LD Holdings Group, LLC, parent company of loanDepot, has announced it is expanding its mello brand, connecting pre-approved homebuyers with verified real estate agents in their local market, and helping consumers find and hire home improvement and other pros, through mello Home.
mello Home is the first mello-branded business line following the company’s March 2017 launch of mello, a proprietary financial technology ecosystem supported by 450-plus tech team members.
“We first created the mello brand as a name for our proprietary technology platform which redefines FinTech from simply streamlining the loan process to a blended digital/local relationship covering all aspects of consumer lending and homeownership,” says Anthony Hsieh, CEO and founder of loanDepot. “Now we are expanding the mello brand.”
When launched, mello enabled three foundational strategies: (1) consumers can run any mortgage or non-mortgage loan from application through funding from any device on their own or alongside local loan consultants who can advise and co-pilot throughout the process; (2) loan consultants licensed in all 50 states can seamlessly respond and advise in real time to the millions of consumers the company sources digitally; and (3) analytics on customers’ evolving needs throughout their home-buying and owning lifecycle.
The launch mello Home builds on this foundation by adding local real estate agents nationwide to the platform.
“As America’s digital marketing leader in the homeownership space, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars to connect with home-buying consumers each year, and increasingly, these home shoppers are not yet working with a real estate agent,” Hsieh says. “mello Home unleashes our digital marketing power to real estate agents by connecting them with homebuyers who’ve been pre-approved by loanDepot’s local loan consultants and are ready to shop and close with a local real estate agent.”
mello Home’s service is free for consumers and helps real estate agents grow business more efficiently. Typically, agents buy home purchase leads up front and spend months working with customers who might never buy a home with them. mello Home gives agents ready-to-transact customers who’ve received credit and digital underwriting pre-approvals from experienced local loanDepot loan consultants and have requested to be connected with a local real estate agent to start the process of purchasing a home. Agents pay no up-front fees to join the mello Home network or to be connected with ready-to-transact clients, and they agree to a pay a fee to mello Home on closed transactions.
“Because all real estate is local, not all housing disruption is digital,” says Hsieh. “It’s about matching homebuyers and owners with trusted local pros and relevant services throughout their homeownership journey. mello’s proprietary technology and local teams serve the trend of Americans researching real estate services online and closing with local pros.”
As this digital/local trend matures in housing, the company will launch new mello businesses, according to a company release. Later this year, it intends to launch a home improvement business to meet increasing demand for home repairs and upgrades. The mello home improvement business will serve two primary functions: (1) immediate approval of home improvement loans up to $75,000 and seamless introduction to verified contractors; and (2) contractors can use mello technology and proprietary digital underwriting to offer financing at their point of sale, so when they propose a project to a homeowner, they can offer financing in real time. For homeowners, mello lets them begin with a contractor first or financing first, then finish home improvements fast. For contractors, mello gives them point-of-sale financing and brings them more project-ready customers who’ve been pre-approved by loanDepot loan officers.
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