Mortgage tech news roundup: March 11

This week, Haus has a way to leverage blockchain into homeownership for a fixed monthly payment. Real estate start-up Ribbon is expanding. Crypto mortgage lender Milo raised a $17-million Series A funding round. Sagent has extended its partnership deal with Freedom Mortgage Corp. Incenter has added Edgemac to its family of companies. Massachusetts-based home management platform HomeBinder has launched its new technology tool. Porch Group forged a new training partnership deal.

Haus

The fintech start-up Haus said it has a way to leverage blockchain into homeownership for about $1,000 per month, plus the cost of property tax, insurance, maintenance and HOA payments.

Haus said the system is good for homes with a Haus investment value of up to $2 million. Additionally, customers can gain access to buy and sell their equity to get liquidity.

Read more: Mortgage tech news roundup: March 04

Haus’s new service depends on leveraging blockchain. This way, Haus said, customers have lessened financial risk. The company explained that the new concept is possible because of its release of HausCoin, a blockchain-based equity offering that lets investors purchase tokens backed 1:1 by home equity.

Haus does business in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado, and plans to expand to additional states through 2022.

Ribbon

Real estate start-up Ribbon said it is expanding to Indiana.

The company launched in 2017 in New York and Charlotte, centered around a real estate technology platform designed to empower agents, brokerages and lenders to boost homebuyers’ customer experience via its financial products and digital workflow software.

Ribon also lets “everyday families” compete with high-net-worth individuals and institutional buyers by upgrading their offers to “RibbonCash” offers. This process allows homebuyers to make an all-cash offer on a home, waiving mortgage and home sale contingencies. As Ribbon explains, its guaranteed close in this case gives buyers, sellers and agents more predictability and certainty, and Ribbon can also reserve the home.

Sagent/Freedom Mortgage

Sagent has extended its partnership deal with Freedom Mortgage Corp for five more years.

Sagent is a fintech company focused on modernizing mortgage and consumer loan lending for America’s banks and lenders. Freedom Mortgage is a mortgage lender.

The agreement calls for Sagent to continue to enable Freedom’s enterprise and consumer mortgage servicing system. Specifically, Freedom Mortgage will use Sagent’s cloud-based homeowner-first platforms including LoanServ for core servicing, Tempo for default management and CARE for homeowner experience.

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Each platform shares data in real time so the company can accelerate rapid growth and maintain quality in terms of consumer care, the companies said in their partnership extension announcement.

Earlier in March, Sagent announced an alliance with Mr. Cooper Group, which provides mortgage servicing and originations for US homeowners.

Milo

Milo, a crypto mortgage lender, raised a $17-million Series A funding round from multiple investors.

California-based venture capital firm M13 led the round, though previous investors QED Investors and MetaProp also participated.

Plans call for using the money for further product development and continued hiring.

Read next: Milo CEO predicts billion-dollar crypto mortgage market

In January, Milo launched what it bills as the first 30-year crypto mortgage. The company said it has begun processing applications from a waitlist of more than 7,400 consumers. The company initially focused on mortgages for international consumers who purchase real estate in the US, plus customers who buy US investment properties.

Incenter/Edgemac

Incenter has added Edgemac to its family of 11 companies.

Edgemac, launched in the early 2000s, helps investors, originators and other industry participants evaluate loan quality so they can make informed management decisions about risks when they buy, sell or securitize mortgages.

Incenter, which employs 2,000 people across its various companies, produces products and services designed to boost business performance for the mortgage and specialty finance industries. The company is based in Fort Washington, Penn.

HomeBinder

Massachusetts-based home management platform HomeBinder has launched its new Adaptive Home Value tool.

The tool uses factors such as regular maintenance and upkeep, projects and renovations, and updates to a home’s major systems and appliances to paint what the company said is a more accurate picture of a home’s value. In its description, HomeBinder said other automated valuation models don’t include these property-specific details.

The Adaptive Home Value tool is a web-based platform designed with a user-friendly interface. It is designed to take in home data logged into a homeowner’s binder, analyze that data and then algorithmically calculate its immediate and long-term impact on home value.

In addition, it also sends out monthly automated emails that give, in part, maintenance recommendations to increase home value.

Porch Group

Porch Group, a vertical software company focused on the home services industry, has inked a training partnership with ATI Home Inspector Training.

The linkup allows ATI Home Inspector Training to provide graduates with a Porch software package to help start their businesses, with technology infrastructure to grow and scale.

Porch provides software and services to mortgage companies, loan officers, home inspectors, title companies and more.