PMI Rate Pro pivots to tech solutions firm as pricing tool integrates with mortgage software solution 

The mortgage industry is lagging behind in the current world of technology, Nomi Smith said; but PMI Rate Pro is innovating to become a one-stop shop for private mortgage insurance (PMI). 

“We began as a quoting service, so we developed an API (application programming interface) supporting another API. But we quickly realized that there needed to be one API that does the entire process — from quoting to when a PMI gets ordered. So we’ve actually created one single API that can automate the entire process from start to end,” said Smith, the CEO and founder of PMI Rate Pro. 

PMI Rate Pro is an Overland Park-based technology firm that has built a single API — a software intermediary that allows two or more applications to communicate — to pull pricing data from all six possible sources of mortgage insurance. This solution ensures that loan officers can efficiently provide transparency into loan pricing, said Smith, who worked as a long officer for several years before founding PMI Rate Pro.

Click here to read more about PMI Rate Pro, which was featured on Startland News’ Startups to Watch in 2021 list! 

PMI Rate Pro recently integrated its technology with the Mortgage Cadence Platform — a cloud-based digital lending platform from the mortgage software solution, Mortgage Cadence.

“The Mortgage Cadence team had a need to be able to display the six quotes from the six private mortgage insurances side by side within their technology,” Smith explained. “They also have some large lenders on their platform that want to manage their risk portfolio. What we’ve done at first is integrate our API that shows the quotes side by side, and then in the very near future, they’ll be able to utilize our risk allocation feature. 

Mortgage Cadence is the first mortgage origination technology provider to put PMI Rate Pro’s API to use, Smith noted. 

“It’s validation for us because now other mortgage technology solutions can look and see how our API has been successfully integrated,” she said. “We’ve already been talking to other mortgage software solutions who are interested in our API. We’ve put our stake in the ground and are ready to go after the remaining mortgage software solutions.”

Anthony Bolognese and Nomi Smith, PMI Rate Pro

PMI Rate Pro’s pivot from being a quoting solution to now a full-force technology firm is what made the partnership with Mortgage Cadence possible, Smith acknowledged — noting that her vice president of technology, Anthony Bolognese, has been a fundamental part of the pivot. 

“When I came on board, we were in our first incarnation of our web app,” Bolognese said. “We quickly started building version two of that web app, but we also learned that we needed to focus on our API. We really needed to be able to scale and onboard customers.”

Anthony Bolognese, PMI Rate Pro

Bolognese, who has more than 20 years of experience in IT and technology, has helped PMI Rate Pro advance its two defined products: the web app and the API. 

“Our two products are for two different audiences — all within the same industry but just different parts,” Bolognese said, noting that the web app is utilized by mortgage loan officers and the API is for lending software solutions. 

“We’re now on version two of our web app and version three of our API,” he added. 

In 2023, PMI Rate Pro is set to add more features that will make its technology more valuable to mortgage lenders and mortgage software solutions, the duo teased. 

“We’re excited where technology is going with [artificial intelligence] and [machine learning],” Bolognese said. “We’re looking forward to taking advantage of some of that technology in 2023.”

“We think 2023 is going to be a very important year for us because we now know exactly where we’re headed in terms of business vision and strategy,” Smith said. “All we have to do is execute.”