Technology

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions has deployed NeighborhoodHomeSales.com, a Web-based lead generation product.The tool is powered by Fidelity's proprietary property database, which contains over 120 million real estate property records nationwide. The product is designed to enable real estate professionals to put a home evaluation link on their website to provide their customers with automatic valuations from NeighborhoodHomeSales.com. Fidelity said it believes that the service will increase Web traffic to Realtors' and brokers' websites so they can determine whether visitors are in the market to buy or sell a home. The leads received from this service can automatically populate into Fidelity's ManagementCenter product to increase pull-through. Fidelity can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., has announced an agreement with RE FormsNet LLC to facilitate direct integrations between Fidelity's transaction management technology and RE FormsNet's ZipForm and WINForms real estate form applications.Fidelity said the integration will allow real estate professionals to minimize key strokes by transferring or copying data from their listing or sales contract form to Fidelity's TransactionPoint transaction management platform, where key transaction-related events and documents may be created and tracked. The integration will facilitate the seamless flow of information and enhance customer service levels and communication, Fidelity said. RE FormsNet is a joint venture between the National Association of Realtors and Real Estate Business Services Inc., a subsidiary of the California Association of Realtors.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based WellFound Decade has merged with Lydian Data Services, Boca Raton, Fla., to form Lydian Technology Group.WellFound Decade is an integration and architecture company that services some of the top mortgage lenders. Lydian Data Services offers end-to-end outsourced systems with a specialty in conduit services and closed-loan review for top mortgage aggregators and Wall Street companies. The marriage of the two companies will allow Lydian Technology Group to "reduce the fragmentation by doing data normalization," William Decker, chairman and chief executive officer of Lydian Data, told MortgageWire. "We've had to normalize the data for our institutional investor clients for some time now. WellFound Decade is a step ahead in their ability to do data extraction. We can now be a receiver of the data, and WellFound Decade can go out and get that data to us." As part of the merger, WellFound Decade's president, Brian Fitzpatrick, and its CEO, Paul Gain, will retain their positions in Lydian Technology. (For more details, see the March 13 issue of National Mortgage News.)

Sun National Bank, Vineland, N.J., has announced the launch of a residential mortgage subsidiary, Sun Home Loans Inc., and its entry into the podcasting arena as a way of educating consumers about the mortgage process.Sun Home Loans will offer traditional and nontraditional mortgages, including two private programs -- SunPromise and SunKeys -- aimed at providing affordable mortgages for low- and moderate-income households. "Given New Jersey's current housing environment, we wanted to give consumers a very focused approach to obtaining a mortgage that best fits their specific needs," said Thomas A. Bracken, president and chief executive officer of Sun National. The bank's specialized subsidiary will make it a "one-stop mortgage resource," he said. Podcasting, which enables consumers to download audio files onto their computers or MP3 players, is "our way of stepping up to the times and giving consumers what they want, when they want it," said Brian G. Myers, president of Sun Home Loans. The bank can be found online at http://www.subnb.com.

LoopNet, an online commercial real estate marketplace, has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock.The San Francisco-based company said the number of shares to be offered and the price range have not yet been determined. LoopNet enables commercial real estate brokers, and other agents, to list properties for sale or lease. In addition, the company provides technology and information services to enable commercial real estate organizations to manage their online listings and property marketing. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.loopnet.com.

The Property Records Industry Association and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization have announced what they termed a "landmark alliance" that creates a seamless "plug and play" between PRIA and MISMO standards to streamline the property recordation process.PRIA president Mark Monacelli said the alliance marries his organization's recording standard with MISMO's closing standards. MISMO president Doug Duncan, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said "systemic changes" in the capital markets increase the need for efficient data interchange. "This alliance with PRIA spans both the commercial and residential industries and will provide both sectors with the framework for the efficient electronic delivery of public property records," Mr. Duncan said. MISMO, which was created by the MBA in 1999, is the standards development body for the real estate finance industry. PRIA and MISMO can be found online at http://www.pria.us and http://www.mismo.org.

At their 2006 Summit in Las Vegas John Bryant, SVP of banking at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, said that banking is one of two growth areas for the company this year, with the mortgage space being the most profitable division within the banking umbrella.In 2005 the WKFS brand was introduced, the company integrated its back-office operations, acquired doc prep vendor Entyre, launched new products such as SMART Doc delivery to Freddie Mac and a bilingual initiative, and adopted a Six Sigma approach. In 2006 Mr. Bryant shared three goals: first, the company intends to continue to invest in its existing brands; second, WKFS plans to increase its mortgage technology portfolio by embarking on several acquisitions and strategic partnerships; and lastly, WKFS will integrate its systems to allow for a more seamless environment to allow for more cross selling opportunities.

Horsham, Pa.-based GMAC Bank's wholesale lending unit launched a Web application called Get Scenario, available to its broker and correspondent customers, which enables users to enter loan level data attributes and almost instantly receive a list of eligible products for sale through GMAC Bank.Get Scenario was also designed for enhanced ease and efficiency in the loan registration process. First, GMAC Bank correspondents and brokers login to http://www.gmacbankwholesale.com. Second, users enter a few pieces of their customer's loan information, and a requested final rate or final price. From there, the Get Scenario application will provide a list of eligible products, which users can click on to get more information. Users then click on the price and are provided detailed pricing and loan attribute detail. Further, if GMAC Bank customers are not sure if the recommended product is the best option for their borrowers, they can alter the data and view another potential set of products. Lastly, when users find the product for their borrower they are most satisfied with, they can register and lock the loan directly from the application.

Interthinx, a provider of fraud prevention and decision support tools for the mortgage industry based in Calabasas, Calif., has integrated its fraud prevention systems with VueCentric’s loan origination system, Mortgage Dashboard.This partnership enables VueCentric to offer customers a seamless integration with Interthinx for automatic screening for potential fraudulent activity. Specifically, VueCentric integrated Interthinx’s DISSCO product, an electronic fraud prevention tool. Also, the interface includes Interthinx’s PredProtect, an anti-predatory solution that scores loan data elements against all predatory lending laws currently in effect, and HCLSM, a Web-based tool that scores loans in real time for federal, state and local conditions to identify high cost. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.interthinx.com and http://www.vuecentric.com.

Sacramento-based CoreLogic has adapted its HistoryPro application to help speed up insurance claims posted by victims of Katrina and Rita.In recent months, Gulf Coast homeowners have filed some 239,000 flood insurance claims from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the estimated $23 billion that is to be paid through the National Flood Insurance Program greatly exceeds its yearly premium collections of $2 billion. Faced with this situation, mortgage lenders needed a unified approach to gathering data to access their loan reserves and respond to the Housing Policy Council’s need for data. In response, CoreLogic, a provider of mortgage risk assessment and fraud prevention solutions, has developed a program that analyzes the appropriate data and displays it visually utilizing geographic information systems. Lenders provide property address information for potentially impacted properties, which is then run through CoreLogic’s HistoryPro collateral evaluation tool. The data stream is geographically coded from there to create an exact location on a map and overlay any known boundary condition such as FEMA disaster zones, flood levels, storm surge, etc. and is returned by CoreLogic to the lender and the HPC. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.corelogic.com.