Technology

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., and previewproperties.com have announced the formation of propertymortgage.com as an operating unit of Countrywide Mortgage Ventures LLC.The companies said the joint venture will enable buyers and sellers of homes to gain access to more than 130 loan programs while simplifying the buying or selling process. Customers of previewproperties.com who choose home financing through propertymortgage.com will derive various benefits, including: a consultant who works closely with a previewproperties.com Realtor to develop personalized financing options; streamlined loan applications for borrowers with excellent credit; extended rate locks; and Streamlined UpFront Approval if there has been no change in the borrower's financial condition, and subject to a satisfactory property review. The companies can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com, http://www.previewproperties.com, and http://www.propertymortgage.com.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., Walnut Creek, Calif., has updated its Secondary Market Products Servicing System, rolled out pmiPaperless, and reworked its field sales, operations, and product development divisions.The company said the SMP enhancements include changes in the way the company will create and manage products, contracts, and relationships; bill and manage receivables; validate and board new loan instruments; and report on corporate results. Its new offering, pmiPaperless, is an electronic document managing system designed to enhance the efficiency of PMI's underwriting capability. Finally, the company said the restructuring of its field sales, operations, and product development divisions is expected to result in a $5 million to $6 million pretax expense savings next year. PMI Mortgage is a wholly owned subsidiary of The PMI Group Inc., which can be found on the Web at http://www.pmigroup.com.

Calyx Software, San Jose, Calif., will release a multibranch version of its Point product this fall, the company has announced at the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association's first annual technology conference in Chicago.The new release was developed to make it possible for a large user to share files at a central headquarters, with access for an unlimited amount of branches. Dennis Boggs, Calyx's senior vice president of business development, said that "numerous multibranch owners and IT managers have shown strong interest in this connectivity."

In a move to become the No. 1 supplier of automated valuation models, the First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., has announced that it will acquire Basis100 Inc. in a cash deal valued at $33 million.The First American announcement notes that the AVM market has doubled each year for the last three years and estimates that 25% of mortgage loans qualify for an AVM in lieu of a standard appraisal. First American said it expects to benefit from significant cost synergies over the next six months that will result in total pretax earnings of $10 million on an annualized basis. The acquisition of Basis100 is expected to close in the third quarter after shareholder approval. The companies can be found online at http://www.firstam.com and http://www.basis100.com.

Ellie Mae Inc., Dublin, Calif., has entered into a strategic partnership with San Francisco-based ComplianceEase that will allow the integration of ComplianceEase's automated compliance systems into Ellie Mae products such as the ePASS Web transaction platform and Ellie Mae Document Services.Combining the offerings of ComplianceEase's automated loan origination compliance tool PredatorAnalyzer with Ellie Mae's ePASS (Electronic Pricing and Submission System) platform, lenders can efficiently integrate PA with their existing loan origination systems, the companies said. Ellie Mae said its ePASS technology connects the majority of third-party mortgage originators with their wholesale lenders and settlement service providers, enabling all parties to be more efficient while securely delivering data -- on over 1.4 million loans in the first quarter alone. Ellie Mae can be found online at http://www.elliemae.com, and ComplianceEase, a division of LogicEase Solutions Inc., can be found at http://www.complianceease.com.

Wayne, Pa.-based GHR Systems' BrokerOneSource has just added to its list of participating lenders with the signing of Saxon Mortgage, Richmond, Va., bringing to six its total of new lenders within the past month.BrokerOneSource is a mortgage origination Web-based marketplace that links wholesale lenders with mortgage brokers. At present, 18 lenders participate, six of which signed up in May of this year. In addition, 2,000 mortgage brokers are registered and actively use BOS to process and close loans. BOS can be found on the Web at http://www.brokeronesource.com.

Residential Funding Corp., Minneapolis, has announced the introduction of a new automated valuation model platform that it says will reduce costs and streamline the underwriting process for mortgage lenders and homeowners.GMAC-RFC said the new AVM platform enables it to obtain more accurate automated valuations from more geographic areas. The company said it will use the platform "to provide lenders and brokers more options to close loans without the need for a full appraisal on a higher percentage of transactions." The integration of the new AVM platform into the company's Assetwise automated loan evaluation tool enables GMAC-RFC "to choose the best AVM result available, based on such parameters as geography, estimated value, and loan amounts," the company said. Dan Bettenburg, GMAC-RFC's executive vice president for e-commerce, said the company's research indicates that "to provide cutting-edge appraisal alternatives that will have an impact similar to automated credit evaluations, it's necessary to use several different AVMs, where each provides the most value based on their respective strengths." GMAC-RFC said it has partnered with First American Real Estate Solutions to build the new platform, which will incorporate AVMs from Basis100, First American, and Veros. The companies can be found online at http://www.gmacrfc.com, http://www.firstamres.com, http://www.basis100.com, and http://www.verovalue.com.

GCC Servicing Systems, Southfield, Mich., is currently developing GServ, which will be a Web-based solution that will allow bank tellers and loan officers access to a customer's mortgage loan information.The new servicing product will make it possible for banks to use the core processing system of their choice and at the same time giving tellers and loan officers access to customer mortgage information via an Intranet setup to the bank's servicing information on the GCC platform. GServ has an anticipated release date of October of 2004. GCC is a mortgage service bureau, mortgage servicing technology and service provider that can found on the Web at http://www.gccservicing.com.

ComplianceEase, San Francisco, has updated its PredatorAnalyzer product to allow mortgage originators and issuers of residential mortgage-backed securities to obtain the anti-predatory-lending loan categorization required by Standard & Poor's.Effective July 1, loans subject to certain anti-predatory-lending legislation and sold into rated securities must be categorized and identified as "home loans," "covered loans," or "high-cost loans" in the loan-level information submitted to LEVELS -- the S&P risk analysis system. ComplianceEase said it responded to this development by enhancing its PredatorAnalyzer system to automatically categorize loans according to S&P requirements. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.complianceease.com.

With interest rates rising, now is the time for companies in the subprime market to consider investing in technology, according to Ty Jenkins, owner, founder, and chief executive officer of DocuTech Corp.Mr. Jenkins joined Elizabeth Green, chief information officer of Paragon Financial Corp, at the last panel of the Subprime Lending Symposium in San Francisco to discuss the use of technology to mitigate compliance risks. "Take advantage of the opportunity today," Mr. Jenkins said. "Four years from now, interest rates will be dropping again and there will be even greater volume. Make sure you're prepared." While everyone wants to increase volume, Ms. Green said it's important to maintain a strong business operation while taking advantage of new opportunities in technology. She advised those in the industry to look at where their business is today and where they see themselves going. "Technology is stronger than ever," she said. "But it is not a magic bullet. It is part of the overall design. You are going to have to spend money and invest time to make it work for you."