Simplifying the Homebuying Process – Utility Set Up Platform with Mike England of My Utilities

[David] Listeners, welcome to another really exciting podcast. This one you're gonna want to pay attention to because this is an opportunity for you, the mortgage lender to make some additional revenue and provide a service that's much needed to the consumer at no cost to the consumer. Does that have you interested? it should. So anyway, I want to give Frank Fiori creds on this because Frank and I were at a conference together at the MBA in Denver and at the TMC reception and Frank and I, always loved this guy. He is just such a dear brother to me and he said, Dave, you got to meet Mike England, my cousin. This guy has got a new service to your listeners have got to hear about. And that's what brings Mike to my podcast to me today and us in front of you are listeners. So pay attention to what you got. Mike, so good to have you joining us. [Mike] Thank you so much, David. I appreciate the nice intro. [David] First of all, You are in the Houston area, if I'm correct. All right, well, let's let our audience get to know you a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your background and [Mike] Correct, correct. live in Houston. Born and raised. [David] How you got to where you're at today and what some of the exciting things you're doing [Mike] Man, great question. So I'm born and raised in Houston. Went to Texas A&M University, so gig them Aggies. And my journey has been a fascinating one. I've always been in sales to some degree and was with Kimberly Clark right out of college and moved up the ladder with them in various roles and one of my later roles for them was managing their largest accounts, like General Motors, Ford, all the John Deere, all the companies that you would recognize. And that really launched my career. when I left there, I really became a VP of National Accounts, VP of Strategic Accounts, and so I was always involved with helping companies integrate and sell large opportunities. [David] Yeah. For those that don't know who Kimberly Clark is, I mean, it's a well-known name. know it is, but let our listeners know what that company does and why that was so strategic for you. [Mike] Well, they're one of the largest personal care and paper companies in the world. And so you see it every day from Kleenex to hand soaps to toilet paper to paper towels. so it was really a foundation because back then, they spent a lot of time grooming you and training you in the sales process. And as a young guy, gave me a foundation that I carried with me the rest of my career. [David] That's so good. Yeah. That's what I really wanted to get out and share. They do have one of the most robust training programs for sales and marketing and more in the sales side than anything else. And they're brilliant at it. And so they've done real well. So then you then got into the energy business. because we're going to talk about your company. Your company is called My Utilities Platform. I'm really excited to get into that and how you're working with mortgage lenders. But how is it you went from Kimberly Clark and doing what you did to where you're at today. [Mike] That's good question. So when I left at Kimberly Clark, I went to work for a large labor company. And at the time, it was called GCA. And they're the third largest facility services company in the US behind Sodexo and Aramark, which you've heard those. And so what we did then, David, is we provide labor to do all kinds of roles for large companies, from landscaping to janitorial to production labor on their lines. And then I created a new vertical for them in the rental car industry. And so we developed a labor platform to run the operations for rental car companies. And during the late 2007, 2008, 2009, when the economy crashed, all the rental car stocks went to less than a dollar. And so they couldn't outsource it to us fast enough to reduce cost. And so it grew to 100 million and that vertical and then I left there in a group of my group, my operations group, sales group. We started our own company called Fleet Logix. And so I did that for a while, cashed out and then we started a company called Energy Ogre, which is headquartered in Houston. Yeah, if you Google it you'll see all the stories about it. was the first managed residential electricity platform in the US. And so in Texas, it's deregulated. So we would actually [David] And a lot of states are deregulated, so it can vary state to state. [Mike] Yeah, 19 states. You're exactly right. And in many countries, Japan, England, Australia. So we had this online platform that people could come in and we would manage their electricity for them. [David] When you say manage your electricity, because this really starts getting into your business model, explain what you mean by manage your electricity. [Mike] Any commodity that you have to purchase, there can be a variety of ways it's sold to you and how it's priced to you. And it's very difficult for people to select and procure the right electricity plan for their home in Texas and when we started the company, we actually started out of a church. Back at we use their conference room and the average Texan was overpaying by 1,200 to 1,800 dollars a year, which is roughly 100 to 200 dollars a month. And so our technology allowed them to sign up and we would execute