LoanSnap has raised $4.7 million investment led by Thomvest Ventures and existing investors, bringing the company's financing to $17 million. It offers conventional, Veteran Affairs and refinance mortgages as well as and home-equity lines of credit.

LoanSnap offers what it describes as “smart-loan” technology that deploys artificial intelligence to analyze a consumer's financial situation and determine the best options for them. The technology enables homebuyers to not only find the best home loan for their financial situation, but to understand and manage overall debt to build a more secure financial future.

Smart loan analyzes the complete financial situation of a customer in seconds and offers easy-to-understand options, such as pay off your credit-card debt and save $580 a month. Customers enter just a few pieces of information and LoanSnap sorts through thousands of loan options to identify the best choice for a loan to serve them now and in the future.

[caption id="attachment_9477" align="alignright" width="206"] Karl Jacob[/caption]

The company will use the investment capital to expand its offering and explore additional opportunities with Thomvest Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based financial technology organization.

Also, LoanSnap has in the past received funding from True Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Virgin Group, Core Innovation Partners, Joe Montana's Liquid 2 Ventures, OVO Fund, Transmedia Ventures and angel investors.

"Since our launch last year, we've received widespread positive feedback and we've helped our customers improve their financial situation," said Karl Jacob, CEO and co-founder of LoanSnap. "This financing is a recognition of our strong progress toward helping consumers improve their financial situation. We are excited to have Thomvest Ventures as our strategic partner as we work to make financial stability more accessible to all Americans."

Loan officers can use social media to educate followers about the mortgage market, to be a trusted resource—not just as a way to advertise their services.

To be sure, originators have expertise that consumers need and might not be able to get anywhere else, except through social media.

The key is to generate and post relevant, insightful content that makes the application process less daunting for borrowers. Deployed correctly, social media offers a cost-effective way to get in front of prospects and existing clients—with information that can help borrowers optimize their loan choices. Or to help them better understand the mortgage market.

But too often social media isn’t used correctly, so loan officers’ and followers’ time is wasted.

To avoid that, consider the following steps that are designed to maximize the use, and results, originators can achieved from social media.

• Social media requires users to spend time to understand how it works. Some originators consider social media as an opportunity to create a forum for  personal messages and ignore posts they don’t want to pay attention to. That’s a mistake. Take time to understand how each channel works, the tools they use and how they can be used to advanced your objectives, without ignoring expectations followers have for meaningful content. Examine social networks and determine which ones are best to support the origination business and borrowers.
• Link social media content back to a website the originator owns and uses for his business. This helps ensure control, ownership, over the content that’s created. That means never post to a social media site without a link. One approach that can work well is to create a blog on the site and post a few times a week to it, and then share it to LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks. That strategy will help generate traffic to the originator’s website.
• Originators have the opportunity to share their content with followers. Before that step is taken, be sure the post—a chart, article, photo and so forth provide value to the reader; remember it reflects on the originator and his business. So, work to make every post strong and analyze, if it meets the following criterion: educational, useful and engages readers.
• Originators need to answer questions and respond to comments from followers they receive through social media channels. Too often, they’re not interactive enough, even if they do have a presence online. That doesn’t mean sitting in front of a computer. It does mean, however, that when a follower “likes” an educational video on LinkedIn, he deserves a thank you for doing so. Be available, active and engaged. Followers will notice and appreciate the effort.

Remember, with strong content that puts the needs of followers first, originators have a chance to become online influencers. To attain that objective, requires content that resonates with users, is educational, engaging and objective. Above all, over time become a trusted resource to followers.

Although the supply of homes for sale is up in many markets, both the number and share of homes that are affordable to a typical household has decreased from a year ago, according to a new report from Redfin, a real estate brokerage firm.

The report considers all homes that were active on the market in 2018 or 2017 and calculates the share of homes in each metro area that were affordable during each year to a household making the median income in that metro area.

Just 14 percent of homes that were on the market in 2018 in the San Jose metro area were affordable on the median household income in the area of $117,000. This is a big drop from 2017, when 26 percent of homes that were for sale were affordable. In Los Angeles, 16 percent of homes for sale were affordable in 2018, down from 20 percent in 2017. In Seattle the share of affordable homes for sale dropped to 46 percent in 2018, from 58 percent in 2017.

Home price gains and interest rate increases through 2018 combined to considerably reduce home affordability. Although the number of homes for sale is increasing, the number of affordable homes on the market has decreased in most metro areas.

"Homeownership is increasingly out of reach for the typical American," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. "Over the last few years builders have focused on luxury homes, and there hasn't been enough construction of affordable starter homes."

In many metro areas, even as the number of homes for sale has increased, the number of affordable homes for sale has shrunk over the past year. In the San Diego area, there were 10 percent more homes for sale during 2018 than 2017, but the number of affordable homes for sale fell 16 percent. In the Seattle metro, there were 4 percent more homes for sale, but the number of affordable homes for sale fell 17 percent.

Although the share of homes for sale that were affordable on a median income fell from 2017 to 2018 in all 49 of the metro areas included in the report, there were a few metro areas where the number of affordable homes for sale increased, including Hartford, Conn. (+19%), Jacksonville, Fla. (+9%) and Nashville, Tenn. (+4%).

Homebuyers looking for affordable options still have plenty of choices in metro areas like St. Louis (84%), Minneapolis (82%) and Pittsburgh (82%). Strong growth in jobs and wages may also help buyers make up some lost ground as well.

"We expect builders to shift their attention to more affordable homes during 2019," added Fairweather, "which along with rezoning efforts by local governments should reduce this pressure to some degree over time."

Many consumers aren’t comfortable working with a lender, even 10 years on from the financial meltdown.

More than a quarter, 26 percent, of respondents don’t trust big banks since the housing crash of 2008, and 32 percent, reported they have no familiarity at all with the available mortgage-lending options, according to the Homebuyer Sentiment Survey from Eave Inc., a lender conducting business in Colorado and California.

Even some borrowers with the means to qualify for a mortgage, expressed reservations. Fully 33 percent said the process is too stressful and 72 percent said it should be easier. Meanwhile, 20 percent of respondents said they could afford a home, and their finances were too complex for them to have a realistic chance to secure a mortgage.

Thirty-seven percent claim the Millennial generation has had the most negative effect on the housing market. Interestingly, 44 percent of Millennials agree that their generation is to blame.

Do Homebuyers Hate or Trust the Mortgage Process?

• Twenty-one percent believe the home financing process is completely broken.
• Forty-eight percent believe traditional mortgage lenders will not treat them fairly. Fully 41 percent do not want to interact with a mortgage lending company or banker when buying a new home.
• Fifteen percent would rather break a bone than go through the home-buying process.
• To make the home buying process less miserable 26 percent reported they would give up their favorite vice, including booze, smoking, dessert, etc.; nine percent would shave one year off their life spans.

 Home Buying and Relationships:

• Thirty-eight percent said they are likely to buy a home with someone they are not married or in long term committed relationship.
• When asked to rank life events according to importance, respondents rank home buying, No. 3, ahead of having children, No. 4, but behind graduating from college, No. 1, and getting married, No. 2.
• Close to half, 48 percent, wish finding a dating partner also required a pre-approval letter, just like getting a loan for buying a home.