Homelend ICO (HMD Token): Blockchain Mortgage Crowdfunding?

Homelend is a mortgage crowdfunding platform built on blockchain technology. Find out how it works today in our review.

What is Homelend?

Homelend, found online at Homelend.io, is a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer mortgage lending platform.

Yes, just like we have P2P lending platforms for smaller loans and offers, we now have lending platforms for larger loans – like home mortgages.

The goal of Homelend is to disrupt the $31 trillion global real estate lending market. As of April 2018, Homelend is still preparing to launch. They’ve published a whitepaper online and appear to be preparing for a token sale in the near future.

Token Symbol: HMD
Pre-ICO Start Date: March 1, 2018
Pre-ICO Conversion: 1 ETH = 1600 HMD
Hard Cap: $30 million USD
Total Supply: 250 million HMD tokens

Supply Distribution
36% Crowdsale
20% To the team, early buyers and project advisors.
8% Bounty rewards
8% Founders

What Problems Does Homelend Seek to Solve?

Homelend seeks to use blockchain technology to disrupt the “archaic” mortgage industry. Homelend’s whitepaper claims today’s mortgage industry is centralized both socially and economy, and “the traditional mortgage lending system remains incredibly primitive.” Some of the problems identified by Homelend include:

• The mortgage process is lengthy, complex, and requires lots of paperwork
• Applying for a mortgage is filled with intermediaries that reduce efficiency and add costs to the application process
• Mortgages are unattainable for new generations of young borrowers, which means millions of creditworthy individuals cannot obtain home loans “due to outdated assessment criteria”

With these problems in mind, Homelend seeks to build a mortgage platform on blockchain technology.

How Does Homelend Work?

Homelend is building a decentralized, peer-to-per mortgage lending platform that will have two core goals:

• To modernize the aging mortgage lending system to make it more efficient, cost-effective, and customer-centric
• To expand home ownership opportunities for a new generation of borrowers while meeting their distinct lifestyle and needs

To accomplish these goals, Homelend will use blockchain technology and smart contracts to bring parties together in a decentralized marketplace. Individual borrowers and lenders will be able to interact across the Homelend marketplace. Homelend will be an end-to-end system that processes all stages of the mortgage process – from the early stages of application to the final stages of paying your last mortgage payment.

The Homelend ecosystem revolves around the Homelend Token, or HMD.

Borrowers will be able to access three different P2P lending methods on the Homelend platform, including pure crowdfunding, pooling, and auction. In each of these lending methods, the flow of financial resources is controlled and executed by smart contracts with no need for middlemen or financial intermediaries. Each funding method can also split a mortgage into “slices”.

Crowdfunding Method: Crowdfunding is the simplest funding method on Homelend. Potential lenders can find investment opportunities in the form of mortgage “slices”. The borrower’s loan will be divided into smaller fractions, and smaller lenders can provide a slice of that mortgage (by depositing cash) in exchange for a fixed interest rate based on the terms of the mortgage.

Pooling Method: The pooling method gives economic flexibility to the Homelend lending system. Under the pooling method, lenders can invest money through smart contracts before the specific mortgage has been pre-approved. Investors are still buying different “slices” of the mortgage, although the smart contract allows lenders to pre-purchase slices before the loan has been approved.

Auction Method: The auction method will allow investors to bid on different mortgages as investment opportunities. You might spot a buyer with a good credit rating offering a generous interest rate, for example. You compete with other investors to offer a slice of that mortgage. The key difference with the auction method is that there’s no financial buffering involved in the process. The advantage is that lenders can offer borrowers better conditions than those pre-approved by the platform, if they choose to do so.

Homelend Features and Benefits

Homelend is emphasizing all of the following features and benefits:

Streamlined and Efficient: Today’s mortgage application process is manual and lengthy. Homelend wants to use blockchain and smart contracts to make it streamlined and efficient. Homelend will embed pre-defined business logic into smart contracts, digitizing documentation and eliminating unnecessary processes. Homelend specifically aims to cut the end-to-end mortgage origination process from 50 days to fewer than 20.

Transparent and User-Friendly: Homelend seeks to get rid of today’s ambiguous and clunky mortgage application process and replace it with a process that’s transparent and user-friendly. Homelend will create a lending process that is smart, simple, and fair, allowing borrowers to easily apply for a loan, track their application status at all times, and interact directly with mortgage lenders.

Cost-Effective with No Intermediaries: Homelend will introduce a cost-effective mortgage application process free from middlemen. The blockchain will replace intermediaries, providing a way for two trustless parties to interact with each other. All transaction data will be recorded in the blockchain, allowing borrowers and lenders to maintain maximum transparency throughout the transaction process.

Trusted and Secure: Homelend aims to use blockchain to process mortgage-related data in a more trusted, transparent, and secure way than ever before.

How Do Homelend Tokens (HMD) Work?

Homelend ICO tokens, or HMD, are Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens. A pre-sale for the tokens began on March 1, 2018. As of April 2018, a date has not yet been announced for the crowdsale.

There’s a total supply of 250 million HMD tokens. The tokens are priced at a face value of 1 ETH = 1600 HMD. Homelend has set a hard cap of $30 million USD for the token sale.

Of the total supply of tokens, 36% is allocated to the public sale, 28% to the pre-sale, 20% to a reserve fund, 8% to advisors and bounties, and 8% to the founders.

Who’s Behind Homelend?

Homelend was co-founded by Itai Cohen (CEO) and Netanel Bitan (CTO). Other listed members of the executive team include Ricardo Henriquez (Chief Innovation Officer) and Amir Nahmias (Chief Business Officer).

Homelend has partnered with BrightNet, GenesisZero, NetObjex, and Market Across to bring its platform to life.

Homelend is based in Zug, Switzerland. The company was incorporated in 2016.

Conclusion

Homelend aims to create a next-generation mortgage marketplace where borrowers and lenders can interact using blockchain and smart contracts. The goal of Homelend is to reduce intermediaries and costs in the mortgage industry, making mortgages more accessible to a new generation of homebuyers.

To learn more about Homelend and how it works, visit online today at Homelend.io.