We use Hearth Financing. They provide ‘personal project loans.’ Clients can use these types of loans for numerous home improvement projects. It’s great for clients to meet our payment scale. The client gets 3-6 offers on average, which show the monthly payment amount, APR %, term length etc. for their individual application. They receive a direct debit of the lump sum chosen into their own bank account. They can then get us the 50% deposit, and have the remaining funds waiting in their account when the final invoice arrives. We’ve used Hearth for about 5 years now, and have had no complaints about the application or process as a whole! I would highly recommend!
KQuinn612 I was curious, about two things.
Thanks!
Becca
No- there is not a number of clients you must finance per month of in any timeline. Hearth is a 3rd party personal project loan broker basically, they shop for and offer the client usually 3-6 offers through various servicers and then the client chooses a loan to secure directly with the loan servicer. Yes, their loan is deposited into the client’s bank account to use how they would like. The thought is that many contractors take a deposit and a final payment, so the funds can be disbursed according to your system.
There is no guarantee they will use the financing for a project with you as there is no verbiage saying they are obligated to do so (even though they are using your account to apply). Honestly, I have never seen this happen, where a client takes a loan and doesn’t follow through with our bid- but it’s possible.
Hearth now offers a credit type account vs a standard loan to the client if you choose to offer this new option. We have not personally upgraded our plan to include this as of yet. Any questions the client may have can be directed to Hearth Customer Support. Hearth does notify you via email if the client starts or submits an application and also the highest total they are approved for. They also inform you when a client accepts a loan proposal and the status of their disbursement. Notifying you helps you also contact the client at these times to follow up and make sure they are going to sign :) For the small annual fee, it’s a great option to be able to say Yes, we offer financing!
Yes, you would provide your link to the client (each of our estimators has their own, as do I) and they take it from there. You would have nothing to do with the application process or their funding process at all, completely hands-off. Just have the client call or email the Hearth Support team with any questions, which will also be on each team members .pdf info sheet with their unique application link.
