Technology

Broker origination vendor Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif., has launched a migration tool to make it easier for Contour users to switch to its Encompass loan origination system.Ellie Mae, which made the announcement at the Western Regional Mortgage Brokers Conference in Las Vegas, acquired Contour several years ago and is offering the service to migrate those users to Encompass, its flagship product. The Contour Migration Wizard is available at no charge for those switching to Encompass. The tool will be officially released in December and allows users to transfer all their Contour data seamlessly into Encompass in a few clicks, according to Ellie Mae. The vendor can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

Desert Document Services, Tempe, Ariz., has launched a promotion at the Western Regional Mortgage Brokers Conference in Las Vegas to make it easier for correspondents to draw documents and pass them on to their lenders and investors.Through the new plan, which expires Dec. 1, correspondents pay for documents as they do cell phone minutes in that they pay per use, but also have an extended contract. Desert Docs is also offering the correspondents three free months for signing a one-year contract. In this shrinking market, lenders are pushing more responsibilities to their correspondents to cut costs. Desert Docs said it has accommodated this market shift by migrating all its lenders and investors to a Web-based system that employs the principles of Delta Management. This strategy allows the vendor to pass on cost savings to the correspondent and, at the same time, better serve their lender and investor clients. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.desertdocs.com.

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association has announced the development of a new trade website, NRMLAOnline.org, that it terms "a comprehensive resource for lenders that are adding new sales staff or just entering the business and want to know how to be successful."The new site features a Reference/Publications section with links to articles on such topics as getting started in the reverse mortgage business; marketing and origination; processing and underwriting; and industry statistics. Other features include: a Vendor Directory with contact information for NRMLA members that provide ancillary services such as title insurance; a NRMLA section with links to membership information and the association's Code of Conduct and Best Practices; and an Events section with information on programs and conferences. The new site can be found at http://www.nrmlaonline.org.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., and VREO Inc., a real estate software company based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., have announced a joint initiative to increase the use of electronic signatures by real estate brokers and agents.The centerpiece of the effort is bundling VREO's Real Estate Dashboard, e-signature software for Tablet PCs, and FNRES's TransactionPoint, a Web-based platform for managing the real estate transaction process. "TransactionPoint is a perfect complement to Real Estate Dashboard," said Brian Boero, VREO's chief executive officer. "Together these products represent a paperless solution that starts with the signature and extends through the entire transaction process." Real Estate Dashboard enables real estate professionals and their clients to electronically sign documents "as easily as one signs for an overnight package or credit card purchase," VREO said. The companies can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com and http://www.vreo.com.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Information Services, has announced the launch of the Cyberhomes home and community evaluation website.Cyberhomes provides consumers with access to property information and evaluation content directly from the websites of participating real estate companies, as well as from cyberhomes.com, the company said. Cyberhomes is co-brandable and designed to integrate directly into the websites of participating real estate companies. It will include the real estate companies' branding and listing content and has been designed with agent servicing rules to route traffic and inquiries as each company wishes, on an associate-by-associate basis. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based vendor can be found on the Web at http://www.realestate.fnf.com, and the new site can be found at http://www.cyberhomes.com.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., has introduced VoiceSearch, a speech-recognition tool that enables users to perform real-time searches of multiple listing service databases using voice commands from a telephone.VoiceSearch is integrated with the division's Web-based Paragon MLS platform. The tool allows users to access property listing information remotely. The new product expands speech recognition functionality launched earlier this year with the VoiceAlert offering, which notifies users via telephone about real estate listings. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

LION Inc., a Seattle-based provider of technology aimed at streamlining the mortgage loan fulfillment process, has reported a net loss of $215,000 for the third quarter, compared with a net loss of $535,000 a year earlier.Revenue for the quarter totaled $3.3 million, down from $4.0 million in the third quarter of 2005. "Our third-quarter revenue fell short of our expectations due largely to a decline in overall mortgage origination and its impact on the variable revenue streams we generate," said Randall D. Miles, LION's chairman and chief executive officer. "Despite falling Treasury and mortgage yields in the quarter, mortgage loan production generated by our customers continued to decline. Housing and mortgage markets are under pressure and have increased short-term volatility in our business, particularly in our capital markets business unit, which is sensitive to loan origination volume." LION can be found online at http://www.lioninc.com.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the acquisition of Watterson Prime LLC, a Bellevue, Wash.-based provider of due diligence services to financial institutions that invest in and securitize mortgage loans.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Fidelity said the due diligence services will be integrated with service offerings such as the FIS Hansen Quality HQ Score, a collateral risk score designed to protect clients against property valuation fraud and overvaluation risk. "This acquisition expands our product breadth and our ability to assess risk and certify the quality of mortgage portfolios," said Eric Swenson, president of the FIS Mortgage Information Services Division. "It also enables us to develop innovative products and provides us with a competitive advantage in the marketplace." The companies can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com and http://www.wprime.com.

DepotPoint, an independent technology and services provider for the foreclosure market headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., has launched TrackPoint, a Web-based application that centralizes all actions required in managing the default process.The solution's centralized workflow engine and tracking technology is designed to improve efficiency, increase transparency, and streamline the foreclosure process. TrackPoint is an end-to-end technology platform that combines a compliance knowledge base with centralized processing and communication management, exception handling, document management, and external vendor monitoring, the company said. DepotPoint's TrackPoint application suite provides lenders, title companies, trustees, and loan servicing entities with a centralized workflow engine and tracking technology. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.depotpoint.com.

The Board of Directors Technology of the Mortgage Bankers Association has released a paper on data integrity and information security that the MBA says is the first step in developing a long-term strategy to educate the industry on the issue.The paper, A Five-Step Information Assurance Model for Mortgage Banking Institutions, analyzes legislation, regulations, audit standards, and consensus standards on voluntary information security to improve the mortgage industry's awareness of the issue and methods of dealing with it, the association said. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.