New York City-based Better.com has launched an AI app it claims will allow lenders to underwrite home loans in as little as seconds compared to what’s now a weeks-long process on average, a possible threat to Michigan-based rivals Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage.
Better Home & Finance Holding Company partnered with ChatGPT maker OpenAi to make what it calls Tinman, which the digital mortgage lender said uses a decade of home financing data and $110 billion in past loan decisions to analyze and underwrite home loans.
“The mortgage industry is riddled with inefficiencies that hurt consumers, as well as the loan officers and lenders who serve them. Big mortgage aggregators in the broker and correspondent channel charge what is essentially a 1-2% tax on each loan just to underwrite a mortgage and deliver it to an institutional investor. That ends now,” Tinman AI Platform general manager Leah Price said in a statement.
“Loan officer teams and banks can simply log into their ChatGPT Enterprise account, download the Tinman AI credit decision engine app, connect their guidelines, pricing, and CRM to process, underwrite, and fulfill loans nearly instantly; passing thousands of dollars in savings to consumers.”
Better.com CEO Vishal Garg said in an email that fees from intermediaries who handle underwriting and fulfillment typically cost homebuyers about $6,000 per loan. In a statement, he said using AI will “dramatically” lower rates for homebuyers “by reducing the time and cost to originate.”
“Those fees can be cut by at least 50% for mortgage loan officer teams who use this platform vs. incumbents,” he said.
“On average, our platform saves Better Mortgage customers an average of $25,000 in lifetime interest, and now Tinman AI enterprise clients will be able to pass those savings to their own customers,” he added.
Competitors United Wholesale Mortgage, based in Pontiac, and Rocket Mortgage, based in Detroit, did not immediately comment on the app to The Detroit News on Friday. Better Home & Finance stock closed down 4.7% Friday, while Rocket fell 4.5% and UWM slid 4.2%.
Mortgage interest rates had been inching down but ticked up slightly following conflict in Iran, according to Bankrate. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rate hit an average of 6.26% Friday.
Home sales remain sluggish. Existing-home sales dropped 8.4% between December and January, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Rocket reported a net loss of $234 million in 2025, compared with a $636 million profit in 2024. United Wholesale Mortgage reported net income of $244 million in 2025, down from $329.4 million in 2024.
Better plans to announce 2025 earnings on March 13.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Better says AI app OKs home loans in seconds, challenging Rocket, UWM
Reporting by Summer Ballentine, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