and manage it for them. When we sold the company, had over 200,000 customers and the result was [David] And when you say manage, you help them find the electric company that gave them the best pricing. And then your model was you take some revenue off of that. [Mike] Yeah, and we would charge them 10 bucks a month. People don't realize the electricity markets like oil and gas, it fluctuates. It fluctuates seasonally, depending on economic conditions, all kinds of different things. And so there would be times we would put you in one plan, the market would drop, then we would go in with your approval and we would put you in a newer, lower cost plan and then what was really cool is once we got to know you, we had all the data about how you use electricity. And so we could tell you how much you were gonna spend and how much you were gonna use in the coming month. And so we've been so some predictability modeling there that was really valuable for our consumer to be able to manage their expenses, anticipate their expenses and manage them and so about a year ago, I got to know these guys from My Utilities. And because I wanted to put Energy Ogre on their platform. And what my utilities does is when you move into a new home, their technology executes and sets up every service necessary to operate your home. And more than electricity, internet, TV, water, gas, security, if you want, cameras on ring doorbell or whatever, postal change, moving services. And I got to know these guys and when we sold the company, they called me up and they said, hey Mike, we'd like to talk to you about coming to help us grow this business. And I'd gotten to know them and these guys, shout out to Murray McKee, Carl Williams, Ben Fuller, these guys are just great guys. And they had a vision to create the best technology solution to execute these services for the new buyer and as we go forward into the future, David, there's going to be more and more things that are just going to be executed for us. Instead of us trying to arduous go through this process of doing things for our home and figuring out what's the best insurance plan, what's the best electricity rate, what's the best Internet plan. Our future vision is to be the company that actually executes this for them and at a very, very competitive price that 95% couldn't do on their own. so our verticals, mortgage is our top board vertical. And right now, as you and I talked when we got together, right now is a very interesting time because the mortgage industry has come off this high, high area level where they were really blowing and going and everybody was doing well. And now it's kind of settled down more back to what they call normal conditions. And I want to make this analogy because I think it's important to think about. Years ago, when you went to buy gas, that's all you did. You pulled into a gas station and you bought gas. And then they added a car wash. And then they added air for your tires. And now they added a convenience store. And so we think it's very, very similar now for these mortgage companies and kind of our vision here is to continue to add things to our platform that enhances their entire service platform. And so the loan officer is well respected in the home buying process as you can imagine. And so why not help them do other things and bring value. [David] So let's, yeah, let's get into how it works. and how it really helps a lender. [Mike] Okay, so the costing model is the most unique that I've ever been a part of. It's no cost to the mortgage company. It's no cost to the new home buyer. And we have relationships with all of the various providers within those various segments, internet, TV, electricity, security, all those kinds of things. And then we get a commission for bringing this client to them. And then we share that revenue with our referral partner, the mortgage company. And it's beneficial to the loan officer because the loan officer is now providing an additional value add to what we call simplify the home buying process. And as you can imagine, know, trying to pin down all the internet companies and they don't answer the phone, they don't call you back. It's a stressful time. Anytime you're uprooting your family, you're moving somewhere. And so what we do is when the loan officer sends us the address or the lender sends us the address, our technology can put in that address and it tells us, David, every single service that's available for that home. And because you can imagine in New Jersey, the services are different than in California. And the providers are different. They're regional providers and things like that. And so that allows us to select the right services that are pertinent for that address. And then we go through a console. [David] And there's no cost to the borrower for this service. And there's no cost to the lender for signing up and doing this. [Mike] Right. [David] So how everyone makes money in this is through a rev share. [Mike] Correct, then we shoot them a text message, on behalf of your lender, My Utilities has this free service to help you set up all of your services for your home. And then we set up a 30 minute consultation and in 20 to 30 minutes, we have it all done. [David] When you say you have it all done, what do you mean by that? [Mike] Every service needed for them to move in has been set up in their name and