Builders Patch: finance software for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
AI-assisted lending platform for CDFIs
Serve your communities better by making the funds flow faster. Speed up the loan closing process and double the potential of your team.
Small team, big vision?
We help you do more with less. Scale your lending operations & double your team’s potential through digitized loan applications & automated underwriting. See how other CDFIs are benefiting from Builders Patch.
NCI needed a new tech infrastructure to scale fast, streamline their internal processes, store and pass on their knowledge to new staff, and organize their asset management operations.
People Inc. offers mental health services and supportive housing to those in need. With Builders Patch, they can easily manage their loan applications and due diligence for their housing development projects.
Other LOAN PROGRAMS
Manage any loan type with Builders Patch!
While we come from a background in housing finance and originally created Builders Patch for this industry, the platform can handle so much more!
Create and manage loan packages with complete workflows from application intake to loan closing and asset performance monitoring for different loan types.
Affordable housing development
We need more housing. Speeding up the funding process is the first step.
From application intake & underwriting to rent roll analysis & asset performance monitoring, our all-in-one platform provides you the right tools to fund more projects.
Climate resiliency & energy retrofits
Most homes need climate resiliency upgrades. Acting fast saves money on all sides.
Evaluate applicants & disburse the available infrastructure funds faster so we can truly start building a better future. Create end-to-end finance packages for any asset types from individual homes to apartment buildings and whole neighborhoods.
Small business lending
For communities to thrive, supporting local entrepreneurship is key.
Create opportunities by providing local businesses faster and smoother access to financing. Set up a user-friendly application process with 2-way communication, and review the automated closing documents with your built-in evaluation criteria for a speedier loan closing.
The PROBLEM
Your borrowers need a smooth process. So do you.
Navigating the loan application process is daunting for most borrowers. Show them it can be different: an easy-to-use borrower interface, clear instructions, no stress.
Step #01
DIGITIZED APPLICATION FORMS
Make loan applications easier for everyone.
Set up your intake forms using Builders Patch and get notified when a new application is submitted.
Formulate your questions based on your evaluation criteria. Screen for projects that:
• meet the your program requirements • meet the terms for allocation agreements • create maximum community impact
Step #02
DUE DILIGENCE CHECKLISTS
Underwrite your deals faster by better coordinating with borrowers.
Cut down on the back-and-forth of email threads & attachments. Share your due diligence checklist with your borrowers and collect all required items online in an interface tailor-made for the task. Get notified when new files are uploaded, leave comments, assign tasks.
With our easy-to-navigate online tool, collecting due diligence becomes a seamless experience where next steps are clear for everyone.
configurable setup
user-defined folder structures
central file storage
filters & file search
progress tracking
status updates
task assignments
shared comments
direct chat
Step #03
CREDIT MEMOS & REPORTS
Create your credit memos using AI. Distribute them for approval.
Set up credit memo templates for your organization & auto-populate them with deal data. Every time you change a value, the memo gets updated. Once finalized, share with your loan committee for sign off.
The PROBLEM
Silos are blocking you from reaching your potential.
Scattered deal data
Most data is sitting in separate Excel sheets & databases. No aggregation. No portfolio comparisons.
Disconnected steps
As a deal moves from one phase to the next, data doesn’t make it across those barriers.
Isolated teams
Communication is slow, file sharing even slower. Coordination between teams requires too much time.
Locked knowledge
Training new employees are adding to the workload for senior staff. You need an easy way to pass on knowledge & experience.
WORKFLOWS & COLLABORATION
Centralize communication & set a clear process blueprint for loan closings
Set clear workflows from the initial review of an application to loan closing. Guide your team at every step, and automate away the repetitive tasks. Focus on strategic thinking and pipeline development instead.
Step #04
STANDARDIZED DEAL DATA
Aggregate & analyze your deal data, make smarter decisions.
Aggregate all your portfolio data into one place. Refer to past deals, compare and analyze thousands of individual data points for smarter decision-making.
Clean up and standardize all your pro forma & asset management data without any manual data entry: bring your own Excel files to upload data.
"What we are finding with Builders Patch is that the platform has so many more applications that are creating greater efficiencies for our lending staff, including the ability for anyone on our team to access the loan file, share application materials with our contract underwriter, provide our Loan Committee access to an electronic copy of the credit memo and to better support ongoing portfolio management."
Mary Ellen Judah, Executive Director of NCI
FAQ
Where in the deal cycle is Builders Patch most useful for lenders?
