Case Study
Homeside Financial

Homeside Build - Construction and Reno

45% reduction in draw turn times

Homeside Financial Achieves 450%
Growth in Loan Volume

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Product Offering:

  • Construction Loans: FHA CTP, VA CTP, Fannie Mae CTP, Freddie Mac CTP, Conventional, and USDA
  • Renovation Loans: Fannie Mae, Homestyle, FHA 203k, VA, and USDA

Goals:

  • Visibility for Homeside and Builders
  • Replace a Manual System
  • Digitize Systems and Processes
  • Configurable Reporting
  • Grow Construction and Renovation Loan Volume

Solution:

  • Land Gorilla’s Construction Loan
    Manager Software
  • OneSite by Land Gorilla
  • Pre-Close Builder & Project
    Review Services
  • Post-Close Draw Management
    Services
  • Native Integration With
    EncompassTM by ICE Mortgage
    Technology

Results:

  • 450% Growth in Loan Volume
  • Increased Visibility and Efficient Workflows
  • Streamlined Loan Onboarding
  • Clear-to-Close Time Decreased by 45%
  •  Draw Turn Times Reduced by 45%

We love the ability to see the status on every loan within the software

Alicia Norwood
Head of Renovation and Construction Lending, Homeside Financial

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About

Homeside Financial is a privately held mortgage lender and one of the nation’s fastest growing mortgage companies. Since opening in late 2013, Homeside has grown to over 1100+ employees, across 30+ regional locations throughout the Midwest, MidAtlantic, Southeast and Northwest. Homeside continues to grow and is focused on being a Top 20 purchase money lender in the United States by continually improving their customer experience.

Homeside Financial is constantly rethinking the way people experience the home financing process. Their robust residential construction division offers many of the products on the market including FHA, VA, Conventional, and USDA; including one and two time close construction to permanent loans in their product line. Their modern mortgage experience gets them recognized for leading the industry in innovation of process and promoting consumer transparency. Consumers have ranked Homeside Financial over 13,000 times with 5 star reviews on ZIllow.

Visit Homeside at:
https://gohomeside.com/

The Challenge

Homeside Financial set out to build a robust construction and renovation program and invested in the department. They desired to offer many different loan products to provide their customers with the most options.

As part of their growth, they continued expanding their warehouse line relationships, and through that, they were introduced to Land Gorilla and the Construction Loan Manager Software.

While not initially in the market for a new construction loan management system, upon reviewing Land Gorilla, Homeside took stock of what they wanted to improve upon from their current system.

Their previous system was very manual. They were looking to digitize processes, knockdown information silos to gain visibility for themselves, the borrower and builder, and to gain efficiencies in the process.

As Homeside began to learn more about Land Gorilla, they were happy to discover they provide a cloud-based program, or Software-as-a-Service. Homeside wanted to digitize processes, gain visibility, and increase efficiency. With the Construction Loan Manager accessible on any browser, it means team members from anywhere can log in and manage the loan (that they have permissions to) at any time. This delivery model has always been convenient for users, and perhaps more so than ever before with the changing office-working conditions across the globe.

Land Gorilla Curve White

We were looking for more than our current system, and to get away from the manual process

Alicia Norwood
Head of Renovation and Construction Lending at Homeside Financial.

The Solution

To start, Homeside has streamlined its loan onboarding process thanks to a native integration between their loan origination system (LOS), Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology, and the Construction Loan Manager (CLM). The native integration seamlessly imports loan data and documents to the CLM and updates loan information to Encompass. This integration provides a complete end-to-end solution that eliminates manual entry and saves time throughout the loan process.

The manual process also has an inherent lack of visibility. Homeside wanted to be able to see everything happening on the loan. “Land Gorilla’s Construction Loan Manager gave us immediate satisfaction with being able to have visibility on the project and to know the status at all times,” says Norwood. Homeside can now see an overview of the loan and specifics, including status on inspections, draw requests, and draw payments. The Construction Loan Manager also has a chat feature that can be used to communicate with borrowers, builders, or the Land Gorilla team.

Norwood. “Managing orders is great in the Construction Loan Manager. We love the ability to see the status on every loan, and within the software, Homeside’s team can easily communicate with Land Gorilla’s team to provide information back and forth, check statuses, and get updates.”

The Construction Loan Manager is awesome because we are able to manage all of the loans with high visibility

Alicia Norwood
Head of Renovation and Construction Lending at Homeside Financial.

Visibility for the Homeside team was a key reason for starting with Land Gorilla, but visibility for the builder and borrower is also important. Homeside uses OneSite, an online experience for borrowers and builders that looks and feels like it was on Homeside’s website with their branding and colors. OneSite is also available as an app for Andriod or Apple users. Homeside found their builders value OneSite for a complete view of the project, easy change-orders, and to efficiently request draws. Builders and borrowers can easily connect to their Homeside account via OneSite—either in their web browser or through the stand-alone app. “We are pleased to be able to give the builder and borrower access to the loan post-close while the home is being built,” says Norwood.

There are many features of the Construction Loan Manager that Homeside is benefiting from, including esignature capability and the document center, where all pertinent documents can be uploaded to the Construction Loan Manager and loan stakeholders can see if they have been received and when they are reviewed and signed. “It’s incredibly helpful to my team to be able to see when a document has been received and reviewed, and this is a feature that is a game-changer for us,” says Norwood. Additionally, Homeside is utilizing the servicing function, which makes it incredibly easy to track interest as the loan is disbursed. “We are also using Land Gorilla’s interest calculations for our monthly billing statements. We like that we can easily check the transaction center to see what interest is being accumulated,” said Norwood.

Homeside Financial Borrower Portal Login

The Solution

It’s incredibly helpful to my team to be able to see when a document has been received… a game-changer

Alicia Norwood
Head of Renovation and Construction Lending at Homeside Financial.

Homeside also utilizes Land Gorilla’s professional services team for pre-close and post-close services. One of the services is Project Review, which provides Homeside with valuable information before the loan closes to help mitigate risk. Said Norwood, “We are especially pleased with the configurable reports, and how useful we have found them when we are in the pre-close process.”

This has enabled Homeside to have a clear-to-close time of an average of 11 days, significantly reducing their previous 20 day timeline by 45%. “Using Land Gorilla for professional services has really taken a lot off my team and of course underwriting and things of that nature. Having Land Gorilla do the builder and project reviews upfront and the draw management process on the back end is very helpful,” says Norwood.

The Results

Having implemented Land Gorilla, Homeside has reduced their draw turn times by 45%

It was important to adopt and implement Land Gorilla swiftly and properly. Implementation took under a month, and the first loan came through the Construction Loan Manager about a month after that. Homeside has seen a significant increase in the amount of construction loans they are able to manage.

Homeside hit their goal of increasing loan volume at scale. Where they used to have difficulties seeing each step on the construction loan, they now have full visibility and communication into each loan. This is due, in part, to more efficient workflows, so Homeside knows each next step is taken care of.

Having been with Land Gorilla over a year now, they continue to see growth in their monthly loan volume. After implementing the Construction Loan Manager, Homeside’s monthly loan volume has grown by 450%.

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