Revolutionize Your Real Estate Game: The Future of AI & Automation

John Harcar (00:01.607)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, John Harcar. And I’m here today with Jared Hart. And we’re going to talk about, besides his journey in business and in real estate is we’re going to talk about how he’s helping loan officers use AI to, mean, to solve problems in today’s real estate. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers. I mean, really all entrepreneurs, real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business.

with tools and resources to grow the business you want to grow and in turn live the life you want to live. Man, Jared, welcome to our show. Appreciate you coming on. Excited to hear about AI is a big thing buzzing around everywhere, all over the real straight industry and at our masterminds. But before we talk a little bit about that, why don’t you tell our audience kind of about you and your background and how you got into your website and your business.

Jared Hart (00:36.558)
Hey, thanks, John. Appreciate it.

Jared Hart (00:57.166)
Yeah, absolutely. So, you I got into the mortgage business really at a really young age. I think I was 20 years old. I answered an ad in the paper to become a loan processor and, you know, started off doing that, getting my feet wet, kind of understanding the industry and then quickly saw how much loan officers were making. And I was like, oh, that’s what I want to do. So I became a loan officer, got my license. This was back in the subprime days, right? I think right after 9-11 happened. you know, spent a lot of years going through all those different products and seeing the market go up and down and

John Harcar (01:19.145)
Mm-hmm.

Jared Hart (01:26.082)
ran my own broker shop for the majority of that time. We were doing a lot of direct to consumer, direct mail, a lot of refinance business over those years. just out of doing a lot of moving parts and seeing the way that things were moving in the industry and not really finding a solution, I hired some developers and started building out some tools for my own broker shop use. We used to use it internally for a lot of years, just ways to of streamline our process.

Once COVID hit and it of threw me for a loop and I was kind of had to take an opportunity to look at like really what do I want to do in my career? And it wasn’t mortgages. It wasn’t really what I was passionate about. I decided to kind of spin off and try to do more with the software that we’d had a lot of success with it internally. And a lot of people thought that maybe we could retool this and sell it to other customers. so.

That process, you know, learned a lot. I’m not a software guy by trade. So, you you make mistakes and you learn things, but ultimately we came out with a really great product that is powered by OpenAI, powered by the parent company of ChatGPT. You know, because we built a very specific solution for people in the mortgage business, it really helps loan officers in managing, utilizing AI to answer questions with customers, with borrowers, right? And one of the cool things about having AI be the first front to

talking with customers is you really have quality understanding of program guidelines, things like that. Loan officers pride themselves on knowing a lot that when you include AI into the mix and AI is able to tell a lead immediately what the max loan amount is for a specific county, for an FHA loan and whatever. But that’s the thing is our AI doesn’t sleep and it has 100 % understanding of all of the agency products. And the way that we utilize our software is if a loan officer is doing what

John Harcar (03:05.405)
Mm.

Jared Hart (03:15.534)
stuff that’s not agency. When I say agency, I’m talking about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA. Those are the government-backed types of loan products. they have guidelines and guidebooks. And so the AI is able to have an inside-out understanding of those types of scenarios. And so when it’s engaging with borrowers, so we give the AI an objective. So if a loan officer says, for example, they’re trying to better manage their database, a better way to pre-qualify customers, turning the AI on as the first front of communication.

John Harcar (03:22.942)
Right.

Jared Hart (03:45.214)
customer texts in or they email in and now they’re talking to the AI. But this AI is also plugged into the CRM. This AI powers the CRM. So it’s able to grab pieces of information from the borrower, pre-qualify them, give them relevant feedback, and then schedule a time onto the calendar for the loan officer. And so it really allows loan officers to kind of free up their time to be really focusing on the high value activities and not having to go through all of the minutia of the

John Harcar (04:12.809)
Mm. Mm-mm.

