CredHub, a Spokane-based credit reporting startup, has hired a new executive, Michelle Flandreau, as chief revenue officer and is preparing to expand its operations and customer base in three western states this year, says Flandreau.

Flandreau, who joined in early January, will support the sales, marketing, and business development teams, she says. She previously worked for Boise-based financial services company Guidant Financial.

CredHub works with property owners and managers to reduce delinquent rental payments. Flandreau claims the company also helps renters build up their credit scores by reporting regular monthly rent payments to credit reporting agencies.

CredHub, a registered trade name of Trade Line Credit Solutions LLC, was founded in 2018 by CEO Steve Jarvis and Chris Dukelow, who is chief financial officer and human resources leader.

While the corporate headquarters are in Spokane, the company’s workforce is mostly remote and the executive leadership team is spread throughout Washington state. Both Flandreau and Jarvis work in the Seattle area and Dukelow is based in Walla Walla, Washington.

Flandreau says the company’s leaders want to help boost the credit scores for millions of American renters.

She asserts, “Rentals have never been reported to credit bureaus, and there are 45 million Americans living without a credit score today, which is hard because when you go to get a loan, or a credit card, you might have astronomical fees and interest rates.”

CredHub works with property management companies by synchronizing with management software systems that automatically gather data about which tenants have paid rent on time and which tenants are delinquent.

“We do have to onboard new properties in order to get their set of renters and then we onboard the renters with the three credit bureaus. That’s the tricky bit…but we have a system in place, and we know how to do it and we’ve automated a lot of it so its super easy for property managers.”

CredHub has nine employees, some of whom work remotely in other states. Two employees are in the Spokane area, where the headquarters is based at 8615 N. Division, a few blocks south of the Division Street Y.

Flandreau says the company is focused on expanding operations this year in the areas where its employees are located, such as Colorado, California, and Arizona.

“We already have a lot of customers in Florida, Tennessee, and Utah,” she adds. “We really are nationwide.”

Flandreau says CredHub is focused on educating property managers about benefits of the service to renters.

“But there’s benefits to a property manager as well,” she says. “We’ve seen a 50% drop in delinquent payments when clients start working with us. For a renter, we’ve seen FICO scores increase by 40-plus points.”

The FICO score, named for its developer, Fair Isaac Corp., uses information from credit reports to calculate a credit score.

Flandreau says the credit reporting service also can be marketed as an additional benefit to tenants and as a tenant-retention strategy for property owners.

Sue Benjamin, CredHub’s Spokane-based director of customer success, which incorporates both customer service and account management, works at the company’s Spokane office. She says CredHub differentiates itself from competitors in the market that only provide positive reporting to the credit bureaus.

She says, “If we run across a property manager with a high delinquent rate, they would probably be interested in both negative and positive reporting because it really does motivate residents to pay on time, because it does affect their credit.”

Benjamin adds that for residents who pay on time, credit scores could increase by 40 to 60 points, which could impact the success of a loan application for a car or another financial product.

Flandreau adds, “We started doing that because we thought it would be the more accurate view as well as help property managers in lowering delinquency.”

She says CredHub currently supports about 40,000 rental units and partners with local companies, such as Spokane-based Prodigy Property Management LLC, which has over 50 properties under management in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Flandreau declines to disclose the company’s annual revenue, but says, “In 2022 we had annual reoccurring revenue growth of 50%.” She adds that she anticipates upward-trending revenue will continue in 2023.

Flandreau declines to disclose the cost of CredHub’s services and says, “We’re revisiting what that should be. Pricing may vary depending on the number of units and type of reporting.”

CredHub’s current clients are property management organizations and property owners with multiunit buildings, however, the business plans to develop a product specifically for renters.

“We’ve seen data that says around 42% of Americans are denied the use of financial products because of their credit score, which is a problem,” she says. “We’re on a mission to help and make that more equitable—where even if you’re renting, you’re still gaining good credit and able to then have a better financial future.”