Industry Briefs Aug. 24, 2021: LRES Acquires Keystone Asset Management
LRES Acquires Keystone Asset Management
LRES Corp., Orange, Calif., signed a definitive agreement to acquire Keystone Asset Management Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation. The deal is expected to be completed September 1, and the joined companies will operate under the LRES Corporation name.
The acquisition of Keystone complements LRES’ continued drive to expand its servicing solutions channel and the customers it serves. “Keystone brings with it tremendous talent and technology capabilities,” said Mark Johnson, President of LRES. “An exciting byproduct of this union is that we now have a talented team located in the Eastern time zone.”
Evolve Mortgage Services Releases New eModification Product to Support Remote Online Notary Transactions
Evolve Mortgage Services, Frisco, Texas, announced its SMART eNotary platform now includes Remote Online Notary for loan modifications. The enhancement comes in anticipation of the wave of home loans exiting forbearance and an increased need for social distancing due to the Delta variant.
The eModifications integrate with servicing and analytics systems, auto populating documents with loan modification data. Documents are posted to a secure website within minutes of the borrower selecting the loan workout program. Borrowers receive a secure email notification with a link to immediately review the documents.
Zillow: Homes May Be Worth More as Rentals
Zillow, Seattle, said Memphis, Miami and Atlanta lead a host of major metros where rents are higher than typical mortgage payments, while new and improved Zillow Rental tools make it easier than ever to assess the possibility and opportunities of becoming a landlord.
Homeowners interested in renting out their property can use Zillow’s improved Rent Zestimate to get a good idea of what they could potentially earn in rent. The Rent Zestimate generates a property’s expected rent income by considering a home’s physical attributes and amenities, including square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether it has air conditioning, as well as public data such as the last sale price.
For those looking to invest in or turn their home into a rental property, Zillow’s new Rental Property Calculator is designed to help independent landlords determine if their prospective purchase makes financial sense. The calculator factors in property price, home appreciation forecasts, expected rental income, mortgage rates and more to find when the purchase will break even and begin to pay itself off.
Saxton Mortgage Partners on Digital Advertising with Adwerx
Saxton Mortgage, San Diego, launched a digital advertising platform offering full automation for the mortgage industry by providing automated brand advertising for the firm and all of their loan originators through Adwerx
Through the Adwerx cloud-based platform, ad campaigns are created and launched automatically across Facebook and Instagram, as well as premium websites. All ads feature the firm’s branding and a loan originator’s face and contact information. These digital brand ads are personalized for each loan originator, enabling them to build their personal brand in their local areas, reach home buyers directly, and also stay top-of-mind with their referral networks.
AppraisalWorks Enhances Real Estate Appraisal Management Technology Platform
AppraisalWorks, Cleveland, Ohio, a leading provider of real estate appraisal technology, today announced innovations to its flagship appraisal management technology platform.
The enhancements to AppraisalWorks further automate key elements of the appraisal management process – including quote management tools for residential and commercial real estate assignments, providing direct connectivity to the Encompass LOS platform and delivering a platform for paying appraisers electronically.
GoDocs Attracts Investment from M33 Growth
GoDocs, Irvine, Calif., secured a growth investment from M33 Growth, a Boston-based venture and growth-stage investment firm.
M33’s investment in GoDocs, and the subsequent hiring of CEO Steve Butler, comes at a time when the GoDocs platform can now automatically generate compliant documents in all 50 states, with two of the top 10 banks already leveraging GoDocs. M33’s investment will enable GoDocs to expand its line of loan documents to include business loans, lines of credit, commercial and industrial loans, as well as expand the company’s out-of-the-box integrations with loan origination and loan servicing software providers.
LoanLogics White Paper Offers Human/Machine Relationship Advice
LoanLogics, Jacksonville, Fla., released a white paper demonstrating how mortgage industry participants can maximize the relationship between their people, technology, and the mortgage process.
The paper, “The Double Act of Human & Machine – A Relationship Story,” can be accessed at https://loanlogics.com/wp-doubleact.html?utm_campaign=PR.
The paper explains how machine learning and other technologies can be used to manufacture higher-quality loans, ensure consistency of data across documents and systems, optimize margins when selling loan assets and automate manual work to complement and enhance the value of human teams. In one specific example, the white paper shows how combining automation and confidence scoring with human assistance can save 50% in document processing costs.
“The current means of verifying loan file accuracy and completeness during loan production and secondary market sale are rife with manual, tedious and time-consuming ‘stare and compare’ methods that rely far too heavily on human staff,” said Mary Anne Ahmer, SVP of marketing at LoanLogics. “However, recent advancements in machine learning technology and rules-based automation have deepened the relationship between people and technology and are increasing quality and transparency in loan production, loan sales and mortgage servicing rights transfers.”
National MI Integrates with Mortgage Coach
National Mortgage Insurance Corp., Emeryville, Calif., is now integrated with the Mortgage Coach platform, which enables mortgage lenders to create accurate, digital home loan comparison scenarios for borrowers.
Mortgage lenders use the Mortgage Coach platform to share multi-option loan comparisons with borrowers through an interactive Total Cost Analysis presentation. Each personalized TCA presentation is delivered via a digital link, enabling the borrower to compare loan scenarios and pricing to make a more informed mortgage decision. Borrowers can now instantly view a side-by-side comparison of loan options, which include National MI mortgage insurance product options, to clearly understand the impact of private MI and the additional affordability it can provide over the life of the mortgage loan.
The integration enhances and simplifies the process for obtaining MI rate quotes for National MI and Mortgage Coach customers by allowing them to receive the personalized rate quote instantly within the TCA presentation. Mortgage lenders can now access National MI’s real-time, risk-based mortgage insurance pricing through its Rate GPS® tool without ever leaving the Mortgage Coach platform.
