Commercial real estate brokerage Eastern Union has introduced lender locator technology that improves the company’s capacity to provide owners and other clients with a comprehensive picture of lender options for prospective transactions anywhere in the United States.
Deploying AskQTS, a proprietary technology that leverages the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, brokers pinpoint specific banks that may be interested in virtually any particular commercial real estate deal located anywhere in the United States, along with the projected rates and terms these banks would offer. AskQTS (QTS stands for quotes and term sheets) becomes “smarter” as time passes. As the technology takes in more and more data, it gets better at pinpointing suitable lenders and interest rates.
“A broker’s greatest competitive advantage comes in the form of data,” said company co-founder and president Ira Zlotowitz. “By equipping brokers to leverage lender data, they can find the best rates and terms available.”
AskQTS pulls together at least four data flows: public data that spell out which banks are closing transactions within particular areas; lending criteria Eastern Union continuously receives from a wide array of banks and lenders; lending-related information exchanged on the company’s Slack channels and thousands of interest rate quotes Eastern Union steadily receives from more than 400 lenders across the country each month.
Upon entering the address of a property of interest, AskQTS responds by identifying specific lenders likely to finance the asset, as well as likely interest rates. Because of its machine learning capabilities, the technology delivers increasingly precise answers as the system collects ever-increasing amounts of data.
The initiative is led by Asher Samberg, vice president for data and technology within Eastern Union’s QTS Banking and Capital Markets Division. Samberg reports to Jacob Lipoff, the division’s executive managing director.