completed. [David] Wow. That is a real benefit because that is such a pain to find, who do I call how to do that? How, so how is this done? I'm a little scratching my head here because I'm thinking of all the complexities that go into it. And then do they have to do some type of, You're signing the consumer up on their behalf. Correct? [Mike] Yeah, it's great, so the first step is we're integrated digitally with all the providers. So that allows us to do it efficiently and quickly and at a scale. And then data integrity and quality assurance and quality control is very, important in this process. And so we send them a secure link where they can input their information so that we can execute and sign them up in all the services. then. Right. [David] If you're collecting all of their data about what's necessary to sign them up to the various services, okay. [Mike] Right. They put it in to the secure link. We don't see it or our team doesn't see it. And then, once we're completed, that data is eliminated. We don't hold that data. and then we go through a consultative process. do your kids play Xbox to both of you work out of your house? And so it's so that helps us guide them as to what the right types of services and the right cost is for their home. And then, we head into the future, we want to share the results with our partner. And so we go through a very detailed relationship management process, which focuses around the metrics of how we're doing for them every single day, week, month, quarter, et cetera. And we get a lot of five-star reviews. We share that with them. And so we're essentially an arm of them, but it's positioned as this five-star concierge service that's helping somebody move into their home. [David] Yeah. So do you share revenue with them? Any of the revenue that you're getting? Does there a rev share component to that? [Mike] For the consumer? [David] No to the lender. want to make sure I heard that correctly. So how much does that amount up to be? mean, does that mean are we talking about significant dollars here? of these services are on the lower end. Is it really worth their time? [Mike] Yes, You know what, that's a great question. It's not a tremendous amount of revenue, but how many times in our lives do we have something that doesn't cost us anything? Yeah, that's adding value that gives us a little money. And, anything to reduce costs, anything, any new revenue item we can pick up, and it's not costing, and it's not coming out of the consumer's pocket. In other words, we're not charging the consumer for this. I mean, this is a win-win. You're really making your money and passing on some percentage of that onto the lender as result of the service you're providing on behalf of the consumer at no cost to the consumer and a question always asked me, well, are you getting them a better deal? 99% of the time we will get them a better internet cost because we're executing about 20,000 of these a month. And so we have a lot of buying power. We set up all their installations and we have factory teams that support our business only. [David] I want you to repeat that. When you say you coordinate all of the installation of the services, when they're going to show up and work with a homeowner on that. [Mike] Yes. And so and so we'll set up the installation times. have we have narrow windows so they're not spending all day home waiting. And then we'll actually set all those up. And if there's any questions, this is an important from a service perspective. The new buyer always has a lot of questions about this. so we have a dedicated person that's walking them through this and answering all these questions. And even after we're finished, David, they call us back if they have questions. And we just looked at a metric the other day, which I thought was very, very, very good for us. It's when we circle back with them, you know, 30 days, 60 days, 90, make sure everything's good. Over 80% return our call. And so that means that they perceived us as helpful to them. [David] So how does this work, how you're representing yourself? Do you represent yourself as a third party provider? Are you representing yourself as a part of the mortgage company that's offering the service? How is this branded? [Mike] It's a co-branded process. Yeah, great question. And so when we send them communications, it's co-branded. [David] Okay. So it has the name of the mortgage company on there and it has the name of your company on there. So they know they can, check it out. Yeah. when you look at this, you're providing a service that anyone buying a new home moving needs. It's not just the electrical, what you used to do. You're providing a service again, at no cost to the consumer. That helps the consumer save money. It has a component of what you did in your last company, which is Energy Ogre, where you're able to through the service, manage what the consumer is paying so he's getting the lowest utility rates out there. And you're providing an additional revenue opportunity to the mortgage company, it's a percentage of the profits you make by as a result of doing this, and that cost is, how much again? [Mike] It's no cost for them. My Utilities has no cost for them. they want energy ogre, which is on the platform, it's $10 a month to manage their electricity to the lowest cost. [David] But that seems like it'd be well