Why Lower.com is about much more than mortgage rates

Original story written by Matt Carter, Inman

Before announcing a $100 million Series A funding round in June and a naming rights deal with Major League Soccer team the Columbus Crew, Lower had been keeping a relatively low profile as a bootstrapped direct mortgage lender.

But there’s a backstory to Lower that helps explain why the company believes it can now position itself as not just a lender, but “Everything for your home, for Lower.”

Lower CEO Dan Snyder got his start in mortgage lending at a small depository bank, before cofounding Maryland-based mortgage lender and servicer Homeside Financial in 2014. Homeside Financial and its associated brands, which remain under the Lower Holding Co. umbrella, have funded more than $16.5 billion in loans and provide Lower with a channel partner network of builders and real estate agents.

The 2018 launch of Lower.com provided a direct mortgage lending channel with a more streamlined, digital process that the company says appeals particularly to millennials.

“We want to be that first look for that millennial homebuyer who doesn’t know how it works,” Snyder tells Inman. “You want to buy a house, you’re sick of renting, you can go on Lower.com, and we’ll lower your stress. We want to be the number one reducer of homebuyer anxiety in the country.”

A Lower.com landing page aimed at Reddit users, for example, promises to “make you a homeowner” in “just five simple steps.”

“Mom and dad need to get their sh*t together,” says a toddler depicted in one of the steps. “Even I know our DTI ratio.”

In May, Lower announced a mobile app, HomeFund, that allows consumers to open an interest bearing FDIC-insured deposit account to save up for a home, and earn a dollar-for-dollar match on the first $500 saved.

By providing bundled services as a lender, loan servicer, insurance broker, and deposit account, Lower says it’s able to help more buyers and owners.

“We’ve been at it for the better part of seven years, and doubled every year in whatever metric you want to look at — from volume closed, to revenue — and grew it profitably along the way,” Snyder said. Last year the company as a whole, including HomeFund, originated $5 billion in loans, and this year expects to fund $9 billion.

Agent referral platform coming in Q1 2022

To help keep growth on track next year, the company’s real estate brokerage arm, Lower Realty LLC, is planning to launch an agent matching service for homebuyers during the first quarter of 2022.

In matching consumers with agents, Snyder says Lower’s philosophy will be to “optimize for the process and the experience,” taking into consideration factors like the type of property a homebuyer is interested in and how available agents are.

“We want to make sure they’ll get along together,” Snyder says. “What we’re building out is a little bit more of a Match.com situation, behind the scenes.”

Snyder says Lower is currently in a beta mode with agent matching, with 1,700 agents in a network spread out across the country from Tampa, Florida, to Los Angeles.

“We don’t have enough agents in our network, candidly — it’s something that we really need,” Snyder said. “We’re getting the word out some … and we’re looking to make big headway in the next quarter.”

Top mortgage lenders like Rocket Cos., loanDepot and Better have all branched out into real estate brokerage and title insurance in order to provide bundled, end-to-end services to homebuyers. But Snyder said his company can stand out by incubating the next generation of homebuyers, and simplifying home ownership.

“It’s not like it’s a groundbreaking idea,” Snyder conceded. “There’s been bundling of services in lots of verticals for years. You’ll go along with bundling if it does two things: It’s cheaper, and it’s more convenient. So the execution has to be off the charts. And I think that’s where we differentiate.”

See the story here.