September 2018 Issue

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

HW INSIDERS 40 industry players whose outstanding accomplishments have set them apart

P. 32

TECH SHOWCASE Innovative tech solutions that are taking mortgage lending to the next level

P. 49

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

BACK ON

TRACK

HOW TIMOTHY MAYOPOULOS FIXED FANNIE MAE P.28

Buy Down Your Borrower’s MI Premium Payment with

RateStar Buydown Arch MI’s innovative RateStar BuydownSM uses easy, efficient RateStarSM technology to help you identify the best combination of upfront and monthly MI to meet each borrower’s needs.

Offer borrowers something your competition can’t beat – a tailored buydown solution that can lower their monthly premium.

For more information, visit archmi.com/RateStar.

ARCH MORTGAGE INSURANCE COMPANY | 230 NORTH ELM STREET GREENSBORO NC 27401 © 2018 ARCH MORTGAGE INSURANCE COMPANY | ARCHMI.COM

WE BELIEVE …the sky’s the limit.

Although women make up 52 percent of all professional level jobs, they are only 14.6 of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.* It’s time for change. MBA believes in the power and influence of women, their ability to innovate and solve problems for our industry, increase profitability and shape the future of real estate finance.

Let’s shatter the glass ceiling and achieve our greatest potential, together.

Join our women’s network, mPower, today. * www.americanprogress.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT MBA.ORG/mPower 19248

HOUSINGWIRE SEPTEMBER 2018 EDITORIAL

CONTENT SOLUTIONS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jacob Gaffney

MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Wheeler

EDITORS Ben Lane Jessica Guerin

CONTENT WRITER Alyssa Stringer

ONLINE EDITOR Caroline Basile

CREATIVE

REPORTERS Jeremiah Jensen Alcynna Lloyd Kelsey Ramírez

GRAPHIC DESIGN Traci Cortez

WHO WILL LEAD FANNIE MAE? AS OF PRESS TIME, HERE’S WHERE WE STAND. David Stevens is leaving the MBA. Mel Watt may not be long for the FHFA. Mick Mulvaney is only the acting director at the CFPB and, finally, the CEO of Fannie Mae, Timothy Mayopoulos is stepping down — with no replacement named as of yet.

The short form of the above paragraph is as follows: There is much leadership change afoot. In the case of our cover story, we get an insider look into how Mayopoulos righted the

CONTRIBUTORS Casey Cunningham, Steven Lujan

ship at the largest housing financier in this nation.

And so, he will be missed. Among chief executives in the United States rated by their employees, Mayopoulos received a 92% approval rating from full-time and part-time employees. Of the 700,000 companies reviewed on Glassdoor, the

SALES

CORPORATE

NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Jennifer Watson Laws jlaws@HousingWire.com

PRESIDENT AND CEO Clayton Collins

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING CALIFORNIA OPERATIONS AND TECH Christi Lingard C. Scott Smith clingard@HousingWire.com MARKETING MANAGER CENTRAL Caren Karris Mark Adams SALES & MARKETING madams@HousingWire.com ASSOCIATE SOUTHEAST Haley Knighton Tamara Wren AD OPERATIONS twren@HousingWire.com MANAGER MOUNTAIN WEST Jessica Fly Bill Brown CONTROLLER bbrown@HousingWire.com Michelle Monroe GREAT LAKES Lorena Leggett lleggett@HousingWire.com NORTHEAST Joe Priolo jpriolo@HousingWire.com

Subscriptions are available for $149.00 for one year. A subscription includes the print magazine and online access to the digital magazine. Canada and foreign are only eligible to purchase the “Digital Only” subscription plan at $149 for one year.

For subscription orders, call 1-800-869-6882 or email HW@kmpsgroup.com.

Postmaster: Send change of address to HW Media, P.O. Box 47627, Plymouth, MN 55447. Subscribers: Please send last magazine label along with change of address requests.

