Mortgage technology

RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, has announced a redesign of Yahoo! Real Estate Foreclosure Center that integrates three key functions: foreclosure searches, trend analysis, and education about buying properties in foreclosure.In the current slowing real estate environment, potential buyers can realize substantial discounts on homes that are in foreclosure while helping out homeowners in default and cutting costs for foreclosing lenders, RealtyTrac said. The redesign "incorporates some of the most advanced tools and analytical features from RealtyTrac, and is a major leap forward in providing millions of consumers who access Yahoo! Real Estate with data on foreclosures," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. The company can be found online at http://www.realtytrac.com, and the Yahoo foreclosure center can be found at http://realestate.yahoo.com/foreclosures.

Sollen Technologies, an Internet-based application services provider of product, pricing, and best-execution capabilities, has announced improvements to its rate acquisition procedure and processing performance that are designed to improve the time to market for its customers' rate sheets and online pricing."Rate acquisition has definitely improved over what it was in the past," said Sollen client Jason Knapp, secondary manager for Dallas/Fort Worth-based Premier Nationwide Lending at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference in Tampa, Fla. "I used to build my rate sheets at 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning. Now, I’m done by 9:30." Based in Dallas, Sollen helps to enhance the relationship between originators and lenders. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.sollen.com.

Advectis Inc., Alpharetta, Ga., has updated its BlitzDocs tool to include new features that enable enhanced password management, configuration, and additional investor delivery options.The company touted the update at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference in Tampa, Fla., reporting that the enhanced capabilities streamline loan processing from capture and submission through the sharing and delivery of electronic loan documents through the BlitzDocs collaborative document network. The BlitzDocs patented technology provides an electronic loan folder that mirrors the paper loan folder. Advectis can be found on the Web at http://www.advectis.com.

HomeTeam, creator of the nationally syndicated "cause" television program of the same name, has added real estate and mortgage partners to its first-time homebuyer online portal beta, www.hometeam.com.The company pointed out at the Mortgage Bankers Association's 2007 National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Tampa, Fla., that homebuyers can search HomeTeam's database of real estate and mortgage partners by zip code. Additionally, homebuyers will have access to extensive mortgage information and education, networking capabilities, as well as real estate agent and loan officer searches. HomeTeam's real estate and mortgage partners will now receive leads via e-mail when a homebuyer makes a service request. They choose to receive scheduled or periodic reports on the leads sent to them. Partners currently live on the HomeTeam beta portal include Century 21 United, Real Estate One, Prudential Fox and Roach, Prudential California and Keller Williams - The Alaska Group, among others. The Seattle-headquartered HomeTeam can be found on the Web at http://www.hometeam.com.

Financial Industry Computer Systems Inc., a mortgage technology vendor that provides in-house residential origination and servicing technology and commercial servicing technology to the mortgage industry, has enhanced the architecture of its iNetAp product.FICS reported at the Mortgage Banking Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo, Tampa, Fla., that iNetAp's new architecture provides lenders with faster page loading, increased branding options and loan officer access. New customization functionality is now available giving lenders the ability to configure their own mortgage loan application, including: fields, tabs, navigation and branding. The new architecture extends iNetAp to multiple origination channels through the use of the Loan Officer Pipeline with a real-time connection to Loan Producer, the central database of record. The Dallas-based company can be found on the Web at http://www.loanware.com.

Lender Support Systems Inc., a provider of origination and loan servicing technology solutions, has released LSSIConnect, an Internet connection point for ordering any LSSI product, service and specific third-party partner service sold through LSSI.It was unveiled at the MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo, Tampa, Fla. LSSIConnect serves as a stand-alone or integrated application directing users to a number of Web service interfaces to create a marketplace of origination services for lenders. Products and services accessed through LSSIConnect include Docs3D, WebDocs, DocWin, LSSI E-Disclosure services, LSSI flood certificates and access to ComplianceEase products. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.lendersupport.com.

CoreLogic, a Sacramento, Calif.-based provider of mortgage risk assessment and fraud prevention solutions, said at the MBA's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Tampa, Fla., that loan defaults are on the rise and a large number of lending institutions are left to foot the bill.According to a recent FBI report, the first half of 2006 saw 600,000 borrowers go into foreclosure. In many cases, the lender had been misled about the borrower's ability to repay the loan and the resulting foreclosure created a financial burden for lenders with consequences reverberating throughout the mortgage economy. In an effort to combat this problem, technology is available to evaluate the borrower's ability to pay through the life of the loan, the company said. CoreLogic recently released a new product, IncomePro, which helps lenders validate a person's income using multiple sources, without needing borrower documentation or approval. IncomePro also uses the borrower's current residence and previous addresses to derive an affordability progression by using income composition at the neighborhood level. CoreLogic can be found on the Web at http://www.corelogic.com.

