How can your company get its own app?
This article was produced in partnership with Bendigi Technologies Inc.
Desmond Devoy, of Canadian Mortgage Professional, sat down with Ben Salami, founder and CEO of Bendigi Technologies Inc., to meet the man behind the Canadian Mortgage app and to find out how his company can make a similar app tailored for you.
Even if you don’t know Bendigi Technologies Inc., you’ve probably used one of their products, most likely the Canadian Mortgage app.
And they can make just such an app for your company, too.
“People know us best from our work,” said Ben Salami (pictured), founder and CEO of Bendigi. The tech company was founded in 2013, and the first release of the Canadian Mortgage App appeared in the same year. The mobile app, now used by thousands of homebuyers, real estate and mortgage professionals, is available through the App Store and Google Play.
“It empowers consumers to budget their financing and run their numbers, getting pre-qualified, calculating interest and principal payments, trigger rates, required income, including land transfer taxes and rebates from coast to coast.,” Salami explained. "Additionally, a PRO version of the app gives brokers super-broker powers, with advanced analysis, rate and payment comparison, debt consolidation features, and easy to understand consumer-facing reports to make it possible to close deals faster" … “We also help consumers connect with mortgage brokers with an uber-like mobile app experience for mortgages."
In our lead program, the app sends push notifications to participating subscribers, including a preview of all the information at hand. Brokers can then decide to accept or reject the lead via the app. Once accepted, the home buyer’s contact information is revealed and optionally inserted into the broker’s CRM. At the same time, the home buyer is introduced to their mortgage pro with profile information, testimonials and options to book a meeting.
Bendigi – More than just one app
While that is quite a good calling card to have, there is so much more that Bendigi does.
The company specializes in developing mobile apps and only recently, website mortgage tools for the mortgage industry. They can take the Canadian Mortgage App and brand and deploy it as a stand-alone company app, which can then be shared with clients. The company can now use their new mobile app to generate leads, view the clients who installed them, and channel their contacts into its CRM.
“It’s unlike anything you’ve seen and anything else that currently exists in the market,” he said.
The mobile app has already proven popular with brokerages and networks who have purchased licenses for their agents.
Salami estimates that almost half of all agents in Canada who have a mortgage license have one version of the Canadian Mortgage App branded to themselves, and another 25% are using a free generic version. Across all of the Bendigi-powered mobile apps, it has seen just over 950,000 installations; 8,000 brokers and 14,000 real estate agents use the app.
“This is the App everyone loves to talk about when it comes to mortgages,” especially Apple, which has featured it for six years now in "Apps We Love," and Google’s editor choice selected it as one of the top five apps for homebuyers.
There are three versions of the app – the generic version for consumers, the Pro version for mortgage brokers and their clients, and the co-branded realtor app, which is the newest version. The Pro version also comes at various subscription levels and features.
Brokers can now offer their Realtor partners a co-branded version of the app and of course, enjoy receiving all those pre-qualification leads. Essentially, they leverage the marketing power of their referral sources while providing a tool for their partner to grow their business.
The leads generated on that app are sent to the sponsoring broker partner, and the homebuyer receives an instant introduction to the mortgage partner available to help. The realtor partner also receives notifications to keep them in the loop.
The app streamlines the process, with the realtor instructing the client to download the realtor’s app from the App Store or Google Play or by scanning a QR code.
With efficient, accurate, and easy-to-use consumer-facing tools, the app simultaneously answers buyer questions, notifies the real estate and mortgage professionals, and then introduces the mortgage partner to the homebuyer seamlessly.
“This is great for brokers because they can leverage their real estate agents’ marketing power while simultaneously helping them grow their business and helping out their mutual client,” Salami said.
The Pro version is a personalized mobile app and a digital business card. It has premium tools like the latest PreQualification tool, a powerful refinance Analyzer and more than 100 other features that help all parties involved.
The company is in the midst of releasing its desktop version of the app (The Calculator Hub) that can be installed on broker websites and co-branded on the referral partner’s website.
“We’re slowly getting there,” he said. “It’ll take some time to make all the features available for desktop, but our team of talented people is dedicated to building something humanity has never done before.”
