Residential Briefs

MBA (4/28/2008 ) Palaparty, Vijay
ValuFinders Upgrades Appraisal System
ValuFinders Inc., Culver City, Calif., a provider of valuation services to lenders and government agencies, upgraded its web-based appraisal ordering system, Appraisal CONCEIRGE. The development anticipates the proposed Home Valuation Protection Code that will go into effect January 1, 2009.

Appraisal CONCEIRGE will comply with code requirements of making a copy of the appraisal report available to the borrower. When the appraiser delivers the report to the lender, at the request of the lender, the system will automatically generate and send the borrower an email with the appraisal report as an attachment. ValuFinders will offer this service at no cost.

Appraisal CONCIERGE is an outsourcing database that places appraisal orders online. Appraisals can be ordered through an integrated system, which is independent and acts as the firewall in the process—avoiding communication between the requestor and the appraiser.

Lydian Announces Partnerships with Financial Crossing, MRG
Financial Crossing Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., a provider of liability management and Lydian Data Services LLC, Boca Raton, Fla., a mortgage fulfillment and delivery outsourcing center, announced a partnership to provide products and services for their common clients.

The partnership creates the ability to analyze lending options from financial institutions and recommend deal structures. Once a borrower chooses a loan and submits it through the Liability Manager system, it is passed to the paperless Lydian environment for processing and fulfillment. The loan originator receives automatic updates in Liability Manager as it passes through each stage of Lydian’s processing.

Lydian Data Services also formed a partnership with MRG Document Technologies, Dallas, a provider of compliance and documentation services. The alliance enables MRG to extend its Miracle document preparation system to Lydian's origination fulfillment center customers who use Lydian’s outsource capabilities to supplement or replace their own internal processes.

Through a custom interface created by MRG, Lydian provides access to MRG’s Miracle up-front and interim disclosures and closing documentation through the Lydian Exchange Network, Lydian’s networking platform uniting lenders and industry service providers.

Custom Credit Systems Offers Document Retrieval
Custom Credit Systems, Richardson, Texas, partnered with Hyland Software Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, developer of the OnBase enterprise document management software suite. CCS will provide its customers with document retrieval capabilities to increase efficiency in the lending process.

Custom Credit Systems’ product suite allows financial institutions to manage the lending process from the sales/lead generation stage through post-close and document retention. The integration with OnBase will provide Custom Credit Systems’ customers the ability to work within Custom Credit Systems products and services and retrieve customer information such as scanned and imported documents in any file format from the OnBase repository.

SearchMyLoan.com Partners with Strategic Information Resources
SearchMyLoan.com, Port Washington, N.Y., a provider of loan search and pricing services for the mortgage industry, announced an alliance with Strategic Information Resources, Springfield, Mass., a provider of credit reports, mortgage reports and background screening services.

SIR’s database of credit reports and related information integrates into SML’s search and pricing engine, enabling originators to pull credit and re-issue credit data for loan decisioning. Lenders also have access to SIR’s mortgage reports, background screenings and credit products and services, allowing lenders to evaluate attributes of potential customers.

Pro-Teck Services Selects Rackspace to Host ProValue
Pro-Teck Services, Waltham, Mass., a residential property valuation and risk management provider, selected Rackspace, San Antonio, a provider of hosted IT services, to support its ProValue platform.

Pro-Teck’s ProValue connects financial institutions with real estate data and modeling to manage real estate collateral. The system also connects vendor and client partners in real time and provides archiving, retrieval and data stream capabilities.

Xerox Mortgage Services Adds DataGlyphs Technology
Xerox Mortgage Services, Rochester, added Xerox’s DataGlyphs technology into its BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite. The BlitzDocs software creates integration between the multiple parties involved in the mortgage process by allowing them each to view, edit and share documents across one network.

The addition of DataGlyphs adds a level of security by embedding computer-readable data into individual documents. DataGlyphs offers automatic classification capabilities, stores large amounts of data and can be recreated when damaged or tampered.

Veros Offers Market Valuation Forecasts
Veros Real Estate Solutions, Santa Ana, Calif., released its quarterly review results of its forecasts for U.S. residential real estate markets, covering a period from March 1 through March 1, 2009. Veros is releasing an 18-month forecast with the same national coverage as the 12-month forecast of single family residences in major metropolitan areas and non-metro areas, covering 75 percent of the nation’s population.