Default management vendor DRI Management Systems, Newport Beach, California, has deployed a Web services portal for its flagship software, The Default Solution.Through this portal, The Default Solution now features additional connectivity to third party services providers via the Internet, the company said at the MBA Technology Show, Tampa, Fla. The portal¹s secured hosted environment will allow current DRI clients the opportunity to request and receive specific information from their third party vendors right from within The Default Solution. The types of services incorporated into this Web portal offering are credit, appraisals, automated valuations, title reports, broker price opinions, flood certification and insurance, skip tracing, and second lien analysis. The Web services portal is active today and ready for expansion to add even more third-party services. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.DRIdefault.com .

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Lydian Data Services, a provider of end-to-end outsourcing services for all aspects of the mortgage operation, is now offering post-closing quality control services to supplement the capabilities of InvestorExpress, its electronic loan delivery platform.With this combined service, Lydian Data Services is offering a solution that can extract data out of a loan origination system, move it seamlessly into post-closing and quality control services, and fulfill investor delivery on the back end as well, touted the company at the MBA Technology Show, Tampa, Fla. By integrating these services, Lydian Data Services offers lenders the ability to combat the challenge of low data and document integrity spawned by electronic loan delivery, which results in faster time to funding, and ultimately, in lowered costs for both sellers and investors. By implementing Lydian Data Services¹ post-closing and quality control validation prior to sending data to investors, then electronically transmitting both loan data and documents together as a complete loan file via InvestorExpress, lenders are able to provide investors with the assurance that the loan data has been validated against the documents. They can also assure investors that the loan was closed properly according to proper procedures and that any compliance issues were identified and corrected. Because of the standard review process that takes place with each loan prior to transmission, investors can eliminate a significant amount of time that they¹d normally allocate to cross-checking and validating the data and funding time can be accelerated to just a few days, said Lydian in a prepared statement. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.Lydian.com .

Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif.,-based loan origination vendor, and Alpharetta, Ga.-headquartered workflow and e-collaboration vendor Advectis have partnered to enable mortgage originators to transmit their electronic loan documents via Ellie Mae¹s LenderConnect solution to lenders using Advectis' BlitzDocs.The companies pointed out at the MBA Technology Show, Tampa, Fla., that originators gather and store their loan documents in the Encompass eFolder and the integration to BlitzDocs allows for quick and easy uploading of eFolder contents directly to the lender¹s BlitzDocs site. eFolder documents can include items such as settlement service reports, borrower documents like W2s and bank statements, and signed disclosure forms. LenderConnect is Ellie Mae¹s electronic delivery solution that enables loan originators and lenders to exchange loan file data, underwriting conditions and loan status information with the simple click of a button. The Web-based BlitzDocs collaborative document network allows mortgage participants to capture, submit, underwrite, audit, share, deliver and archive loan documents. As a result of this partnership, lenders using BlitzDocs can sign up with Ellie Mae to effortlessly receive loan documents straight from a broker¹s Encompass system to the BlitzDocs network. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.EllieMae.com and Advectis can be found on the Web at http://www.advectis.com .

After securing agreements with multiple listing services across the nation, Domania founder Steve Kropper is set to launch a new service, Bank on Real Estate (http://www.bankonrealestate.com), that will give lenders branded websites which navigate to all homes for sale in particular communities, MortgageWire has learned.The service will work with a cooperating ³top market share broker in each metro area to let bank customers see all residential listings. The service will also generate buyer leads for real estate brokers and purchase-loan leads for the lenders. The service covers most major metropolitan areas,² said Mr.Kropper. According to Mr. Kropper, charges for the service will add up to 20 basis points, which he estimated as 1/3 of the average marketing cost for a purchase loan.

IBM has formed a new business unit that will specialize in mortgage origination services.IBM Lender Business Process Services Inc. "will enable mortgage lenders to replace the fixed costs associated with typical loan fulfillment operations with a variable cost framework," the company said. Services it will offer include loan application, underwriting, processing, vendor management, document preparation and loan closing, according to IBM.

Electronic mortgage standards for government loans are slated to be published through the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization subsidiary and paired with a single Government Underwriting System.Specifically, the standards are scheduled to be set for Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration and rural development products, according to an announcement made at the MBA's technology conference in Tampa, Fla. One panelist at a MISMO update session characterized Ginnie Mae's participation as the ultimate validation of MISMO as a standards body for the mortgage industry. MBA technology vice president Gabe Minton told attendees that 2,500 mortgage professionals now participate in MISMO listservs. He said that mortgage lenders not involved in MISMO would find themselves having to live with standards developed by others.

