Lendsnap and Redfin

Drew Thomas
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

The story behind 2 out of my 10 investments this year is simple.

I bought a house at the end of last year, and the mortgage process was ridiculous. As a tech person in 2017, I’d consider it unacceptable. Except I had no choice but to accept it.

Lendsnap

When I saw Lendsnap on SeedInvest, I saw a chance to get in on an obvious win (the idea). Is Lendsnap the winning company that executes the winning idea? We’ll see… but I’m not an accredited investor, and I have limited options. I do like the company, and they have some solid advantages. Ultimately, there are huge existing players in the mortgage space. It’s highly likely that Lendsnap’s “exit” is up to them- they’ll either squash Lendsnap or buy them.

So all I had to do is make sure Lendsnap was solid. They are. They sell their digital mortgage product to the lenders for a monthly fee. The mortgage process I went through used similar software, so I knew brokers were already used to that model. Lendsnap, however, connects with banks and payroll companies to get (and sync) documents automatically. My portal was just a space for me to upload the same documents over and over again every week or so. I was literally wishing someone like them existed as I went through the process.

Redfin

I’ve known about Redfin as a real estate service, and I like what they’re doing. They’re disrupting like Uber or AirBnb, just more quietly. In addition, they saw some aggressive pushback from realtors a few years ago, and they pivoted to adapt to the market. I respected the way they did it (basically compromised on their disruptiveness to “play the game” a little more).

Now they’re public, and I thought it made sense to think about investing. Although they don’t do it yet, I read that they’re moving into digital mortgages, so I was doubly sold. For them, digital mortgages complete the whole home buying cycle, and they’re not nearly as susceptible to the big mortgage companies.

Redfin IPOed at $15/share, but it was around $22 by the time I could get it. I had a limit order at $21.50, but it never dropped down and triggered, so I watched it go to $31 before it came back down to $24.50 where I bought some. I couldn’t have chosen a better number there… it hit $24.50 then went back up a dollar or two. I’ll never know if that was luck or if I’m getting better at this stuff.

I think long term everything will get replaced by some form of tech, so it’s smart to get behind a company that’s doing it early in a space that needs it.

Follow me on my journey from non-accredited to full time…

The Bootstrapped Investor

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Drew Thomas

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Entrepreneur, consultant, and investor. workandwhistle.co

The Bootstrapped Investor

Follow my journey from non-accredited to full time

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