Jared Hart (04:14.904)
finding out if somebody that’s working part time is going to qualify for a home. So those are some of the tools that we’ve built into the AI. And of course, there’s a lot of other stuff that happens on the back end as far as helping create marketing material, engaging customers automatically. That’s another great thing too is response is so important when it comes to lead generation. Anybody that’s doing any sort of internet marketing, you understand if there’s a three hour lag between the time that bar or text

or replied back to marketing to the time that you’re actually able to get to it, it’s gonna drop that engagement, right? So being able to have the AI engage immediately, and oftentimes people don’t even understand that they’re speaking with an AI, it’s that good. It just kind of approaches as a, I’m Jared’s assistant, I’m here to help get you pre-qualified, we appreciate you coming over and you’re glad that you’re working with Jasmine as the real estate agent or whatever. It really feels personalized and the AI does a really great job of-

John Harcar (05:07.848)
Great.

Jared Hart (05:11.352)
helping to answer with 100 % accuracy when it comes to pre-qualifying these leads.

John Harcar (05:18.877)
heard some AIs that are scary, real sounding, man. I mean, just like you wouldn’t actually had a guy in my show who, who has AI product and he did like a demo for us. And it was like, man, just the, of the responses, like how it says like this day, he said something and the AI was like, wow, that’s cool. And it’s just like how the way it sounded, it sounded so natural, so cool. So when you’re starting this, this new platform, this new business, what are some of the struggles you ran into in the beginning?

Jared Hart (05:49.144)
Well, I mean, I don’t think I would have done this if I knew how complicated it was when I started. That’s one thing. The naivety of what I was fighting off, think, really was a big surprise to me. So I think the thing that the biggest surprise for me is just how complicated software development is and how much longer everything takes than what you anticipate.

You learn to kind of adjust your expectations, but ultimately, if you keep focused on one specific outcome of having a specific goal to solve a specific problem, you focus on that long enough that you’re going to achieve it. So that’s one thing that I’ve learned is just persistence, persistence, persistence. And ultimately, we’ve built something that think is a big game changer for people in the mortgage space, especially brokers. Brokerage.

is my wheelhouse. That’s what I understand. know what it’s like to be that mom and pop shop and have a couple of real estate agents that are sending you business and really just cranking out lot of volume. Those are the real professional loan officers and those are the ones that really, I think, are having the great success because they’re getting the technology support that maybe a loan depot would have or something like that when it comes to…

just having a system that’s got one goal in mind, that is helping loan officers to automate their processes, identify opportunities, and just automatically try to bring more business into their pipeline. So there’s a lot of cool things that we’ve been able to do. Say, for example, you have a customer that you helped with their loan a couple of years ago, and all of a sudden their home’s listed for sale. AI is going to be able to identify that, and all of a sudden text that person, reach out to that previous customer, and be like, hey.

saw your house was for sale, congratulations, that’s a huge move. Or, you know, are you pre-qualified for the next one? Let’s get you going on that. So those are some of the things that, you know, if you’re not, there’s just no way you can, as a single person, be able to manage that at scale. And so we’ve really brought in the AI to kind of help utilize technology to bridge any gaps, close any holes that maybe we have in, you know, managing our database. Because quite frankly, a mortgage loan officer is most valuable.

John Harcar (07:38.963)
Mmm.

Jared Hart (08:02.09)
asset is their database. The people that are sending them to the business, it’s a service-based business, right? So AI has really done a lot for helping to open up opportunities for us on that.

John Harcar (08:03.505)
Yep.

John Harcar (08:14.313)
So did you create this out of the need of more organization, a little bit more streamlined for loan officers?

Jared Hart (08:21.91)
Yeah, it really was. The thing was, I was doing a lot of direct mail marketing back in the day. And so what I wanted to have happen was I wanted to have a system where we could load up all everybody that we’re sending mail to. We’ve got their data, right? So it was an objective to try to utilize data the best we could. And so when that person called in, we had a little code on their mail piece. We’d plug it in, and then we would import all that data. So now, when somebody’s talking to somebody, if you call up and they’re asking you questions about the knickknacks,

there’s maybe a little more skepticism there, but if somebody’s calling in and now they’ve got the previous deed information on your house, all this data. So it was about trying to create a system that helps us to more quickly move the borrower, the prospect into an actual transaction. And so some of the things we built into the system is a quoting tool, right? We wanted to show side-by-side comparisons. So not only are we doing a lot of work to try to bring the person into our CRM, so to speak, but because we’re so focused on loan officers, we’ve built tools in there that…

a of clicks, now you can have a proposal in that person’s email or on their phone. But they’re viewing that proposal. They’re seeing the side-by-side comparisons. How much the interest is going to be saved over the term of all these important metrics that people want to see. A couple of clicks and we can put that into their inbox. So it was really about trying to use technology to manage the process of not just identifying the customer and through all the outreach, but actually getting them to say, yes, let’s start. Here’s my pay stuff. Here’s my W-2. Let’s get this thing going.