The information contained within should not be construed as a recommendation for any course of action regarding legal, financial or accounting matters. All written materials are disseminated with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal advice or other professional services. HW Media does not guarantee the accuracy of information provided, and is not liable for any damages, losses or other detriment that may result from the use of these materials. © 2018 by HW Media, LLC • All rights reserved

average CEO approval rating is only 67%. I go into more details on how he managed to leave Fannie in much better shape than when he found it (see page 28).

But, with so much leadership change happening in our industry, it seems particularly fitting that we highlight the accomplishments of those who help execute the day-to-day operations at the mortgage finance industry’s most important firms. With that, we are honored to present the 2018 HousingWire Insiders.

Finally, for September, Diane Tomb helps us recognize the second annual National Renters Month. “It is time that we talk about treating renters as we have treated homeowners for years. At the National Rental Home Council, we believe that all renters deserve the same opportunities that homeowners have, regardless of why they rent,” she writes.

We couldn’t agree more. Enjoy!

Jacob Gaffney Editor-in-Chief @jacobgaffney

Tweets From The Streets Had a blast playing the last two days with @stephencurry30 at the @ elliemaeclassic. The galleries were incredible! Steph is a great ambassador for the game of golf and an even better guy. I look forward to teeing it up with him again soon!

2

15

121

by @Cameron_Champ HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 5

You see consumers.

We see engagement.

Looking to buy first home, confused about mortgage process.

Wants to refinance, never finished application.

Single, looking to buy condo, wants a secure, digital lending experience.

Starting family, needs bigger home, wants to know what’s affordable.

Is opportunity passing you by? Capture and convert more business with the Ellie Mae Consumer Engagement Suite.TM As part of Ellie Mae’s Digital Mortgage SolutionTM, the suite is more than a point of sale.

With it, you’ll get the right data to target your audience with one-to-one marketing, present a simple online application, route leads that drive more business, engage homebuyers the way they want to be engaged, close the deal, and get your borrowers into homes faster.

Find out how the Ellie Mae Consumer Engagement Suite can help you capture interest and convert more homebuyers at www.elliemae.com/consumer.

Relocating for new job, prefers to chat via text.

2018

SEPT. ‘18

2018

AWARD PROGRAM

AWARD PROGRAM

32

HW INSIDERS We celebrate 40 industry players whose outstanding performance has set them apart.

32 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

49 TECH PRODUCT SHOWCASE We highlight innovative tech solutions that are shaking up the mortgage lending space.

28

BACK ON TRACK How Timothy Mayopoulos fixed Fannie Mae.

By Jacob Gaffney

70 REACHING RENTERS The National Rental Home Council wants to grant renters equal opportunities.

By Diane Tomb HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 7

CONTENTS 10 THE LINEUP 10 PEOPLE MOVERS

12

Flat-fee listing company Redefy Holdings named Chris Rediger its new CEO.

12 EVENT CALANDAR HousingWire hosts engage.marketing, its first-ever marketing summit, in Dallas this month.

13 ON THE SHELF Real estate guru and TV star Ryan Serhant dishes on the secrets of his success.

14 DISPATCH 1 Arch MI gives first-time homebuyers an affordable solution with its new insurance program.

24 Tweets From The Streets 197 US housing markets have median values greater than $1 million today, with another 23 forecast to join those ranks within 1 year by Zillow. @zillow @HousingWire

0

2

2by

8 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

@DrTCJ

26 VIEWPOINTS 24 MISSED CONNECTIONS Radian’s Steven Lujan on how to better serve the growing Hispanic market.

26 BECOMING A SELF-PROMOTER Xinnix’s Casey Cunningham offers marketing strategies to help you stand out.

16 DISPATCH 2 Optimal Blue automates complex secondary marketing functions with new features.

18 DISPATCH 3 Citadel Servicing says nonprime can grant you access to a larger pool of borrowers.

20 HOT OR NOT The industry sees a jump in layoffs while Facebook stock plummets.

22 SOUNDING BOARD Experts and pundits weigh in on rising interest rates.

CONTENTS

94 BACK DEPARTMENTS 74 MULTIFAMILY Zillow makes a move into rental services with new tools, like an app where you can pay rent.

