LoanDepot is expanding beyond lending to other real estate transaction verticals: namely, matching buyers with real estate agents.
The consumer lending platform will introduce “mello Home,” an addition to its fintech lending platform, mello. The Home vertical will add agents to the platform, allowing them to connect with buyers who have already been approved for mortgages.
“As America’s digital marketing leader in the homeownership space, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars to connect with homebuying consumers each year, and increasingly, these home shoppers are not yet working with a real estate agent,” loanDepot CEO Anthony Hsieh said in a statement. “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.”
Agents can join the platform for free, but they agree to pay a fee to mello Home for every transaction closed with a client from the network. The service is free for consumers.
Adding real estate agents to the platform is the first expansion beyond lending for mello and loanDepot. Next, the platform plans to match customers approved for home improvement loans with contractors. The company wants to make mello a platform where customers will turn for all their housing needs.
“Because all real estate is local, not all housing disruption is digital,” Hsieh said in his statement. “It’s about matching homebuyers and owners with trusted local pros and relevant services throughout their homeownership journey.”
These developments add to loanDepot’s core services, offering mortgages or other kinds of loans from application through funding with advice from loan consultants.
LoanDepot, under its parent company LD Holdings, claims to be the second-largest non-bank consumer lender in the country, having serviced over $125 billion since its launch in 2010.