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New LenderStreet Website Introduces a Direct Connection between Prospective Borrowers and Home Loan Originators

Westwood, Kan. — January 27, 2011 — After a successful run of its Beta web platform through the fourth quarter of 2010, LenderStreet (http://www.lenderstreet.com) goes live Jan. 31 with its new "relationship engine" and web marketing service for home loan originators. The service will be available online to both originators and prospective borrowers at no charge.

"It's like an eHarmony of home lending," said John McGuire, the home mortgage entrepreneur and idea-man behind LenderStreet. "The website enables each borrower to shop for and work directly with an originator who is attuned to specific needs — as opposed to becoming a nondescript lead in some database somewhere, the target of limitless cold-calls."

By cushioning the official launch by four months, LenderStreet's founders were able to incorporate findings from user feedback, call recordings, traffic statistics and lead conversions to offer a streamlined search engine for home loan seekers. The site is complete with simplified user interface, refined search parameters, geo-relevant results, and borrowing tips – and robust web marketing tools for loan originators.

Usability test results were very positive during the Beta phase, with both prospective borrowers and home loan originators stating that the site is clean, accessible and informative. Respondents showed particularly positive reactions to the playful image and the "relationship engine" concept.

Loan originators who participated as testers said that LenderStreet appears to be a better and less expensive online marketing system than competing solutions such as mortgage lead generators.

One loan officer who saw leads come through the website early-on is Rich Bonn, a Houston lender. Bonn's LenderStreet page is a great example of how loan officers are able to build a picture of themselves on LenderStreet, building a relationship before the borrower even picks up the phone. Bonn's page includes a YouTube video he made about his qualifications — a virtual resume.

"I think that the site has a really good concept, the way it aggregates information and personalizes the Internet shopping experience," Bonn said. "Rather than dealing with a faceless, nameless lender, you have an opportunity to get to know who they are before you choose them."

In another example, LenderStreet was a welcome experiment for Houston-based mortgage loan officer Dan Garza.

Garza signed up to use the service in August of last year as part of LenderStreet's Beta. He had used the Internet to find customers before, but hadn't been completely happy with his options or results.
What convinced Garza to try LenderStreet was that it felt like something completely different, "a welcome change."

"What attracted me to the LenderStreet model was the fact that customers come to me directly through the directory, through a recommendation," Garza said. "They may still be shopping for a loan, but LenderStreet lends itself a little bit less to them receiving multiple offers simultaneously."

LenderStreet was built to help borrowers find a local mortgage officer with the power given back to the borrowers, so they are not bombarded with phone calls and privacy worries. Visitors to the website are never asked for any personal information. LenderStreet suggests the best matches based on location and 14 more matching criteria. At that point, the timing and mode of contact is controlled by the borrower.

"Web marketing methods – in the lending industry at least – can be like buying a block of lottery tickets," McGuire said. "For example, Dan Garza relied on an online ‘lead generator' to get phone numbers of borrowers who had visited the lead generator's site. And he paid handsomely for them, whether they panned out or not. He called the phone numbers and hoped – often fruitlessly – to compete for warm leads. That was the old system's version of a couple of winning tickets."

During the Beta phase, LenderStreet had more than 50 registered loan officers based in the metro areas of Kansas City, Dallas, Houston and Austin. Despite its infancy, the site reached thousands of customers and drove leads directly.

"Lenders at all levels have been unanimously positive about the LenderStreet product," McGuire said. "Individual mortgage loan officers appreciate the ability to promote their individual profiles and experience. Branches welcome the ability to build market share in their local community. Companies applaud the product's ability to promote individual mortgage loan officers and branches while protecting brand identity. Most importantly, consumers appreciate the unique mortgage matching algorithm."

"I suppose some are attracted to complex websites like bankrate.com. That sort of site resonates with a certain kind of a consumer," Garza said. "LenderStreet, by all appearances, is simpler, and I'm sure that's intentional. You can easily complicate this and have all kinds of bells and whistles, but the overall look and feel I'm sure appeals to a lot of customers who feel overwhelmed when they go to a site that's got so many moving parts."

The site's popularity is already growing, with traffic steadily increasing over the last few months. LenderStreet plans to expand the site nationwide over the next year and get in front of more borrowers through partnerships with web publishers and agreements with larger mortgage origination companies.

As for monetization, LenderStreet founders are still looking for ideas. For now, the service is offered at no cost to any user – borrower and lender alike – and the company's marketing team plans to promote through aggressive search engine optimization and strategic partnerships.

"The home lending industry is ripe for a marketing change," said Carrie Royce, Lenderstreet's head of marketing. "We wanted to try something different, to show the industry that there can – and should – be more to the home loan consultative relationship than calculators and invisible bankers. Our goal is to introduce prospective borrowers and lenders to a friendlier and safer type of interaction, and thereby build a critical mass of qualified leads and trusted resources. We'll figure out the revenue model after the ‘marketing revolution'."

McGuire said he anticipates more than 3,000 subscribers in the next year with most located in major metropolitan areas.

About LenderStreet

LenderStreet (http://www.lenderstreet.com) launched in 2010 as an independent online marketing resource for home loan originators. A localized search engine and web marketing portal, LenderStreet provides both prospective borrowers and home loan originators with an advanced, dynamic directory that currently caters to the U.S. market. LenderStreet is a business unit of Red Nova Labs located in Westwood, Kansas, which employs several specialists in development, sales and marketing disciplines.

About Red Nova Labs

Red Nova Labs was founded and self-funded in 2009 as a web development and marketing agency as well as a technology think-tank, creating original, cutting-edge systems for web and mobile. On the service side, the company supports interface design, backend programming and online marketing. On the product side Red Nova Labs invents, builds and launches its own web-based platforms for various applications and vertical markets. To support both business models, its growing team of development engineers conceives resourceful code generators which add practical ease to complex programming—enabling unprecedented speed in creating vibrant, multidimensional environments and utilities. Once a product is launched, each business operates autonomously as an independent unit, with full engineering and marketing support from Red Nova Labs on the back end. The company is open to collaborative opportunities.

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