necessary documents through a suite of APIs.
Lendsmart.AI pulls all the mandatory information from the customer’s uploaded statements, identification, and employment information. It auto-completes the forms for both the customer and the lender. Once the loan application is auto-completed, Lendsmart.AI uses artificial intelligence to soft underwrite. We are already less than ten minutes into the process and 45 days ahead of the game!
At this point, bankers using Lendsmart.AI can give a customer an accurate accounting of all costs they’ll incur. This is when we take you to the next step of the homebuying journey. Many customers, especially first-time home buyers, don’t know they need an attorney, or a home inspector, home insurance, or a moving company. Through our suite of APIs, we can give an instant home insurance quote and moving quote, while using big data to find the best attorney and home inspector, unifying all key advisors into the homebuying journey. Lendsmart.AI allows bankers to streamline, simplify, and significantly reduce the time taken to complete every aspect of buying a home.
Simultaneously, Lendsmart.AI does all the work for the loan officers. An underwriter would look at a Lendsmart.AI application and say, “These guys have answered all my questions!” If there happen to be any additional questions, the underwriter can assign tasks within the platform using the built-in instant messaging tool where all parties can communicate efficiently.
There are multiple milestones in the homebuying journey, and we believe if you can help customers along the way in a fraction of the time, you absolutely should. Lendsmart.AI’s platform provides a seamless process giving customer reassurance and ultimately building deeper relationships with their banks.
Starting this company has been an adventure from start to finish, and one I’ve enjoyed taking with my new family. In case you missed it earlier, my wife was seven months pregnant when we first got started. When our daughter was born, we were in the throes of building Lendsmart.AI, which meant 20-hour days and sleepless nights, fueled by bonding with my baby girl during night feedings and working with a passionate team of developers operating on an opposite schedule.
Throughout my career, I’ve always had an integration with technology, business, and real estate, all of which primed me to become an entrepreneur. In the last four years, I was a part of the founding team of a private equity fund investing in fintech. On the side, I’m a real estate investor. My wife and I have invested in over 30 units across America, so we’ve experienced the loan and home buying journey many times now. The time and circumstance for Lendsmart.AI couldn’t have been any better.
We are going through the ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator with a product that has been tried, tested, and is ready to be deployed. For community banks without a digital presence, it’s an invaluable tool in competing with online digital lenders. And while it’s tough to be away from my family during this time, providing a solution that helps community banks as their customers realize the dream of homeownership makes it worthwhile.