How property data APIs streamline utilities and mortgages

According to a study by AIThority, the mortgage industry hasn't quiiiiiite caught the vision of property data analytics. More than a third of lenders (37%) are what we might call property data dabblers—they've got access to the basics but not much more. Another 36% of mortgage businesses have enough game to conduct descriptive, post-mortem analyses. Still, a mere 3% of companies are found worthy of wielding a property data API for effective prescriptive analytics.

For mortgage, repair, and utility companies willing to put in the work, a proper analytics program fueled by address data APIs is a game-changer. Reduced risk, more efficient operations, and a slightly smug sense of superiority are just some of the benefits Smarty's address data API tools provide. Use these handy links (or just keep scrollin') for more:  

• How property data APIs help mortgage companies
  • Loan-to-value ratio
  • Preemptive refinancing offers
  • Underwriting
  • Operation
  • Use case: Underwriting property valuation
• How property data APIs help utility, energy, and repair companies
  • Proactive communications
  • Improved project scoping
  • Use case: Targeted marketing
• Highlights
• Conclusion

How property data APIs help mortgage companies

Property data APIs help mortgage companies to be more successful than the other guys in the market for a plethora of reasons. You know what to do: keep scrollin’ through.

Loan-to-value ratio and risk analysis 

If you're a mortgage company hoping to increase the accuracy and speed of your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio estimates, a property data API should be the first item in your utility belt. Using an API, mortgage lenders can calculate LTV instantaneously on address entry, plus extract attributes like year built, assessed value, and sale price to construct a broader financial snapshot of any property. 

Smarty's financial property data API even comes with historical data, allowing year-over-year attribute analysis to further assess a property's real market value and risk profile.

Preemptive refinancing offers

A property data API can help lenders create robust property profiles that foster proactive (and, dare we hope, predictive) campaigns aimed to connect with homeowners' who might have a refi on their mind. Using property data attributes in conjunction with AI and machine learning tools, lenders can analyze a home's age, style, materials, and complement of features (swimming pool, fireplace, etc.) to identify and market to likely customers —before they start shopping around. 

Do you feel that? 

That's your spidey-sense tingling.

Underwriting

Smarty's property data solution gives mortgage lenders instant access to 350+ data points detailing a property's structural, locational, and financial profile. This enormous list of cross-sectional property attributes helps lenders create a good-bad-and-ugly view of any property—think better loans, lower risk, and a much faster underwriting process. 

For underwriters, Smarty's property data API also comes with a secret superpower—SmartyKey®, a persistent unique identifier (PUID) assigned to every one of our 210 M+ addresses. SmartyKey allows underwriters and actuaries to reliably connect API-extracted property attributes with mortgage data across multiple systems for more efficient loan and risk calculation.

Operations

What's the best part of implementing address intelligence via API?

It's sort of a toss-up, but it's hard to argue against ease of integration. 

For mortgage companies, adding address autocomplete and verification to existing systems requires a subatomic software development investment but offers galactic benefits. 

Smarty's address autocomplete dynamically generates verified addresses as users type, cutting out entry errors and—on average—reducing keystrokes by 80%. How's that for an efficiency win? 

API address verification also powers up your operations, offering a simple way to improve mail delivery and customer satisfaction scores. 

Use case: Underwriting property valuation 

Property inspections are vital to the mortgage process but can be expensive and time-consuming. 

With a property data API, mortgage agents can reduce time and expense by creating a robust and precise property profile long before an inspection is scheduled. Information reported by clients and brokers may contain errors (or, let's face it, whimsical flights of fancy) and requires a sometimes lengthy verification process. 

Pulling attributes directly from a verified data source (with the help of a trusty property data API) ensures you're getting the straight facts in a flash. This approach aims to front-load vital property information so users can identify easy victories (and avoid property kryptonite) much earlier in the underwriting process.

How property data APIs help utility, energy, and repair companies

What do utility, energy, and repair companies have in common? 

Property data. 

More specifically, these types of companies service properties, and the cost of these services is determined by property data points like those listed. Utility and energy companies utilize property data in various ways to efficiently deliver services, manage infrastructure, and optimize operations.

Proactive communications and lead generation

• Enriched property data can provide targeted insights for marketing and advertising initiatives. Companies can create personalized marketing campaigns by understanding a property's characteristics, age, interior features, etc.
• A property data API can provide utility and energy companies with essential information on the property size, and interior and exterior features to estimate utility consumption, plan for service delivery, and even design energy-efficiency campaigns.
• Property data assists utility companies in providing personalized customer service and engagement. By leveraging property data, utility companies can better understand their customers, tailor communication, and offer relevant services or products. Property data helps provide proactive customer support, deliver targeted energy-saving tips, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

Improved project scoping

Property data helps your friendly neighborhood home repair companies assess the scope of repairs and provide accurate cost estimates to homeowners. By analyzing property data, such as property size, age, features, and construction profile, repair heroes can get the scoop on requisite materials and time requirements to provide accurate cost estimates to the citizens awaiting rescue. 

Use case: Targeted marketing

Without targeted marketing, companies waste resources on prospects who will never become customers. Property data insights help repair and utility companies understand customers' needs and create more cost-effective campaigns and sales programs. 

If you know the year a house was built and the material used for roofing, you can focus your heat vision (and marketing spend) on people due for repairs or upgrades. 

Highlights 

• Property data APIs can help predict when homeowners will need major repairs or upgrades based on roof materials and home age, enabling proactive marketing.
• Property data APIs give instant access to hundreds of data points about a property's location, structure, and financial history. This allows companies to create comprehensive profiles before physical inspections and make faster, more informed decisions.
• Companies can use property data to analyze historical trends and combine them with SmartyKey® unique identifiers to create reliable, cross-system property profiles for risk assessment and loan calculation. 
• The technology enables predictive analytics for customer behavior. Companies can identify and reach out to customers likely to refinance before they start shopping around, improving customer retention.

Conclusion 

Regarding property analytics and process optimization, mortgage companies and related home service providers are channeling Clark Kent—competent, but certainly not super. 

The key to transformation isn't remarkably flattering spandex; however—it's the power of a robust property data API. For mild-mannered organizations willing to take the leap, Smarty's property data solutions grant superhuman abilities to target campaigns with laser precision, see through walls (metaphorically speaking), and leap (or at least refinance) tall buildings in a single bound. 

With only 3% of mortgage companies currently wielding these superpowers, there's never been a better time to step into the Smarty phone booth and emerge as the hero your company needs. 

Ready to save the day? Let's talk.