Those are a lot of the tools that we built into our applications that are, we’re laser focused on just one end user, which is loan officers. So our company is loan officer dot AI. That’s our web address. And it’s, it’s, like I mentioned, it’s just a system that’s designed to have loan officers put their data, their database in it. And then, you know, us help automate the process of, you know, identifying those opportunities and then tying it into your current transactions as well. You can have all the automation set up to keep loan officers.

John Harcar (09:46.931)
Ahem.

Jared Hart (10:15.608)
sorry, a real estate agent, transaction coordinators, title agents, whoever it is that’s involved in the process, we can set up those automations with the AI to make sure everybody’s getting the proper communication.

John Harcar (10:26.281)
Excuse me. Are you starting to see a lot more loan officers and shops using more technology, more AI or are there, is there still a big contingent that is just stuck in the same way?

Jared Hart (10:40.11)
Yeah, no, mean, it’s funny. I would say the majority of the people that are inquiring about our product are already utilizing some sort of CRM. There’s a few still that are like, yeah, I’ve got my Excel sheet of all my past customers. That’s it. They’re very still old school, but they want to get into the digital space. They want to have processes in place. I think that’s one of the things that is so overwhelming for a lot of people is a lot. It’s a big…

to chew off, create a CRM or to make sure all of your campaigns are in place. And that’s one of the other great things about our system too is you don’t have to go through the work of creating all of these ideas for campaigns or having the content. We literally have a campaign creation tool in our system where you just type, want to create a campaign to follow up with people that met me on Facebook. And boom, the AI will create that entire campaign and enroll those people or those real estate partners or whoever it is.

people coming from an open house, various different sources. The AI can create all those campaigns based off of the different touch points of your data. So it’s very customized to the relationships that maybe that customer would have with that loan officer or that real estate agent.

John Harcar (11:55.827)
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. what kind of more development are you doing with the software? And I guess, is this a tool that just eliminates a whole bunch of other tools?

Jared Hart (12:06.83)
Yeah, it really kind of does. mean, we’re trying to really add a lot of the things into the CRM. There’s CRM systems like the Go High Level, right? Go High Level is a great system, but it’s very broad. People could use it for a plumber or a real estate agent or whatever, right? So what we’ve really tried to do with our system is really get very laser focused on the end user, which is a loan officer. So you’ll see that there’s a lot more, you know,

specific types of things that we can do because we’re so dialed in on the one end user. So we can really customize a lot of the tools. so I think that that’s probably, I think the big difference is what we try to put most of our focus is on the AI for what a loan officer needs to have happen. And so that’s really where a lot of our focus is, is building those, what we call AI agents to do very specific things that a loan officer or somebody in the mortgage industry would want to have happen with regards to.

keeping in touch with their database, because again, that’s the most important asset that they have.

John Harcar (13:09.255)
Yeah, the fortune isn’t a follow up. That’s what they say, Excuse me. Besides AI, right? Do you see any other technological trends or anything that’s coming down the pipe that might enhance your product or just bring other things to the market?

Jared Hart (13:13.484)
Right, absolutely.

Jared Hart (13:27.33)
Well, I mean, I think that AI is progressing so quickly. There’s a lot of things that we have aspirations for. in the design front, I think that’s one of the places where we’re most excited to see is being able to create really high-end quality content with just some simple prompts. And that’s something that we’re working on in conjunction. We’ve got a website builder, a website management tool where it’s

loan officers are able to not only manage their flows, but the entire digital portfolio, their entire digital presence, right, from their ads, social media to websites to the actual interaction with borrowers digitally, primarily text message. That’s the biggest, the highest attention or connection rate that you have is going to be via SMS. So utilizing technology too is really important because there’s a lot of factors.

with regards to regulation when you are texting to a consumer, making sure that you are using it for professional use, that it’s opt-in data. So we utilize the AI, too, to help keep those connections compliant. if somebody says stop, our system is going to remove them automatically, regardless of what the loan officer does. And so utilizing the AI to help you maintain compliance and make sure that you’re just following best practices with regards to communication with your customers.