Builders Patch enables lenders to process their application intake much faster, and significantly reduce the hard and repetitive grunt work of due diligence collection. The received deal information and material is automatically organized and analyzed, making underwriting and approval of construction and acquisition loans hurdle-free.
We underwrite several different asset types. What asset types does Builders Patch support?
The Builders Patch platform supports all asset types within multifamily rental housing, including affordable, market rate, senior and student housing, and all housing developments with tax credits, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac funding.
Do we have to build our own applications on the platform?
No. As part of our onboarding process, we automate your applications and make a link available on your website. When a borrower clicks on the link, they will enter the Builders Patch platform where they will complete the application and upload the requested underwriting/due diligence documents.
As our borrower gives us the documents we need for our underwriting/due diligence, we update our checklist manually. How is Builders Patch different?
As the borrower uploads requested documents, your team will receive a notification and the checklist will be updated automatically. Both you and the borrower can easily see what has been provided and what is missing.
Each one of our loan officers has a different way of saving documents to our shared server. Can Builders Patch help with this?
Helping you stay organized is important to Builders Patch. As borrowers upload underwriting files, they are automatically stored in the appropriate folders. This folder structure can be customized by you and can be standardized across applications. This way, all your deals will share the same folder structure across your portfolio regardless of how many loan officers you have.
Can Builders Patch help us keep track of our pipeline?
Yes. Our platform provides you with a dashboard so that you can see all the deals, and their status, in your pipeline from application to closing. You have the option to view your pipeline in different formats such as list, map, and thumbnails and you can also sort them based on the stage of the application.
Can we create reports with Builders Patch?
Yes, Builders Patch can automatically create any number of custom reports for you, including deployment reports, risk rating reports, and pipeline reports, to name a few.
During the loan cycle, we communicate with a lot of different people. Am I limited in terms of the number of people I can communicate with on Builders Patch?
No. At Builders Patch, we make it easy to communicate with your borrowers, team members, and third parties, including underwriters, lawyers, and anyone else you choose. They don’t have to be existing customers of ours in order to work with you on our platform. You also have total control over what you share with whom.
How long does it take to get up and running with Builders Patch?
Once you decide that Builders Patch is the right solution for your organization, our goal is to get you up and running as quickly as possible. Within 2 weeks, your loan applications and due diligence checklists can be built out. Within three months, we can bring your closed deals onto the platform.
What customer support is available to clients?
Builders Patch is committed to ensuring that our customers are 100% comfortable with 100% of the platform. During the first 90 days, we schedule weekly meetings to properly onboard your team onto the platform and to discuss its functionality. After 90 days, our Customer Success is available to meet with you and answer questions on an as-needed basis. We also have a Knowledge Base of articles and videos to help you with task-specific items.
We have very specific due diligence requirements. Can you accommodate for our needs?
Builders Patch has a standard checklist for different loan types. It covers about 90% of what most lenders would collect for due diligence. You can start using this standard checklist right away. However, given that each lender has their own due diligence criteria and 'secret sauce' for underwriting loans, you can request to create and add your custom checklists for the different loan types you provide. Setting them up is part of our customer onboarding process where our team will work closely with you to make sure all your needs are covered.
Who owns the data on the Builders Patch platform? Do you re-sell any of the data?
Any file or information you upload to the platform is your property. We don’t re-sell any of your data to third party buyers. In short, what belongs to you stays with you and is owned by you.
Is there a limit on number of users? How can I open up Builders Patch to clients and employees?
We don’t have a restriction on the number of users. All you need to do is send out an invite to people within your company and they can log in immediately. Same applies to your clients. Send out an invite and request them to complete due diligence collection by adding their deal details.
Your website says you built this product for housing finance. How will you accommodate other loan types we might have and what are the limitations?
It's true that we built our product to be tailor-made for housing finance, specifically affordable housing finance, an investment area that involves lots of red tape and complex problems, yet almost no modern-day technological solutions to make things smoother. However, if we break it down to the basics of a loan financing process, there are some universal patterns and workflows: there's an application process, an evaluation, a project manager or account manager is assigned to an application that's being moved forward, documents are signed (term sheet, letter of intent), there's due diligence to be collected in the form of questions and answers, as well as document uploads, closing documents are drafted up and signed, deal moves into loan servicing and asset management. Based on these steps, we can accommodate any basic loan types, but also grant allocations, even bid evaluations. When setting up a loan package, you get to configure the corresponding application form, due diligence checklist, credit memos and other documents to be signed, all of which can then be shared with your borrowers, credit committees, reviewers, consultants, etc. What we don't support, however, are single-family mortgage loans.