78 CFPB WATCH The Senate suddenly postpones its vote on the Kraninger nomination and calls a recess.

86

82 KUDOS HousesForSale.com announces new partnerships to automate real estate transactions.

84 Q&A USRES’ Rida Sharaf talks about providing REO liquidation for mobile homes.

86 KNOWLEDGE CENTER Informative Research discusses managing loan costs in a competitive market.

88 KNOWLEDGE CENTER

#

Arch MI on the costs of forgoing mortgage insurance.

90 KNOWLEDGE CENTER

82

74

Docutech on helping customers finance a remodel with a HELOC.

92 COMPANIES/ PEOPLE INDEX 93 AD INDEX 94 PARTING SHOT HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 9

Chris Rediger Redefy Holdings

10 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

KORSMO

McCHESNEY WEINSTEIN

HARO SKIADAS

P

lanet Home Lending hired Mike McChesney as its new chief information officer. Prior to joining Planet, McChesney served as an executive director at ServiceLink, where he developed and launched an award-winning appraisal technology platform.

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling hired Rebecca Steele as president and CEO. Prior to taking on her new role at NFCC, Steele served as CEO of Spring EQ. She has 20 years of experience in residential mortgage banking.

Fannie Mae President and CEO Timothy Mayopoulos announced he will resign from the GSE by the end of the year.

Fannie announced it promoted Chief Financial Officer David Benson to president. He will report directly to Mayopoulos, managing the day-to-day business and operations of the company. The company also promoted Celeste Brown to the role of executive vice president and chief financial officer. During his tenure as CEO, Mayopoulos returned about $167 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury, and oversaw the company as it turned from a

VEDDER

DOUGHTERY MORAN

Flat-fee listing company Redefy Holdings named Chris Rediger its new CEO. Previously the president and chief technology officer, co-founder Rediger will be stepping into Jordan Connett’s former role as Connett becomes the company's chairman of the board of directors.

legacy company to a startup, evolving into a smart, agile company.

American Land Title Association CEO Michelle Korsmo stepped down to move to a vastly different industry. Korsmo is leaving ALTA in mid-September to become the CEO of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America.

Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital has hired Ilya Weinstein as vice president of its New York office. Prior to joining Bellwether, Weinstein was an associate at Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital where he helped originate over $10 billion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans nationwide.

Flat-fee real estate brokerage TRELORA named former Chipotle Co-CEO Monty Moran chairman of its board of directors. Moran served as co-CEO at Chipotle from 2007 to 2017, growing the company from eight restaurants to more than 2,100 restaurants during that time.

Mortgage software solutions provider Calyx Software promoted Bob Dougherty to executive vice president of business development.

Dougherty is taking over the position from Dennis Boggs, who retired at the end of June after serving the company for 27 years. Before joining Calyx, Dougherty was vice president of mortgage operations at Merchants Bank.

ERA Real Estate named Diana Wall senior vice president of sales. This is Wall’s second time working as an ERA employee. Earlier in her career, she was a district sales manager at ERA. Before rejoining ERA, Wall served as the vice president of business development at RE/MAX and vice president of field operations for Project C.U.R.E. Altisource announced it has promoted Justin Vedder to the role of chief operating officer, origination solutions. In his new role, Vedder will oversee the growth of Altisource’s Origination Solutions business. Previously, Vedder served as the company’s vice president of national sales, origination solutions.

JLL hired Niko Skiadas and Dan Dretler to lead its New England multifamily capital markets operations. Skiadas and Dretler will both serve as executive vice presidents in JLL’s Boston office. Prior to joining JLL, Skiadas and Dretler had been working together for over 10 years at Colony Capital in Boston, where they generated over $5 billion in transactions.

Dretler oversaw dispositions and portfolio management for the firm and Skiadas ran the acquisitions side.

LRES promoted Jill Haro to senior vice president of corporate administration.

Haro formerly served as LRES vice president of corporate administration, where she oversaw compliance and strategic projects for the mortgage services company.

EVENT CALENDAR

ENGAGE.MARKETING SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2018 On the agenda: HousingWire debuts its first-ever marketing summit, engage. marketing. The “Get More” conference will feature Bravo star and celebrity Realtor Ryan Serhant as its keynote speaker. Experts on mortgage, real estate and fintech marketing will discuss topics including strategic partnerships and technology, referral partner co-marketing, digital marketing analytics, consumer-direct lead generation and more. The inaugural event extends an invitation to lenders, national and local real estate marketers, marketing executives and fintech providers.

DALLAS, TEXAS Everything is bigger in Texas, including the fun. Home to some of the best museums, restaurants and venues in the state, Dallas is bound to leave you wanting more. The engage.marketing conference is only minutes away from The Sammons Center for the Arts, where you can participate in a craft beer event, sampling brews and food from around the state. And, don’t miss out on the chance to tour the historic Turtle Creek Pump House, a pump station-turned-garden where artists have reused construction materials in imaginative ways to highlight the value of restoration.

12 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Host: HousingWire Magazine Location: Renaissance Dallas Hotel, Dallas Cost: $595-$995 www.engage.housingwire.com

ON THE SHELF Sell It Like Serhant: How to Sell More, Earn More, and Become the Ultimate Sales Machine RYAN SERHANT HODDER & STOUGHTON

With his sharp suits and biting sarcasm, you might not guess Ryan Serhant, co-star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, was a shy kid. When the out-of-work hand model launched his real estate career, he made just $9,000. Undeterred, he honed his skills and now closes $1 billion a year.

Serhant’s book dishes out the secrets of his success, entertaining readers as he offers tips on how to manage your time, act like a boss and deal with indecisive clients.

Join the POWER of the NETWORK

The Dichotomy of Leadership JOCKO WILLINK AND LEIF BABIN ST. MARTIN'S PRESS

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are former Navy SEALs who served in the toughest combat mission in the most highly decorated unit in SEAL history.

In their second book, they use their experiences in high-intensity, covert operations to reveal what it takes to be a true leader. The authors illustrate how skillful leaders are those who can learn to navigate between seemingly opposite principals – prudence and aggression, focus and detachment – to achieve success.

Learn more about all of the benefits to membership at

www.mortgagecollaborative.com

ARCH MI | SPONSORED CONTENT

Arch MI provides first-time homebuyers with an affordable solution

AMGC Community Program serves community heroes and community experts positions haven’t kept pace with home price growth in many areas.

“With home prices at new peaks in many markets, it’s not realistic for a teacher or an emergency medical technician to be able to save up the necessary amount from their paychecks for a traditional down payment amount,” Jumpe said.

M

ore than 11 million Americans now pay more than half their monthly income on housing, an increase of 30% over the past five years, according to the Monroe Group.

High home prices and rising interest rates are fueling the affordable housing crisis, making it extremely difficult for first-time homebuyers.

In many areas of the country, essential workers like first responders and teachers are being priced out of their communities by high home prices. They, along with degreed professionals in other occupations, often find it impossible to save the required downpayment for a house, turning them into a class of permanent renters. These two groups can’t find affordable housing in the very communities they serve.

To remedy this situation, Arch MI created its AMGC Community program, an insurance program for portfolio lending that makes it possible for lenders to accept low down payments for eligible borrowers who have good incomes and credit profiles.

“At Arch MI, we strongly believe in the importance of homeownership to strong communities and the need for them to achieve a mix of income levels and skills for stability, longevity and opportunity,” said Jim Jumpe, senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

AMGC Community is a novel high-LTV insurance solution that makes it possible for lenders to qualify many of these borrowers for a home purchase with only modest down payments. AMGC Community addresses two categories of borrowers: 1. AMGC COMMUNITY HEROES These borrowers include teachers, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Although these jobs are essential parts of any community, the salaries for these 14 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

2. AMGC COMMUNITY EXPERTS These borrowers include certified public accountants, chartered financial analysts, PhDs, architects, certified mortgage bankers and designated actuaries. These degreed professionals often have good salaries, but they are coping with student debt payments that might otherwise have gone to a down payment.

According to Jim Jumpe, “These are homebuyers with good credit profiles, stable positions and salaries that are well able to support a monthly payment. AMGC Community solves the downpayment problem because many of these borrowers are good risks.”

For AMGC Community heroes, the program accepts down payments as low as 1%, with gifts and grants accepted. For AMGC Community experts, zero down payments are eligible.

“Our analysis shows that, with the issue of the down payment eliminated, these buyers are excellent candidates for homeownership,” Jumpe said.

The AMGC Community program is available through Arch Mortgage Guaranty Company, which is specifically designed to support portfolio lending through flexible underwriting requirements and available Day One rescission relief.

As a result, loans insured through AMGC are high-LTV originations that the lender will retain in portfolio. To do so, the lender needs strong financial promises, which AMGC is able to provide because of its financial strength – recognized in AMGC’s high Moody’s and S&P ratings –and its extensive risk management expertise.

The program was developed following extensive analysis by Arch MI’s risk management teams, with AMGC underwriting guidelines that recognize borrowers’ good credit and income.

The AMGC Community Program is priced appropriately for risk through RateStar, which means that lenders that originate loans through the program will receive the most competitive rates.

“At Arch MI, we’re committed to introducing innovation to the industry and helping lenders expand their origination opportunities,” Jumpe said. “By making high-LTV options like AMGC Community available, Arch MI supports a broader strategy that creates more origination opportunities for mortgage lenders through the use of risk-based pricing.”

THE AMOUNT AMERICAN SENIORS HAVE IN HOME EQUITY

TRILLION

*

Tom Selleck Actor and AAG Paid Spokesperson

Let American Advisors Group (AAG) be your partner in success: AAG's Concierge Experience allows your originators and processors to learn while they earn AAG's dedicated Lender Support Team guides the entire loan process from application to submission

Become an AAG Approved Partner

AAG's online marketing portal gives you 24/7 access to custom marketing materials

866-964-1109 aag.com/wholesale

*NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index Hits All-Time High of 244.73. NRMLA. http://aag.expert/NRMLAindex For industry professionals only -- not intended for distribution to the general public. American Advisors Group, NMLS #9392, headquartered at 3800 W. Chapman Ave., 3rd Floor, Orange, CA 92868. License information on www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org and www.aag.com/disclosure Â

OPTIMAL BLUE | SPONSORED CONTENT

Optimal Blue automates complex secondary marketing functions with expanded solution New features include margin management, lock management and personalization

T

hese are certainly exciting times in the mortgage industry.

We've experienced a massive influx of mortgage technology solutions. Never before have lenders been provided with as many digital alternatives to automate their process.

The fast pace of innovation across the industry coupled with heightened competitive pressure for originations is driving lenders to expect more from their providers. Lenders have quickly ascertained that the next level of value and sustained competitive advantage requires solutions that are continually enhanced to address their specific needs and objectives.

"In today’s landscape, lenders are searching for new ways to stay competitive and do more with less,” explained Brandon White, secondary marketing supervisor at Affiliated Bank. “To accomplish that, innovative lenders are partnering with vendors that offer functional depth and are committed to extensive innovation. Optimal Blue has been the trusted partner we’ve embedded across our business to provide that competitive edge.”

In light of this new reality, Optimal Blue has invested in the expansion of its enterprise secondary marketing solution.

Surrounding core capabilities with a powerful and robust feature set not only differentiates Optimal Blue from other providers, but – more importantly – enables their client base to further enhance their secondary marketing strategies and sustain their competitive edge.

“Optimal Blue is fortunate to have productive, long-term partnerships with some of the industry’s most innovative mortgage lenders, firms that are leading the industry with their focus on using workflow automation to drive efficiency,” explained Scott Happ, CEO of Optimal Blue. “Automating complex secondary marketing functions is of particular interest to our clients, and we are thrilled with their reaction to a number of groundbreaking workflow automation features we’ve recently developed.”

Optimal Blue’s recent product innovations are based on three core themes that exemplify the company’s ongoing commitment to client-focused product development and market-leading functional depth across its platform.

1. Transparency: Compelling margin management and revenue visualizations As the mortgage landscape becomes more competitive, lenders constantly evaluate mark-ups, margins and profitability to improve results. Until recently, lenders have done so by managing just a single data point, their total margin. With this powerful enhancement to Optimal Blue’s business intelligence solution, Enterprise Analytics, lenders can easily assess metrics associated to profitability by understanding the breakdown of margin

16 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

revenue and how it trends over time.

Through interactive visualizations, geographical heat maps and more, lenders can analyze the effectiveness of origination strategies and view margin data at the loan level, or by branch, loan officer, product, business channel and investor.

2. Granularity: Configurable and automated lock management policies Optimal Blue clients constantly search for opportunities to finetune the overall efficiency of their operations to reduce costs and improve execution. A common high-impact area, one where even the most modest of improvements can produce material results, is the lock management process.

With this enhancement, Optimal Blue greatly extends its lock management automation by enabling clients to achieve significant granularity with the post-lock policies that surround various changes occurring after the initial rate lock. For example, if the borrower profile changes after the initial rate lock and this new scenario requires a change, Optimal Blue now enables lenders to auto-accept unique post-lock changes based on embedded logic.

Furthermore, if a financing scenario change requires a modification to the loan product offer, lenders can configure specific rate lock policies for each type of modification to enforce consistency across their organization.

3. Personalization: Additional product type filters to easily identify specialty products Non-QM or Expanded Guideline products are a popular growth area for many Optimal Blue clients, and a substantial new system enhancement now allows lenders to better support customers with specialized needs. With this enhancement, Optimal Blue users are provided with new, powerful product filters that can be used to display the products and pricing most appropriate for specific borrower scenarios.

Examples include loans designed for borrowers with alternative income, low credit scores and low debt-to-income ratios. This user personalization not only improves sales efficiency, but it helps Optimal Blue clients close more loans by aligning specific borrower needs with the most appropriate financing alternatives.

Ultimately, the future is bright for the mortgage industry.

Opportunities for further automation are everywhere, and compelling change can indeed lead to the next level of value and true competitive differentiation for participants.

Optimal Blue’s client-focused product development and commitment to functional depth serves as a model for the industry and illustrates the considerable benefits of deeper, continuous automation for lenders.

THERE’S AN ADVANTAGE TO BEING UNIQUE

Our uncommon solutions give you the upper hand.

Computershare Loan Services is making an impression with unparalleled experience, products, services and solutions for the mortgage industry. Together, with one identity we serve each stage of the mortgage lifecycle. See what we can do for your business at ComputershareLoanServices.com.

CMC Funding, Inc: NMLS ID 41998 Specialized Loan Servicing LLC: NMLS ID Main OfďŹ ce 2168 Credit Risk Solutions, formerly known as Altavera Mortgage Services operating as Credit Risk Solutions: NMLS ID 1059945

CITADEL | SPONSORED CONTENT

The right time for non-prime Citadel Servicing provides mortgage brokers with a larger pool of borrowers

A

s the number of prime borrowers dries up, investors are showing an increased appetite for non-prime loans, which are markedly different from the subprime lending that was a hallmark of the financial crisis.

Today’s non-prime loans are carefully underwritten with an appropriate examination of the underlying collateral. These loans serve borrowers who have been unable to qualify for government-backed loans, but may otherwise have good incomes and room for substantial downpayments.