John Harcar (14:52.691)
Got it. All right, here’s a quick pitch for you, for your product. Why is your product better than any other product out there?

Jared Hart (15:01.218)
Well, in the mortgage space, again, like I said, I think we’re so specific on what our end user is that we’re able to custom build a lot of solutions that I just think maybe other people overlook, or maybe they don’t have the time or the attention to loan officers as their end user to be able to put that type of resources into the product. So I think it’s, again, we’re just so focused on loan officers that we’re able to really solve a lot of problems for them at scale. So I think that would be what makes us, sets us apart from.

any other mortgage serum.

John Harcar (15:32.435)
That’s awesome. In all your years of business and all the, you know, upward growth you’ve done, what have been some of your keys to success, right? Some of the things that you look back and whatever business it was in life, whatever, mean, what are the things that kept you driving?

Jared Hart (15:49.026)
Well, I think having an end goal is really important to kind of have a vision of what you’re trying to accomplish. Again, you’re going to fail. You’re going to hit roadblocks. You’re going to hit bumps in the road that you may want to say, I don’t know if I want to do this. But if you are focused on really getting to the finish line, it’s that persistence. You just keep yourself focused on the end goal and keep pushing and you’ll get there.

John Harcar (16:16.349)
Very awesome. You’re obviously a loan officer. there any mistakes you’re seeing other loan officers make that, you know, this platform, this solution will be able to help them resolve?

Jared Hart (16:26.83)
Yeah, I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is they don’t utilize their database the way that they could. One of the solutions that our system is set up with is an AI assistant, which basically what it does is it’s going to watch your database and propose outbound reach to people that maybe haven’t heard from you in a while. Maybe you’ve got people that are not in a campaign. If you get a lead and it in a campaign for 90 days,

Zillow or somewhere and it falls by the wayside after that and it’s just going to be sitting there gathering dust unless you’re proactively putting it into another campaign or have some sort of flow in place to ensure that it’s always in some sort of a test campaign. But our AI assistant does that. Any leads that fall out of a campaign, it’s going to look at the previous history of that lead communication. Did they reply? How was the reply? And it’s going to continue to put out opportunities to

reach out to those people because it’s those relationships you miss 100 % of the shots you don’t take. So it’s just about continuing that follow up and automating that process is I think one of the tools that we tried to solve as well is by using the AI to continue those conversations.

John Harcar (17:22.557)
That’s awesome.

John Harcar (17:38.205)
And that’s not a problem. Excuse me, not a problem just for loan officers. It’s a problem for investors, everybody. It’s keeping a top of your database and making sure that, like you said, they’re in an active follow-up situation to keep them in the of their mind. If folks are out there listening, if there’s some loan officers that are like, man, I got to check out that guy’s tool and see if it can help me solve my problems, how do they get in touch? How can you do a demo of your product?

Jared Hart (17:43.254)
Absolutely.

Jared Hart (18:06.786)
Yeah, so they would just go to our website, www.loanofficer.ai. That’s our URL. Not to be confused with another company that’s kind of got a similar setup, but ours is loanofficer.ai. So make sure you go there. And yeah, you can schedule a demo on there. We’ve got a YouTube channel as well at loanofficer.ai. We’ve got a whole bunch of our training videos, kind of our use cases. Still we’re on social media, so come check us out.

John Harcar (18:29.363)
Cool. I appreciate you coming on here, Jared, and sharing all this information. Anybody that’s out there that’s listening, I hope you got some good knowledge. If you’re a loan officer and you think this could help your business, by all means, guys, please reach out. Jared, thank you again. And guys, we’ll see you on the next show. Cheers.

Jared Hart (18:45.408)
I appreciate it. Thanks, John.