Buying a home has always been complicated. You need to know how much money to put down as a down payment and how that will affect your monthly mortgage bill. Then there are closing costs and fees. Kevin Bennett launched Further to make the financial process easier to navigate, especially for first-time buyers.
Additionally, there are fintech platforms that guide users through the financial aspects of buying a home. The company's first product, launching Friday, is a calculator that shows how much money people can afford and what their monthly mortgage payments and closing costs will be, among other metrics based on real-time interest rates. It is.
Unlike other mortgage calculators you can find on Zillow or LendingTree, Further tries to give users more than numbers. This tells users how easy it is to find a loan based on their financial situation, whether they should wait to make a purchase, whether they should pursue a certain type of loan based on their financial profile, etc. .
This platform is currently free to use. The company plans to monetize as it releases more product developments, but did not provide details.
“A generation ago, our parents bought a $200,000 home with a 20 percent mortgage, and it was a no-brainer,” Bennett said. “There's a type of mortgage, and you did it, but it's more complicated. There are many types of mortgages. There are many meanings. Now the prices of houses are much higher. It's more complex and requires bigger financial decisions.”
Last year, Bennett found himself looking for something new to do after exiting Caribou, the auto loan refinancing startup he co-founded and served as CEO in 2016. He wanted to do something else mission-oriented, but didn't know where.
He began researching real estate, a category that had always fascinated him. The fact that his entire family works in real estate also helped. He started talking to people who had purchased homes within the past two years and discovered many common pain points. People didn't understand the process and relied on homemade spreadsheets to figure out how much they could afford.
Bennett also has personal experience. He bought and sold townhouses in his 20s and was surprised to find that he lost $30,000 even though he sold the house for the original purchase price. That's because he missed out on certain home improvements that could have increased the value of the home.
“Once you buy that house, you can’t hit the revert button,” Bennett said. “It felt like there was a gap in the market. It felt like it was much more complex than it was a generation ago.”
Last year, he approached his friend Chris Baker, a real estate expert and former head of product at EasyKnock, about his idea. The two got to work quickly. Their first conversation was on November 3, 2023. They decided to collaborate in January, launched the product in April, and raised an undisclosed pre-seed round in June. Now they are coming out of stealth.
“Our goal is to help you understand what you need to know as easily as possible, dealing with complex terminology and being transparent so you can, of course, be in the driver's seat and in control.” “It’s about doing it,” he said. .
The company's previously undisclosed pre-seed round raised $4.1 million from investors including Link Ventures, Vesta Ventures, and Fidi Ventures. Bennett said raising money wasn't too difficult because half of the capital the company raised came from investors who supported him during his time at Caribou. Bennett believes his track record as a founder made a big difference. He said the company intentionally created the cap table to include angel investors with experience in the real estate market.
This kind of financial information and guidance seems ripe for Zillow and Redfin to emulate, especially since Zillow already offers mortgage calculators and proprietary advice. But Bennett said he's not too worried about competition. He believes that many companies fall into either the proptech side or the fintech side, and rarely find themselves in the middle like Farther, which gives them more moat. said.
But Farther isn't the only company that sits between proptech and consumer-focused fintech. Better.com, an online mortgage startup that allows consumers to browse mortgage options and refinance existing mortgages, is a good example.
That will likely depend on what Further announces in its expected first-quarter product release, which includes more features, but Bennett hasn't provided too many details yet. Currently, users can use Further to get an idea of what they can afford and what they can expect to pay when purchasing a home.
“My hope is that people with the right insights and information can make good decisions and plans about this very important part of their lives in a way that gives them confidence, peace of mind and keeps them focused. That's what they really want to focus on, which is the dream of becoming a homeowner,” Bennett said.