Calyx Software has previewed point 6.0, the first version of its software to include mortgage banking specific functionality, at the MBA Mortgage Technology Conference in Tampa.Calyx said it plans to release Point version 6.0 in the summer, with the new banking solution added to the origination suite at no additional cost. The upgrade includes 12 new screens that provide report and status data for activities from underwriting through loan sales and trailing document management. Calyx said the added functionality eliminates the need to use multiple systems when funding and selling loans.

Fairfield, N.J.-based Archive Systems has chosen the Mortgage Bankers Association's tech conference in Tampa, Fla., to announce the introduction of LoanDepot as a collaborative service to manage content throughout the entire loan document life cycle.The offering is an extension of the services currently offered under the company's flagship service, Aspen 360. LoanDepot's collaborative services provide document imaging and workflow-enabled process automation to support loan origination, underwriting, post-closing and auditing, and loan servicing functions, Archive said. LoanDepot also supports the secure electronic transfer of loan files between brokers, lenders, correspondents, investors, and servicers. The LoanDepot service enables content from diverse platforms to be stored, accessed, and shared in a single online repository. Archive can be found online at http://www.archivesystems.com.

Beanstalk Networks LLC, the West Palm Beach, Fla.-based developer of OpenClose mortgage automation systems, has announced the release of License Cop, which allows lenders to electronically track the licenses of brokerage companies or loan originators.Beanstalk said administrators can configure License Cop in minutes to create rules that automatically "police" where loans can and can't be originated. License Cop verifies state origination authorization and license dates, then allows or denies origination accordingly. "The problem with some compliance functionality is that licensing isn't verified until after the loan has been originated," said OpenClose president Jason Regalbuto. ".... License Cop allows lenders to stop origination at the registration process. Once it's set up, it's completely automated." The company can be found online at http://www.openclose.com.

Origen Financial, a national provider of manufactured housing loans, has picked the Thunderhead multichannel enterprise communication platform to automate, streamline, and control loan product documentation.A major consideration was the fact that the Thunderhead platform integrates with the IBM FileNet ECM Suite. Origen, a real estate investment trust based in Southfield, Mich., said it had been plagued by significant personnel and opportunity costs to implement any changes in its loan documentation, frequently encountering delays of up to nine months. The company said its old proprietary document engine employed hard-coded clauses to maintain document consistency, and authorized edits to document templates had to be made by Origen's IT staff. Origen said the new system, based on XML and open standards, relieved bottlenecks and enabled a 30% reduction in required staff, empowering business users to modify document templates rather than IT. Changes to documents now routinely take two to three days, Origen reported. The companies can be found online at http://www.origenfinancial.com and http://www.thunderhead.com.

Ron Litt has been named president of Market Kinetix LLC, a Houston-based company whose flagship product, Deal Maker, provides mortgage originators with a customized plan to enable borrowers to boost their credit scores quickly.Mr. Litt, who was most recently a product spokesman for Market Kinetix, was previously president of Advantage Credit. He was also senior vice president of retail operations at MortgagelT, a New York-based mortgage banker, and senior vice president and chief technology officer of Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage Capital. Before his career in the mortgage industry, Mr. Litt headed a private consulting practice that worked with NASA on the Space Shuttle and early Mercury manned space programs, according to Market Kinetix.

Vienna, Va.-based VirPack has been awarded a patent for its document management and imaging technology, MortgageWire has learned."This certifies that the e-packaging and e-delivery technology pioneered by VirPack is truly unique and provides value to both the lender and investor," stated VirPack president and CEO Michael Coar. The VirPack e-package contains all data, documents, images and other files permitting a business to share loan and other files with their partners, allowing fully automated processing through a free downloadable browser. The patent number is 7,191,392, issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

AllRegs, an Eagan, Minn.-based online publisher of reference information for the residential mortgage lending industry, has announced that it will offer legal content support services through Lanahan & Reilley LLP, a mortgage banking law firm based in Santa Rosa, Calif.The organizations "are joining forces to offer the Ask the Expert service to help mortgage companies clarify the overwhelming changes in federal, state, and other regulations" that affect mortgage organizations, AllRegs said. Lanahan & Reilley will, through a premium service at AllRegs, provide clarification and guidance to the industry on such issues. AllRegs can be found on the Web at http://www.allregs.com.