00:06I'm Alison LaForgia, Managing Editor of HousingWire's Content Studio, and today I am sitting
00:11with Bob Jennings, the CEO of TrustEngine. Bob, thank you for joining me. Thank you. Yeah,
00:17really appreciate being here. Now, Bob, you just recently stepped into the role of CEO at Trust
00:22Engine, the company behind Mortgage Coach. Walk me through your priorities in your first 90 days.
00:29Yeah, I mean, the first 90 days here would be similar to my first 90 days anywhere, right?
00:35It's my priority is always the CEO, our customers, talent. So I've really spent, you know, the first
00:4460 days, which is about how long I've been here, making sure that I'm getting out in front of
00:48customers, getting feedback on the solutions, understanding how our team's performing, and
00:53then doing a lot of talent assessment, making sure that we're bringing in the right people
00:57and filling kind of the right spots. So we can really just, you know, accelerate that growth and
01:04make sure that Mortgage Coach is getting into the market in the appropriate way.
01:08Now, historically, Mortgage Coach has been associated with top producing loan officers.
01:15How is the product evolving to support broader adoption across the entire lending organization?
01:21Yeah, that is a very accurate statement, too. The product was definitely built with top
01:29LOs in mind. And, you know, the problem with that is that, you know, the more typical loan
01:38producers, they see a tool like that, and they get intimidated by it. And so we needed to take
01:44that intimidation away. And the primary focus in doing that is really making sure that Mortgage Coach
01:52is integrated into their tech stack and into their workflow. And so we put a ton of effort
01:58building our integration with ICE. That was really the most important one, and it created a one-touch
02:05experience. And future iterations of that are even going to take it even further, where there'll be
02:11automated creation of the Mortgage Coach total cost analysis, which is the output of the tool
02:17based off of loan status. So every time a credit is pulled, Mortgage Coach would be created and
02:24delivered automatically to the borrower. So just removing that friction and making sure that the
02:30tool is less intimidating for the typical LO. Now, you mentioned that you were having conversations
02:36with lenders as part of this process. What are their concerns about origination performance and
02:43borrower engagement? Yeah. You know, one of the biggest challenges that lenders have is pull-through,
02:54right? You know, they spend a lot of time and money and effort, you know, building and cultivating
03:00these leads. And I've talked to a lot of lenders that have told me that, you know, it's anywhere from
03:05like nine to 18 months for them to get from, you know, a lead to an actual application.
03:12One lender told me they have 72 different touch points in between that. 72? 72 different touch
03:19points, which is like just an insane amount of cultivation that an LO needs to do just to get
03:24to an application. Now, when you're at an application, the worst thing you can do is now,
03:29you know, lose the fish off the hook, right? And getting into a scenario where you're basically
03:39just competing on rate opens you up to situations where all of that work that you put in, you know,
03:47just to get the borrower to the point of application could just completely fall apart,
03:50right? And so this is really where Mortgage Coach comes in. You know, it's such a fantastic tool
03:58in elevating the position of the LO from beyond a salesperson to more of an advisor and presenting
04:06that the borrower options, you know, with which they can choose from and become more educated around.
04:13And that leads to better conversion. You know, we've done some studies with our lenders where
04:18we're looking at 30% better conversion rates, which is impressive. That's phenomenal. Yeah.
04:23Really impressive. So as lenders look to improve their conversion rates in a way that you just
04:29mentioned, how do you see the role of borrower education evolving?
04:35Yeah. Borrowers, you know, they're becoming dangerously savvy with tools like ChatGPT or
04:44Claude or any other LLM, right? And it's giving them this false sense of security and, you know,
04:53this false sense of knowledge and empowerment around what the loan origination process is and
05:00what it looks like, you know, what they should be expecting. You know, and it's dangerous using
05:08a model like that that isn't restrained and refined and educated, right, on what it's supposed to be.
05:15And it can give borrowers horribly wrong information. And, you know, that is a problem. And so allowing
05:25borrowers to exist in the wild like this is really a pretty serious and monumental challenge that lenders
05:35are going to have to overcome. And again, coming back to a tool like Mortgage Coach, it gives the
05:44lenders and the LOs the platform by which they can actually have those intelligent conversations
05:51with the borrower and steer them away from this self-education in the wild west.
