Over the past couple of months, Privlo has expanded into four states, and this looks to be just the beginning, as the lender plans to be live in 21 states by the end of the year.
In an interview with HousingWire, Privlo CEO Michael Slavin explained that the lender operates in a unique niche of borrowers that occupy only about 5% of the mortgage lending market.
Instead of attempting to make a name in the broad mortgage lending industry, Privlo chooses to serve high-quality borrowers with complicated incomes or financial histories.
“At a high level, we are a company that solves credit dislocation. We are finding those borrowers who fall just outside of agency guidelines,” said Slavin. “For instance, our average FICO in our portfolio is 706 and average loan is $300,000.”
Privlo launched in 2011 and is a non-Qualified Mortgage startup backed by Spark Capital and QED investors. Since the lender is venture-capital based, Privlo was able to build a sustainable model that could compete in technology with other, larger lenders in the industry, Slavin explained.
He attributed the growing number of borrowers with complicated incomes to four things:
1. Since the financial crisis, more companies are hiring on a contract basis, so they can keep flexibility in their work force.
2. A lot of professionals are just migrating, such as doctors, accountants and attorneys.
3. You have the demand economy and the sharing economy, and you have a lot of folks who are working non traditional jobs, like Uber.
4. And then you have millennials, who also break away from traditions.
