At Mortech we pride ourselves in the great partnerships we have with various companies in the mortgage space. Whether it be an integration with a point of sale platform, loan origination system or mortgage offer marketplace - our ultimate goal with these partnerships is to bring simplicity and automation to our lender’s workflow so they can spend more time growing their business and creating lasting relationships with their customers.

This past month, Partner Relationship Manager, Mike Russell, got to speak with Brett Siegal, Founder and CEO of the home buying management platform, Ruuster. New to the industry, Ruuster has created a space that educates and empowers thoughtful and ambitious home buyers throughout their entire home buying journey. By targeting home buyers at the earliest stages of their journey, Ruuster is looking to not only be an education resource, but also the solution home buyers use to conquer every step of the process. 

Brett states, “Only about a third of consumers are comparing rates and a small percentage of those are doing so online, even though comparing rates can save consumers thousands of dollars over the course of their mortgages. Part of the reason this is happening is an education problem. The opportunity to invite consumers to the table at the earliest stage of their process, teach them how to go through the process, and then provide the ability to act on that education right in the same platform, is mutually beneficial for all involved.”

Mortech provides rate comparison inside Ruuster platform

From the beginning Brett wanted to create a centralized location for all consumer facing activities surrounding the home buying process. Whether that be learning about the process, budgeting, planning, or even hiring vendors; he sought partnerships with other successful companies in the industry to create the platform we now know as Ruuster. During initial research, Brett realized that one of the major difficulties a new or prospective home buyer had was understanding the cost to purchase a new home. By leveraging Mortech’s robust product eligibility and pricing APIs within their budget functionality, Ruuster can provide their users with property specific budgets in a personalized way, including providing the ability for users to see an actual mortgage offer versus a generic one.

Watch the full interview below.

With the integration between Mortech and Ruuster, the companies are looking to get rid of the disjointed process that comes with buying a home. With live, accurate rates available from Mortech, the mortgage piece of the platform is just one small portion of the ultimate home buying platform. In the next couple of months Ruuster is looking to add a homeowners insurance marketplace, inspector quotes and home improvement professionals to its list of supported vendors. By collecting consumer data from the early stages of the home search, Ruuster wants their platform to be used to foster relationships between the home buyers and vendors they need support from. By also providing this consumer data to their lender partners, they can help increase conversion rates and create a better consumer experience for both sides of the mortgage transaction. 

“Mortech was an enabling factor of our early business model. The ability to have a single point of connection into lending partners saved us valuable time and resources early on and the connections they’ve facilitated within the industry have been invaluable,” says Brett. 

The mortgage space is digitizing

The mortgage industry is at a point in time where it is moving more and more virtual, and consumers are needing to learn how they can digitize these major life decisions. Partnerships between industry leading companies are more important now than ever as the need to create a more simplified digital space is top of mind. “To be at the forefront of this transition where consumers are looking to execute more of their homebuying transactions digitally, and create a platform that can be the hub for parts of the industry to connect into these choice consumers is a very exciting place to be,” Brett Siegal concludes.

Watch the full interview here. If you have any questions about our current integrations or are interested in learning how you can utilize Mortech’s Rate API with your own business model - please reach out to us at mortechmarketplaces@zillowgroup.com.