Money Management

Peer to Peer Lending for Home Improvement Loans

This week Lending Club announced yet another partnership, this time with HomeAdvisor. Under the deal Lending Club will offer their peer to peer loans to those looking to remodel their homes using HomeAdvisor’s site. The partnership is said to be multi-year and exclusive.

HomeAdvisor is a website that allows customers to search through pre-screened contractors based on the needs of their remodeling projects. Through the deal with Lending Club, homeowners will be able to apply for pre-approval in order to finance their projects. Much like Lending Club’s other personal loan products, loans made through HomeAdvisor will start at a fixed rate of 3.99% (4.99% APR) with no prepayment penalties.

Lending Club has recently put an emphasis on their home improvement loans and this deal only furthers that angle of their platform. Traditionally, home improvement projects have been financed through home equity loans also known as second mortgages. In a statement the company’s CEO Renaud Laplanche said, “In recent years there have been remarkably few options available for consumers to finance their home improvement or renovation project as the process for obtaining home equity lines of credit has become increasingly strenuous… We’re proud to partner with HomeAdvisor to make it easier and more cost efficient for consumers to improve their homes and lives.”

Since going public at the end of last year, Lending Club has formed a series of partnerships aimed at growing their borrowing base. Last month the company not only teamed up with BancAlliance to offer loans to customers at over 200 small community banks but also made a deal with Alibaba to offer American companies loans to purchase from Chinese suppliers. Prior to going public the company had facilitated over $6 billion in loans via their peer to peer platform. Lending Club currently trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘LC’.