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New American Funding, an independent mortgage lender that also services more than $63.9 billion in mortgages, is now sending homeowners who are interested in converting their home equity to cash over to EasyKnock to explore a sale-leaseback.
“A cash-out refinance or a HELOC aren’t the only ways to get the cash you need,” a landing page on New American Funding’s website advises. “EasyKnock’s innovative residential sale-leaseback program is an alternative to home equity loans.”
Under a referral partnership with EasyKnock announced Tuesday, New American Funding says it’s providing “an alternative means of realizing a benefit of homeownership — accessing the accumulated wealth in the home — often denied to homeowners who can’t or don’t want to take on additional debt.”
Rick Arvielo
“Through this partnership, we will expand our reach of people that we can help to remain in their homes and access equity for their financial planning,” said New American Funding co-founder and CEO Rick Arvielo, in a statement. “Working alongside EasyKnock, we hope to set our customers up for the future and establish a foundation for their success so they can work towards their goals.”
New American Funding, which touts itself as a leader in lending to Hispanic and Black borrowers, laid off 900 employees in 2022 as mortgage lenders saw their business undermined by rising rates, co-founder and President Patty Arvielo told the Orange County Register in December.
EasyKnock got started by buying homes from people with credit issues and allowing them to stay as renters with an option to buy back their homes. Its expanded product includes MoveAbility, in which EasyKnock buys homes and leases them back to their owners for up to 12 months.
Jarred Kessler
“We’re inertia breakers,” EasyKnock founder and CEO Jarred Kessler said at Real Estate Connect Las Vegas in August. “We work with agents we pay full commissions. We work with lenders we buy their turndowns to help their customers. So we work with all these different folks to break the inertia in the process.”
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