Racism In The Housing Market Is Not New, But Here’s How This Tech Founder Is Hoping To Put An End To It Using AI

Bryan Young, CEO, and co-founder of Home Lending Pal, an AI-powered software platform, has a mission to use his technology to increase Black and Brown homeownership beyond the rates of the record in the early 2000s when the rate was 46.4%.

At the moment Black homeownership is 43 percent.

Ogechi Igbokwe, founder of OneSavvyDollar, told The Grio she is also “worried about the lack of ownership rate” in the Black community. She thinks an additional contributing factor to homeownership reluctance is the prioritization of buying stocks rather than investing in actual real estate.

But Home Lending Pal aims to solve this by equipping the community with knowledge and resources.

Co-located in Durham and Orlando, the business serves as a mortgage research software that simulates underwriting to help potential borrowers determine home loan affordability and compare the likelihood of approval with different lenders. 

Through AI, the company’s Intelligent Mortgage Advisor allows their clients to easily find affordable mortgage options, uncover hidden homeownership costs, and identify lenders willing to work with them.

Lenders are able to see data necessary for underwriting without the borrower needing to disclose age, sex, or race.  

In order to get started, prospective homeowners create an account and link their banking information; this helps the HLP technology with pulling their current transaction history.

Afterwards, HLP will provide customers with a soft credit pull through Equifax to give them the same starting point they would have with an underwriter. 

Next, the customers select prospective homes of interest that run through HLP’s machine-learning algorithm to match them with mortgage loans and lenders that are best suited for them. Once ready, customers may select lenders to contact directly through the HLP app and work towards finding their new home.

At 24, Bryan was recognized by both Bloomberg and Ernst and Young as a top entrepreneur under the age of 40. It was in 2017 that he left his job as a business strategist in the corporate sector and joined forces with his friend Steven Better to start Home Lending Pal. The two saw the need to “disrupt” the industry and provide an easier process to those looking for their first home.