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Beeline’s Miguel Vega: “The Dream of Owning a Piece of America is a Dominant Theme in the Latino Community”

Global Stocks News – Beeline – a fintech mortgage lender – just announced the May 1, 2024 launch of their Spanish-speaking home loan experience . The initiative, dubbed 'Colmena' (hive in English) is aimed at breaking down the barriers to homeownership for Latino communities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , The U.S. Hispanic population has reached 62.1 million, accounting for 19% of all Americans. The custom machine learning models at Beeline will allow its AI GPT-powered mortgage chatbot to instantly respond to mortgage enquiries using a Spanish conversational interface. “Beeline recognizes the unique challenges faced by Latino families in accessing affordable housing and navigating a mortgage,” states the PR. “With 'Colmena', they aim to bridge this gap.” Spearheading the 'Colmena' initiative for Beeline is Miguel Vega, who has 25 years as a U.S. Hispanic market consultant and is a National Affordable Housing Advocate — Miguel is of Mexican-Texan heritage. “Serving the Latino community is a big opportunity for Beeline,” Vega told Guy Bennett, the CEO of Global Stocks News (GSN). “The largest segment of growth in homeownership is in the Hispanic market.” “Latinos tend to live with their parents in multi-generational family households,” Vega explained. “There’s an economic and cultural dimension to this. You need to understand both. The dream of owning a piece of America is a dominant theme in the Latino community.” Beeline is a young technology & finance company that has quickly found traction in the competitive mortgage landscape. “A lot of Latinos have difficulty qualifying for traditional mortgages,” Beeline CEO Nick Liuzza told GSN. “This is connected to their heavy participation in the gig economy.” “Half of all immigrants are engaged in independent work,” confirms the DC Journal , “Earning part-time or full-time income through consulting, delivery services, nursing, ride-sharing, dog-walking — you name it.” Without regular pay-stubs and long-term employment contracts, established, financially secure gig workers often find it difficult to qualify for a traditional mortgage. Legacy banks have underestimated the power and size of the gig economy, and the Hispanics that underpin it. The Bank of America (BOA) measures “gig-type income” through direct and debit card deposits. Freelancers are typically paid in cash, by cheque or e-transfer. “Is the peak of the gig economy now behind us?” asks The Bank of America (BOA) ? The short answer is “No”. “The gig economy is expanding 3x faster than the total US workforce ,” reports Team Stage . “Over 50% of the US workforce is likely to participate in the gig economy by 2027.” Beeline is filling in a gap in services left by legacy banks. Spanish speaking workers play a disproportionately large role in the gig economy. “Gig workers are judged on old models of assessing risk,” stated Liuzza, “Colmena is going to introduce a wider spectrum of products than most lenders, allowing Latino borrowers a higher probability of success in landing a mortgage.” In addition to the usual conventional, FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and VA (Veteran Affairs) loans offered by many lenders, Beeline can provide Latino borrowers debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), bank statement, bridge and fix-n-flip loans that have already proved popular with other gig workers. “Spanish speakers will be automatically routed down a Spanish customer journey just for them and matched with a bilingual loan officer with certain loan documents in Spanish initially,” states Beeline. "Colmena will feature tailored mortgage products that are culturally aligned to addressing the specific needs and preferences of Latino homebuyers plus educational resources to promote homeownership and empower individuals and families to achieve their dreams of owning a home,” said Vega. Bob, Beeline's AI chatbot already speaks Spanish when prompted, but the next version will instantly detect the language based on the question, give faster, more accurate Spanish answers about products and offer educational content to help Spanish speakers prepare. "Often, Latino home buyers aren’t aware of their options," stated Vega, "It's a popular belief that you need 20% down and a FICO of 800 to be in the homeownership game. It's our job to educate Latinos that their dream is a lot closer than they think — which goes to the heart of what Beeline does." Beeline’s digitized, automated, on-line mortgage application platform is well-positioned to bridge the gap between Latinos and home ownership. “Hispanic Americans are heavier social media users overall compared to non-Hispanic Americans,” states Civic Science . “As of July 2023, 85% of Hispanic Americans say they use social media to some extent, compared to 80% of non-Hispanic Americans. The widest gap is observed in Instagram usage. “Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are good platforms to reach the Latino community,” confirmed Vega. “We will use social media to introduce the 65 million US-based Latinos to Beeline’s products and services.” “Over the last few years, I helped 2,500 Latino individuals and families get mortgages,” recalled Vega. “Many of them were 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos. Even though they are fluent in English, the majority of them still have deep roots in their culture.” "At Beeline, we believe that homeownership should be within reach for all Americans, regardless of background or ethnicity," said Liuzza. "With Colmena we will be able to interact with thousands of Latino customers simultaneously, 24/7 at an extremely low cost, with Spanish speaking human help never far away.” “Helping Latinos achieve home ownership is rewarding work,” concluded Vega. “From this group of 2,500 Spanish speaking home owners, the default rate was zero. A lot of the Latino borrowers paid off their mortgages early. With Beeline’s technology and knowledge of the Hispanic community, we have an important role to play.” For more information about 'Colmena' go to: Website: www.makeabeeline.com\espanol Instagram @gomakeabeelineespanol Facebook https://www.facebook.com/gomakeabeelineespanol Contact: guy.bennett@globalstocksnews.com Full Disclaimer