In today’s fast-moving investment landscape, every minute saved can give multifamily investors a leg up. Joshua Orpin, director of small balance production at Lument, explains the many benefits of tapping into Leap to Loans for faster multifamily quotes and decision-making.
How does Leap to Loans (LeaptoLoans.com) work and what’s the biggest draw for multifamily borrowers?
Orpin: Leap to Loans is designed for anyone seeking quick multifamily property and finance information, including small-balance loan quotes. It provides market intel around neighborhoods, rents, sales comps, demographics, and other data using a single address. The platform is largely aimed at medium-to-smaller investors, including folks who may have an entirely different day job and invest on the side to help build generational wealth. They could also be a borrower who plans to buy or inherit multifamily assets soon without a large company or fund involved.
How can institutional investors, including mid-market borrowers, make best use of Leap to Loans?
Orpin: For real estate firms with larger staffs, Leap to Loans can help bolster their market intel. It’s especially useful for companies that are tapping into new markets where our data teams have already compiled relevant comps and values.
Can you take borrowers behind the scenes on how the technology works?
Orpin: We were able to leverage two main tools that we have internally at Lument. We worked with our Artemis team to build Leap to Loans in-house. Artemis is an internal engine that we use to calculate property and market valuations to help our originators with specific deals. We have a lot of vetted and curated intel in that system. We also tapped into our internal small balance loan (SBL) calculator, which our originators use for multifamily loan quotes.
We took the key factors from those data sets and created a simple form that borrowers can fill in to get rough instant quotes through Leap to Loans. We also provide free market insights as users add relevant information. There is no other tool on the market that gives multifamily loan quotes that quickly and accessibly.
How do Lument’s agency relationships benefit multifamily buyers who use Leap to Loans?
Orpin: One of our advantages is that being an agency lender we have access to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan and property intel. Let’s start with SBL. We can enter all of the specifics about a deal into Freddie Mac’s SBL comp engine and it will model the average income and expenses based on Freddie’s book of business. We also have our own book of business at Lument. All of the loans that we service—about $50 billion — give us a lot of data that we can pull from and provide to borrowers who use Leap to Loans.
How is all of this property, loan, and market data packaged for SBL borrowers?
Orpin: We take all our intel and compile it in a clean way that lets users skip filling out tons of information before receiving their loan quote and market intel—what they really need. The quote is based on the latest rates, and, along with the intel, really lets them gauge the current market. We also tap into other industry data, census data, and additional information about specific markets that can offer a lot of value to multifamily borrowers. We anonymize the data about specific properties that isn’t open-sourced. In the end, you get everything from average cap rate, rent, and occupancy to walkability, population, and median household income.
How much customization does Leap to Loans offer individual users?
Orpin: We can provide loans and market information based on a borrower’s interest in loan proceeds, terms, rates, and other important factors in today’s lending environment. There are different levers we can pull to customize our data to meet specific borrower needs.
Can you give borrowers a glimpse into how Leap to Loans and other Lument data platforms were developed?
Orpin: The programs we use were all built in-house by a number of team members who work collectively. We have a very robust lender technology team that develops and maintains these tools, so we’re never relying on somebody else’s ideas. We are always asking ourselves: What do we need for our clients and for our business to succeed and how do we build it and make it a product that offers value?
What was the impetus for building such an intricate platform from the ground up?
Orpin: Our SBL originators are always out talking to borrowers, brokers, and many others in the multifamily space. We started to think about additional ways that we can bring in business and better serve our clients using new technology tools combined with all of the intel we have at Lument. We looked at the many apps and platforms available on the single-family side and saw a big void on the multifamily side. With Leap to Loans, it can be as simple as entering an address and then receiving more detailed information about the property and surrounding area.
Are there any growth plans for Leap to Loans that you can tease out?
Orpin: Rick Warren, senior managing director of Lument’s small balance loan business, always says he wants Leap to Loans to be used like a Zillow for multifamily investors. The core concept is that owners and investors can tap into all of the information we offer to see what various multifamily properties could become with the right capital improvements and financing strategies. The goal is for both new and experienced borrowers to be able to make quick and calculated decisions based on this intel. We’re doing some discovery now for our short-term growth plans and that’s where we’ll continue to leverage Lument’s market data and insights.
