FinLocker: Transforming homeownership with .NET MAUI and Azure

FinLocker is on a mission to help consumers achieve and sustain homeownership. Their innovative financial fitness app empowers individuals by providing the tools they need to navigate the home-buying process with confidence. Serving mortgage lenders, credit unions, banks, housing counseling agencies, and individual loan officers, FinLocker connects users with the resources necessary to achieve their financial goals.

With tools like affordability calculators, readiness snapshots, and personalized action plans, FinLocker provides users with a clear path to homeownership. As Realene F., a FinLocker user, shared: "I love using the affordability calculator and readiness snapshot. I look at the action plan to know what I have to do to get where I need to be."

Leveraging .NET MAUI and Azure for scalable solutions

FinLocker chose to migrate to .NET MAUI to maintain a unified development infrastructure and continue leveraging their existing .NET expertise. While transitioning early came with challenges—including .NET MAUI's maturity at that point and the integration of newly released third-party components like Telerik and Syncfusion—the team successfully overcame these hurdles. As .NET MAUI has since matured, Bryan Garcia says their experience has improved, stating, ".NET MAUI is now fairly mature, but at the time it was, should we say, challenging. Today, with Microsoft's strong support to assist in the transition and work through the challenges, we have published over 40 applications for both iOS and Android .NET MAUI based applications."

The benefits of using .NET MAUI include the ability to leverage the latest advancements in .NET technology, support for a single codebase for both mobile and desktop applications, and strong Microsoft support and resources in addition to community support . These advantages helped FinLocker streamline their development process, reduce maintenance efforts, and ensure consistency across different platforms.

The move to .NET MAUI allowed us to continue scaling our app and providing a robust platform for our users. The benefits of a stable and scalable platform have been tremendous for our growth."

Scaling with Azure

FinLocker relies on Azure to support its infrastructure and growth. They have deployed around 40 white-labeled apps, all backed by Azure’s scalable and secure services:

• Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) for containerized app management.
• Azure SQL and Azure Cosmos DB for data storage and management.
• Azure Event Hubs and Stream Analytics for real-time data processing.
• Azure DevOps for streamlined CI/CD pipelines and project management.
• Power BI and Synapse for user behavior insights and performance analytics.

These services ensure reliability, scalability, and a seamless user experience.

Integrating AI for smarter financial solutions

FinLocker uses Azure AI capabilities, including OpenAI's GPT-4 model, to deliver intelligent features like:

• Mortgage readiness summaries to help users prepare for homeownership.
• AI-driven customer support for faster, more personalized assistance.
• Mortgage approvability recommendations tailored to a user's financial profile, income, and assets.

It's everything you need in your home-buying journey,"

Driving adoption and shaping the future

With dozens of FinLocker-powered apps leveraged by more than 1000 loan officers for outreach to their hundreds of thousands of leads, prospects and clients, FinLocker has established itself as a trusted partner in the homeownership journey. Their white-labeled apps provide lenders and consumers with a seamless, branded experience, supported by cutting-edge .NET and Azure technologies.

Looking ahead, FinLocker plans to invest in AI and machine learning to provide even more personalized financial insights. The app will soon be enhanced to help users identify spending trends, prepare for future financial events, and navigate obstacles based on aggregated data from users in similar situations.

We are committed to leveraging .NET MAUI and Azure to deliver the best solutions possible for everyone we work with."