Freemodel is excited to announce that we are partnering with Feeasy! Feeasy is a free nationwide personal loan comparison platform with 50 lenders, with an online marketplace that displays pre-qualified loan offers to homeowners. They facilitate personal loans up to $100k, and will be working with Freemodel to identify those looking to do a home renovation. I sat down with Feeasy President, John Giannone, to get some more background on their company and how we will be working together:

Hi John! To get us started, can you talk a bit about how Feeasy got started?

Feeasy was started by myself and my cousin, Jac Credaroli. We began our careers as real estate agents in New York City, and noticed a gap in the market, particularly at that time in the rental market. In New York City, the tenant pays the broker fee for a rental, so we thought that it would be interesting if a tenant could finance that cost.

Our offerings eventually grew into financing what we call “pre/post-sale prep” or any sort of cost if someone needs to paint or stage a home or remodel, either pre- or post-close. We wanted to provide a convenient tool for agents to have in their pockets to offer their clients financing for things that would help them to increase property values, and spend less days on the market.

How has Feeasy’s target client changed over time from when you started in 2018?

From the onset, we were always looking to be what we call a “vendor-based business,” so we create relationships with real estate agents/brokerages who refer us to their clients. We were never soliciting the end user or the home seller directly.

We're very cognizant of the fact that agents have their own rolodexes built up of professionals that they like to recommend for all sorts of tasks from painting to staging and so on. Knowing this, we wanted to allow the client to use anyone that their realtor recommends and definitely did not want to get between the agent and their client. We are strictly the financing source tool and we provide one-on-one assistance to the applicants, helping them through the process from start to finish.

Kristina Shelton’s project in San Francisco, CA

With your target audience in mind, which areas do you service? And how has that grown overtime as you’ve learned more about your users?

We are based in New York City and started out by reaching out to agents in the area, as that’s where we have the strongest relationships with agents. The maximum loan we facilitate is $100,000, but our average ticket size is right around $50K. In New York, where a project might be above our threshold, our services may not be as necessary or make that much of a dent in what the client needs. With those figures, we found that our niche was really more in the South, the Midwest and the West where a loan below $100,000 can go further.

So when did the Freemodel discussions begin? Who identified who for a partnership?

The initial mention of Freemodel came through Dan Sachar, the Managing Director of New Valley Ventures, who introduced us to Freemodel. (Dan is one of Freemodel’s points of contact in terms of getting involved with Douglas Elliman). After our discussions with Freemodel, we thought there would be a great synergy between our companies. There are circumstances when an applicant may not be a great fit for a personal loan, so having an alliance with Freemodel which offers a different financing method gives us an alternative solution we can provide applicants seeking to make home improvements, and vice versa.

Susan Lennon’s project in Manhattan Beach, CA

Is there anything else you want to add or any message to agents that you’d like to share?

The main takeaway is that Feeasy is not the direct lender. We are a platform of dozens of lenders. When a client applies on our site, it's done on a soft credit inquiry, so it does not affect an applicant’s credit to check their rate, how much they're approved to borrow, or what their payment might look like. There is also no commitment, so an applicant can apply and see those terms and if it works for them, they can simply move forward with one of the lenders they select, or choose not to move forward with any of the pre-qualified offers. Loan use is also very flexible.

For example, if a client borrows $30,000, they have the option to mix and match and maybe spend $10,000 for painting, $10,000 for staging, $10,000 for something else. It’s a great way to take in liquidity and use it in the most productive way possible that is going to give them the most value and return on investment.

Thank you John!

You can learn more about Feeasy at itsfeeasy.com, we look forward to working with them to better service those that are looking to fund and carry out a home renovation project!