Mortgage Lenders Should Take Hints from Spotify

What do mortgage lending and music streaming have in common? More than one would think.

In fact, mortgage lenders could stand to learn a few lessons from how music services such as Spotify interact with consumers, according to Vishal Garg, founder and CEO of Better Mortgage.

Better, an online mortgage lender utilizing machine learning to streamline the lending process, has already incorporated some of Spotify’s ease of use into its platform (it helps that the company’s chief technology officer is Erik Bernhardsson, former head of machine learning for Spotify).

“If you think about what [Spotify] is, it’s ‘here’s a catalog, tagged with attributes, and consumers with preferences,’” Garg told Bank Innovation. “It’s a large-scale preference to attribute matching [system], and that’s what the mortgage process is effectively as well.”

Better Mortgage, which has 21 of the largest mortgage investors on its platform — accounting for approximately $1.2 trillion of annual mortgage demand, according to Garg — allows users to know instantly what they can afford, by using machine learning tech to match consumers (and investors) with the right products.

Creating a Spotify-like experience for mortgages brings a greater degree of transparency and ease to the consumer, while also allowing the company to lower rates. Better is so confident it can give consumers a less expensive rate the process now comes with a guarantee; either Better beats a competitor offer by at least $1,000, or it will give the consumer $1,000 in cash.

The reason mortgages, one of the most competitive markets in the world, seem so frightening to consumers (especially those who are purchasing a mortgage for the first time) is because consumers are shopping for a house at the same time, according to Garg.

“We’ve made it an online process — you walk into an open house, you pull out your phone, give us a few details, and we can approve you [for a loan] for that house while you are still in the house,” Garg said. “It takes the entire stress out of the home-buying process, because you already know whether you can afford it or not.”