worth it just when you realize how complicated managing the energy, vendors, which wouldn't go worth it. That seems to be well worth it. [Mike] You know, if you look at electricity and internet, if you don't buy it correctly, it's an addition. We see people pay an additional 200, 250, $300 a month that they don't need to do. And just by buying it correctly. right. [David] Wow. That's amazing. this sounds it just like it sounds like a no brainer. can see why Frank was so enthusiastic to introduce me to him. we should probably disclose that you are Frank's cousin, but I can see why he would nonetheless be enthusiastic about getting you in front of all of our listeners and out to the mortgages because this is a real valuable service that you're providing. One of the questions I'm interested in understanding again, is the process of getting set up with you as a lender. [Mike] Yeah, so great question. what we typically do is we get an initial appointment set up and then we actually take them through the platform and make sure they thoroughly understand how the platform works, answer any questions they may have around because we're engaging. [David] And does that platform, logging into that platform and then loading this data, does that go on after everything's set up, do you continue to stay in touch with them? Or does like in the case of Energy Ogre, they take over and manage that and is that done separately? Okay. [Mike] Yeah, that's done separately and then we do a demo and then we integrate with their LOS. And so we put a disclosure, one page disclosure form into the loan documents. And so as they're completing the loan documents, this is disclosed. And then they check a box, hey, do you want help setting up your utilities? And then through an API, the lender through the LOS will send us no intrusive information, just their name, their email, and their phone number. And a lot of times we like to have the loan officer and the loan officer's email because we want to communicate to them and let them know that we got Ms. Smith set up and they transfer that to us. And then this is a key piece of our quality assurance platform is when we get that information from the lender, we contact that person within an hour. And so it's done quickly. And then we have a series of things we do behind the scenes to make sure that this experience is a high level experience for their client. [David] That's really good. Where do you see the future going with all of this? [Mike] You know, it's a great question. And we talk about this a lot, David. What are the ways that we can enhance this for the lender slash loan officer? And we're in the process of having conversations with our partners now, brainstorming as to how we can continue to add value for them or more importantly, in their new buyer. And like I use the gas station analogy, what are other things, that we can, put on for example, we, do a lot in the builder world as well. they've come to us and say, can you help our new buyer set up all of their warranties on their appliances? [David] Excellent. [Mike] And so when you move into a new home, you've got warranty on your dishwasher, but they never ever take the time to fill out the paperwork and send it back to the manufacturer. And so we're in the process of talking and having this dialogue of how we can help them set up all of their warranties and do it all for them while we have them on their phone setting up the utilities. [David] That'd be so valuable. That's amazing. Yeah. [Mike] So those are good examples of what things we're thinking about. [David] Yeah, that's good. Again, finding ways to make it easier for the consumer and when they're buying a home, it's complicated enough already. This is really brilliant. I'm really glad you came on. How could people learn more about this, Mike? [Mike] Well, my email address is mike@myutilities.com. My cell number is 832-349-6964. Our website is obviously myutilities.com. And so I want to circle back to one thing that you brought up that I want to make sure your listeners know. This is not one of these things that takes a lot of time to get going and get started. And they don't have to spend a lot of time dealing with once it's set up, It kind of operates on its own. it's a very simple thing to integrate with minimal headaches. So that's one thing that crosses their mind. Okay, what's this going to entail. [David] Very good. Very good. Well, Mike, it's so good to have you on. I'm glad you had a chance to share this with us. Excited to have our listeners be aware of this new service and what they can do to differentiate themselves by providing a valuable service at no cost to the consumer and create some opportunities for them to make some money. Thanks for coming on. [Mike] Thank you so much. Have a great holiday. [David] You bet. Merry Christmas.

Important Links:

• My Utilities website
• LinkedIn - Mike England

 

Born and Raised in Houston Attended Texas A&M Entrepreneur - started two successful companies from the ground up 20 years of high level strategic account sales - Director of National Accounts Kimberly Clark - Vice President of National Accounts - GCA - Vice President of Sales (Transportation division) - GCA - Vice President of Business Development - Fleetlogix - Vice President of Business Development - Energy Ogre - Director of Partner Development - My Utilities