Apparently there’s a “household spending problem,” and a new fintech company called Mesa is looking to solve it.
It’s no secret that home prices are going through the roof, and when coupled with sky-high mortgage rates and things like rising homeowners insurance, it can put home ownership out of reach.
Or at the very least, make it a struggle for the average American to keep up. To ease this burden, the company has released a series of products to make home ownership a little more affordable.
Perhaps ironically, this new company operates in Austin, Texas, one of the toughest housing markets in the country.
The popular metro has been hit by a housing glut as many remote tech workers pack their bags and head back to wherever they came from.
What is Mesa?
Billed as the “first homeowner membership platform,” Mesa is actually a group of offerings aimed at making home ownership cheaper and more valuable.
This means putting the best real estate deals in front of prospective home buyers and offering them rewards when they make real estate purchases.
Their first two products are the Mesa Mortgage Marketplace and the Mesa Homeowners Card.
The marketplace appears to function similarly to the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Prospective home buyers and existing homeowners looking to refinance can compare lenders in one place.
And besides maybe getting a lower rate and/or reduced closing costs, they can earn half of the loan amount back with rewards points.
Those who borrow money through the Market get 1% back in the form of rewards.
For example, a loan amount of $500,000 would result in 5,000 reward points, which could be redeemed for things like travel or reinvested back into the home for a mortgage payment.
It is important to note that Mesa is not a mortgage lender or real estate broker, but rather serves to advertise lenders and buyers through the marketplace and earns money.
Mesa Homeowners Card
One of their main products when they were introduced was the “Mesa Homeowners Card,” which they refer to the first credit card designed for homeowners.
We’ve seen homeowner-focused credit cards in the past, but this one is clearly premium for one reason or another.
Like other cards before it, card members can earn rewards when they use the card to make monthly mortgage payments.
But it goes further by offering bonus points for things like HOA fees, utilities, home repairs, and other home-related services like insurance.
With TechCrunch, you’ll earn 1X when you use the card to make mortgage payments, 2X on gas and groceries, and 3X in the home services category.
My understanding is that you will be able to use the Mesa Homeowners Card to make your mortgage payments, despite credit card issuers generally not allowing this.
Mesa partnered with Visa on the deal and has a team that previously worked at companies like American Express, Capital One, and Bilt, the latter of which wanted to reward customers for paying off loans with a credit card.
Bilt currently allows cardholders to pay their rent and get cash without being subject to a transaction fee.
They had planned to do the same for the mortgage, but it did not materialize. Will Mesa succeed when others have failed? It remains to be seen, but it has always been a challenge.
Finally, mortgage lenders don’t like the idea of homeowners paying off their mortgages with a credit card, and for good reason.
Mesa Homeowners Network
Finally, Mesa has partnered with “brands you love” to offer discounts and special offers.
This may include membership discounts at Costco and other businesses that provide services focused on homeowners.
In addition, the company plans to expand their membership rewards to HELOC originations, home warranty plans, insurance, and other homeowner financial products. And the app is coming soon too.
The goal is to make home ownership affordable and rewarding by offering discounts and cash back on all related expenses.
Knowing today’s cost pressures go beyond principal and loan interest, this can provide relief to stressed families.
For me, the question mark remains whether they will be able to allow users to pay the loan with a credit card.
If they can pull that off, it might be helpful. If not, you can argue that credit card points earned by other issuers can be taken out in a hypothetical way and applied to the loan in the same way.
For example, right now I can cash out with Chase Ultimate Rewards for one cent and add the extra payments to my mortgage. But I can’t use my Chase card to pay off the loan.
So they will need something to really differentiate and add value compared to the existing options. I would consider if they let me pay the mortgage every month.
Besides getting 1% back every month, I would get a grace period to use the mortgage payment before the payment came due.
The product is currently on a waiting list and you can register through their website if you wish.
Before creating this site, I worked as an account manager for a real estate broker in Los Angeles. My experiences in the early 2000s inspired me to start writing about mortgages 18 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the mortgage process. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.
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