05:57So we just talked about how critical borrower education is and how Mortgage Coach and Trust
06:05Engine bridge that gap for lenders. What areas is Trust Engine investing in now? And what market
06:13signals are driving those decisions? Our biggest investments right now are really focused on
06:22LOS, CRM, point of sale integrations, making sure that the tool is available to the LOs at the point in
06:31the process that they need to leverage it. But in addition to that, we're building out quite a bit
06:38of AI functionality as well, both internally facing towards the LO and building out the recommendation
06:45and advice engine that the LO needs to craft the appropriate presentation to put in front of the
06:53borrower. And then on the back end, we have some LOA-like functionality where the borrower can communicate
07:02with our LLM model and get simple questions answered that they would normally have to go to the LO or
07:12go to
07:12the LO to get answered. What is APR? What if I were to put another $10,000 down? Can I
07:19do a 7-1 arm as
07:21opposed to a 30-year fix? And our tools will answer that for the borrower and always redirect them back
07:27to the LO at the same time. But giving them their answers fast. I mean, we're at a place and
07:33time
07:33where people expect their information to get back to them very, very quickly. It's critical for the
07:39experience. Now, you mentioned AI, and this would not be a HousingWire interview if I didn't
07:44dig into that a little bit more. Sure. Sass is dead, right?
07:48It is artificial intelligence is becoming embedded across the mortgage workflow.
07:53How is Trust Engine approaching AI to deliver a practical experience and practical value to lenders
08:03and originators? Well, I think you just hit on it, right? It's practical. You know, it's thinking
08:09about what can actually be consumed by our customers. I think a lot of people are pursuing AI for the
08:16sake
08:16of AI, right? They feel like they need to have AI somewhere in their tech stack so they can produce
08:22a
08:22better valuation when they exit, right? I view AI a little differently. I view it as a tool
08:30that it's really meant to create greater efficiency, you know, and really be that assistant for the LO.
08:41And so, you know, to me, when I see that, and I see all the other investment that's going into
08:47AI and,
08:48you know, talking to some customers, I talked to one of my friends recently, who's at a bank,
08:57that has decided to make a different decision on their point of sale than they had in the past.
09:06They were able to leverage Claude to build a prototype point of sale in, you know, a weekend.
09:13And it really has changed their thoughts around build versus buy. And when we're heading into an
09:20environment like that, I think it's important for us to make sure that our AI functionality can be
09:28consumed by the future state of technology, right? And so, one of the areas that we're putting a lot
09:35of investment into also is making sure that our AI APIs are really honed and ready for exposure to the
09:44market. So lenders can pick them up and consume them within the tech stack that they're building
09:51in a way that's practical.
09:53I love the focus on practicality where you're delivering value that actually makes an impact
09:59in the day to day for the end user. I feel like there's so much hype around AI as an
10:05industry that's
10:06seeing practical value has become, or it should be, table stakes, right, for the conversation.
10:13So I have to ask you a forward-looking question, Bob.
10:17Sure.
10:17What does success look like for the next couple of years for Trust Engine as the market continues to shift?
10:27Fantastic question. Honestly, I haven't really put a lot of thought into it because I'm just 60 days
10:31into it if I'm being completely candid about that. But, you know, my focus is on building out the
10:41network, right? We have about 12,000 LOs that use the platform today. There are 221,000 producing LOs
10:49in the United States last year. I see no reason why over the next couple of years this platform should
10:57not, it should be ubiquitous, right? And 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 LOs using our platform. That's how I
11:05would
11:05define success. It's really about making sure that the tool is getting out there, being leveraged by as
11:13many LOs as possible, and giving borrowers the opportunity to make the appropriate financial decisions for
11:21them is near and dear to my heart and a lot of the reason why I took this job.
11:26Bob, thank you so much for walking me through how Trust Engine is growing Mortgage Coach
11:32and bringing it away from maybe that idea that we've seen in the past where it's meant for the
11:37top producers and looking towards that practical value that it can deliver for lenders and loan
11:43originators across the whole industry. Wonderful. Thank you very much. I appreciate you having me here.
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