Artificial intelligence continues to progress past the ‘buzzword’ phase as more and more proptech companies turn to AI for digital housing solutions. Online lenders are responding to the growing demand for the greater remote landscape, with more appraisals, closings and home tours happening from consumers’ smartphones than ever before.
One such proptech that has applied this solution is Beeline, a digital mortgage lender that claims it only take 15 minutes to apply for a loan through its platform.
Now, however, it is extending its services to the single-family rental (SFR) sector after announcing a partnership with Stessa, a Roofstock company and online marketplace for investing in SFRs. According to a Thursday release, Beeline will provide conventional and Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) Mortgages to Stessa’s clients as part of the partnership.
Nick Liuzza, CEO of Beeline, said the company is “ecstatic.”
“Our platform will fit snugly with Stessa, and our ability to give early certainty, then close quickly will help build confidence with investor borrowers,” said Liuzza.
Founded in 2020, Beeline provides borrowers purchase and refi-ready approvals using a borrower’s exact financial information and predictive analytics rather than relying solely on information that borrowers declare, as traditional pre-approvals do.
With the borrower’s consent, Beeline accesses users’ bank, income and tax information online, verifies the numbers and provides an upfront approval. Beeline is so sure in its tech that it boasts a 97% accuracy rate in predicting that their automated approval ultimately reaches Clear to Close – all within that 15 minute approval timestamp.
Currently the tech is licensed in 26 states and continues to advance its origination and title platforms as it moves toward $1 billion in mortgage originations.
As for Stessa, the company operates a real estate accounting software designed to help businesses track and manage investments, finances and documents across rental properties on a unified dashboard. Users can access details about single-family, multi-family and short-term rental properties and gauge their assets’ performances based on the data provided.
According to Stessa, the company’s users track more than 170,000 individual properties representing over $45 billion of assets.
In 2021, the company was acquired by Roofstock, a California-based proptech that offers a marketplace for the buying and selling of SFRs.
With Beeline’s platform already supporting borrowers having multiple properties within a single profile, the partnership with Stessa is a natural development. Beeline revealed it is also working on the beta of a dedicated onboarding journey specifically designed for investors, which is different from a standard purchase transaction.
There is no word on when that is set to release, though its testing will take place in Q1 of 2022.
“Many lenders try to cram investors down a normal single-family purchase path,” said Jessica Kennedy, COO. “It’s a different transaction and worthy of its own process and technology in order to heighten the customer experience while closing faster and more easily.”