[Updated] Safe Rate is Crushing Industry Benchmarks and Converting Mortgage Shoppers Everywhere
[Update] We've updated the engagement and conversion tables (Tables 1 & 2) to provide the complete, end-to-end customer journey conversion metrics. The previous version inadvertently included only partial data. We wanted to make sure you had the full picture. Our sincere apologies for the extra email.
Summary
1. Safe Rate's conversational AI is monetizing mortgage web traffic at rates 3-6x higher than today's industry leaders
2. Our success is not just web: our AI also converts consumers exactly where they are, including on Instagram, ChatGPT, Facebook, and TikTok to align with how most people shop for a mortgage loan today
3. Brokerages and Lenders covering 25 states in aggregate have committed to be on our marketplace AND embed our functionality on their websites and social media accounts
4. We occupy a unique space in Mortgage AI: consumer-focused, self-service marketplace where we compete against Lending Tree and BankRate
5. Our goal is to scale to 6,000 monthly sessions in 1 year's time to reach meaningful profitability
6. We're in Las Vegas this month for Money 2020, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), Cloudflare Connect. Let us know if you'll be around!
Winning More Loans: Safe Rate is 3x better than LendingTree and 6x better than leading mortgage lenders at converting website traffic
How? It starts with engagement. Over the most recent 30-day period, we tracked 291 organic US sessions at SafeRate.com and saw 16.7% of visitors generate personalized mortgage quotes. This performance is:
- 3x better than LendingTree's 5% (public 10-K)
- 6x better than the 3% industry standard for digital self-service
Our outperformance held across other standard metrics like engagement rate and activity rate, all thanks to our conversational AI.
But it's not just engagement—it's monetization that ultimately matters.
We earned a contribution margin per session of $13.10 versus LendingTree ($4.81) and Rocket Mortgage ($2.78) over this period.
Conversational AI Works Everywhere, Not Just on Websites
These website metrics only tell part of the story. See a Safe Rate post on Instagram and want a quote? Just send us a DM—no need to visit SafeRate.com.
On ChatGPT? Speak to Safe Rate directly on ChatGPT to get a personalized quote. The same works on Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok (pending final approval), Slack, phone, text, and email.
Why this matters: Research from FirstHome IQ shows that today's mortgage shoppers aren't starting on Google. Over 50% now begin on ChatGPT, Instagram, or TikTok. Safe Rate is the only mortgage lender enabling native quoting on these platforms—users can stay where they are and still get personalized quotes, because we're conversational by design. The video below shows most of our channels running in parallel to help users obtain a mortgage quote, including voice (audio on).
Lenders and Brokers Are Taking Notice
In just two weeks, we received commitments from 10 mortgage groups to join our marketplace, expanding our quoting coverage to over 25 states. Impressed by our engagement metrics, most want our conversational AI embedded on their own websites and social media to boost their conversion rates for a monthly subscription.
These are typically brokerages with under 20 loan officers—high-quality, low-cost operations excited about:
- Sourcing leads from Safe Rate's marketplace
- Using our technology to compete with larger lenders on digital engagement
Our direct lending activity in Chicago validates our technology with these business customers. As one broker put it, Safe Rate “is not just some AI tech bros trying to get rid of loan officers. You're actually really good loan officers who happen to build AI." And given the highly local nature of mortgage brokerages, and our focus only on the Chicago market, we're rarely in direct competition with our lender customers.
Our Lane: Consumer-First Marketplace Disruption
We now have clarity on where Safe Rate fits in the AI mortgage landscape. We're unique in enhancing the shopper experience—increasing engagement, reducing friction, and connecting consumers to high-quality, low-cost lenders across any platform where they research.
Other AI tools deployed by leading lenders (UWM's Mia, Better Mortgage's Betty) focus on scaling automated phone-based outreach to screen leads and existing customers. These are complementary approaches serving different needs: they automate internal processes for large lenders, while we enhance the consumer experience and distribute across platforms that those lenders can't yet reach.
Our target: the $1B+ ARR mortgage marketplace opportunity dominated by LendingTree and BankRate today. Here we see minimal AI innovation, poor consumer experiences, and no conversion tools for lenders. It's ripe for disruption.
The Opportunity
With proven 3x better conversion than LendingTree, 10 marketplace commitments signed, and the first LLM-native mortgage platform live, we're positioned to capture market share in the $1B+ ARR mortgage lead generation market.
We're preparing to:
- Scale our marketplace to 50+ lenders across all 50 states
- Grow to 6,000+ sessions/month
- Enhance platform integrations
- Support business customers.
These efforts will help us achieve meaningful profitability.
Meet Us in Las Vegas
We're in Las Vegas this month for:
- Cloudflare Connect: Oct 14 – 16
- National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB): Oct 17 – 18
- Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA): Oct 19 – 21
- Money 2020: Oct 26 - 28
We're connecting with customers, our infrastructure provider, and investors. Please reach out if you'll be there—we'd love to connect.
Thank you,
Dylan and Shima