The expanded also offers results of Veros’ HPI analysis, providing a historical basis option, allowing users to access historical and current trend analysis along with future forecasts. The 18-month forecast contains elements, detail and analysis of the 12-month forecasts, including the two validation metrics, R-squared and Mean Absolute Error.

iEmergent Introduces Mortgage Market Forecasts Analytic Tools
iEmergent, a Des Moines, Iowa-based market research, forecasting and advisory services firm for the financial services, mortgage and real estate industries, introduced its suite of Market Manager reports that enable lenders to better understand their primary markets, improve efficiency and increase market share.

iEmergent’s primary product lines are derived from market metrics that calculate where and what types of lending opportunities exist, enabling lenders and brokers to anticipate and forecast mortgage opportunity. Through iEmergent’s mortgage lending forecasts, market comparisons and measurements, financial institutions can identify and quantify the current potential lending opportunities in markets throughout the U.S., the growth rates of mortgage lending in the future and how those opportunities are changing in individual markets.

Northern Nevada Regional MLS Integrates DocCentral
Northern Nevada Regional Multiple Listings Service will be among the first associations to provide DocCentral, a new non-proprietary document management platform from Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla.

DocCentral is a tool that allows real estate professionals to manage and organize their documents. Documents are stored on secure servers and are accessible online by agents and the clients and vendors they authorize.

DocuLex Updates Professional Capture
DocuLex, Winter Haven, Fla., creators of electronic document management software, updated its Professional Capture, enabling DocuLex PC-distributed, server-based Goby Capture integration. It allows for automated paper and native format electronic file capture, fostering knowledge management and workflow collaboration. Professional Capture converts paper to searchable electronic files in corporate and service bureau environments. It fulfills the demands of imaging projects, providing image processing and indexing capabilities.

Wolters Kluwer Forms Alliance with FNIS
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Minneapolis and Fidelity National Information Services, Jacksonville, Fla., announced plans to integrate Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ loan modification document products and services and compliance content into the loss mitigation module of the FIS Desktop platform.

FIS Desktop is a workflow, document and expense management system that provides mortgage lenders, servicers and investors with business management technology to help manage the post-origination loan cycle. The loss mitigation module is available to all servicers and is integrated with FIS’ Mortgage Servicing Package platform, as well as other servicing platforms.

Online Service Boosts Collections, Settlement Rates
A new online service offered by SourcingPoint Solutions, Garden Grove, Calif., helps businesses track delinquent debtors and conduct efficient settlement processes. PersonLocate, the newest addition to SourcingPoint Solutions’ PowerScreen background screening services line, gives users the ability to access information that can help determine a person’s whereabouts. The new service automates a practice commonly referred to as skip tracing.

NeighborWorks Reports Difficulty in Tax Credit Market
An informal survey of members of the NeighborWorks Multifamily Initiative, a group of non-profit apartment developers and managers, suggests tough times for multifamily housing. Tax credit prices have fallen in the past year and major investors in tax credits have pulled back.

While most financing arrangements in today’s market still go to closing with fewer than 17 parts, the weakness in the low-income housing tax credit market has pushed up the cost of financing and led some investors to pull out of deals, NeighborWorks reported. Survey respondents noted that investors are coming back with reduced prices on tax credit projects or pulling out altogether. If a non-profit developer doesn’t have enough flexibility with its project, it may not close.

Freddie Mac Deploys $10.5 Million to Aid Borrowers
Freddie Mac announced $10.5 million in grants to housing counseling organizations to use for their outreach, education and foreclosure prevention efforts to help borrowers. The grants will enable the non-profit organizations to add and train staff, pay operational expenses and support outreach campaigns to borrowers having difficulty making their mortgage payments, especially subprime borrowers. The organizations were selected for their abilities to educate and advise borrowers about their foreclosure options and/or help them obtain workouts from their mortgage servicers.

The largest share of the funds will be administered through the HOPE NOW Alliance in grants totaling more than $6 million. Of that amount, nearly two-thirds is allocated for HOPE NOW's counseling, operations and outreach, with the remaining funds earmarked for organizations including Enterprise Community Partners, NeighborWorks America, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and HomeFree USA.