Today in front of a packed house at LendIt, the world’s top financial technology conference, mello Home CEO Chris Heller laid out how technology is causing all housing and consumer finance services to converge for the benefit of customers.

“Too many of us confuse disruption with improving or making something better,” said Chris. “But that misses the point. It’s about reimagining the perfect customer experience if you could start from scratch. If you reimagine the customer experience in housing, it’s a one-stop shop.”

Chris also pointed out three key consumer trends that companies like loanDepot and mello Home can use to deliver better customer experience:

  1. Customers start shopping for homes and loans online, but still close with humans. In real estate, the NAR reports 56% of homebuyers found their home online, but 88% used an agent to buy and close on their home. In lending, when shopping for a mortgage, consumers told Fannie Mae their three top sources of information were online (69%), mortgage lenders (75%), and realtors (77%).
  2. Homeowners and buyers want a single home services brand, as this research we did with Drive Research in January confirms: 97% of homeowners are frustrated with multiple home services vendors, and 97% expressed appeal in trusted brand/network of home services vendors.
  3. Less new home construction means more home improvement. Housing Starts fell of a cliff after the financial crisis and since they haven’t returned to historical norms, the average homeowner spends $4000-$6000 per year on home repairs and upgrades. Also, half of 2016 homebuyers bought homes that needed improvements, and 83% of sellers make improvements before selling.

These trends and stats show that a service provider who can be the single source for a customer to buy, finance, and improve their home—and do so with both digital simplicity and smart local advice—will provide the ultimate customer experience.

And this is what loanDepot and our sister company mello Home do for you. We’re proud to serve you, and invite you to get started on your homeownership vision today!