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Refinancing, Refined: Why This Company Is the 'TurboTax for Mortgages' The archaic mortgage process gets a tech upgrade.

By Gwen Moran

This story appears in the December 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Chris DeLorenzo
A peek into a simpler lending world: Jason van den Brand of Lenda.

Mortgage refinancing is a headache. From finding the right lender to filling out reams of paperwork, it's time-consuming, confusing and expensive.

After 11 years in the mortgage business, Jason van den Brand couldn't believe that a process so convoluted hadn't been addressed with new technology. So he left his position at a brokerage firm and started Lenda.

Dubbed "TurboTax for mortgages," San Francisco-based Lenda (originally called GoRefi) lets borrowers apply for and complete a mortgage refi online. The company has a $20 million line of credit with an undisclosed Texas bank, allowing it to make loans directly; it then sells the loans at a small premium to institutional investors. (Van den Brand says Lenda is in talks with other banks.)