By opening up a whole new category of borrowers, non-prime loans provide a lucrative new avenue for both lenders and investors.

Citadel Servicing Corp. (CSC) was the first company to offer nonprime loans in late 2012 after the crisis and is using its expertise in underwriting to offer products to an underserved population, expanding the number of potential borrowers for mortgage brokers. CSC’s Outside Dodd-Frank (ODF) Program includes foreign national loans, business use and non-owner-occupied loans.

To qualify for CSC’s Foreign National Program, borrowers only need to provide a passport and a letter of good standing with a financial institution.

“Most institutions ask for income documentation, but what does the proper documentation from China or Russia look like, and how can we really verify them?” asked Will Fisher, senior vice president of loan production, sales and marketing at Citadel. “The max LTV on this loan is 70%. Because of the LTV restrictions we impose on ourselves, we’re comfortable with what we’re lending.”

18 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

This unique loan product allows for borrowers to buy second homes and non-owner occupied properties of one to four units.

“This loan is very popular for properties on the coasts, which you would expect, like in Florida, the Bay Area and tech areas.

But it’s slowly becoming more prevalent throughout the United States,” said Fisher. “And these borrowers aren’t coming from one particular country either; they’re from all over the globe.”

The Non-Owner Business Purpose Loan features no TRID disclosure requirements, no income requirements and no reserve, asset or DSCR requirements. These loans also have no pre-pay penalties or charges for lender points, unlike many loan products of this genre.

“What really separates us with this product is the elimination of the pre-payment penalty, lack of lender points and lower rates than hard money. Additionally, our loans are 30 years amortized, 5/1 or 7/1 ARMs,” Fisher said.

“Right now, we are seeing a few prime lenders entering this space,” said Fisher. “However, most of these new entrants are allowing borrowers with 550 credit scores and lower to borrow 95% and more on the value of a home, through FHA programs.

We view this as extremely risky and borderline irresponsible. I think these prime lenders are in for a big surprise if they try to get away with 8-10% delinquency on an asset class not backed by the GSEs.” “To that point, most of these new-entrant prime lenders are only pass-through lenders when it comes to non-prime,” said Fisher.

“They are relying on their big brother to give them prior approval so they don’t wreck the proverbial car!”

When it comes to risk, CSC’s underwriting process carefully calculates how and when to layer risk, resulting in loans that are performing better than those backed by FHA. While the government investors are experiencing default rates of 8-10%, CSC’s delinquencies are below 3.5%.

“We underwrite all of these loans by hand. It may take slightly longer, but we have a better understanding of who we are lending to and that lets us make exceptions when we need to,” Fisher said.

And CSC services its own loans, which allows us to better understand what works and doesn’t work, then we can adjust our underwriting strategy accordingly.

“We are at the intersection of an increasing rate environment, with increasing access to capital, and non-prime is at the center of that,” Fisher said. “Given the increase in demand, our data confirms there is easily $100 billion, if not more, of this paper out there this year alone. We’ve been experiencing month-overmonth growth for the last five years.”

“There needs to be a realm between pure hard money and prime lending, and non-prime fits that niche.”

Insiders? Not anymore.

Adam, Aravinda, congratulations

Adam Krause Vice President, Technical Support Ellie Mae

Aravinda Gollapudi Vice President, Engineering Ellie Mae

2018 HousingWire Insider Award Winners The recognition for both of these leaders is long overdue, and more than well deserved. Adam has a deep knowledge of the mortgage industry, technology, and EncompassÂŽ, and has championed several key initiatives to bring solutions to customers more effectively and efďŹ ciently. Aravinda has been a high-impact leader within Engineering, driving development of critical products, including Encompass Consumer Connect™, and has demonstrated an unwavering focus on customer success and improving borrower experiences.

Adam, Aravinda, thanks for all your hard work, and for being such an inspiration to all of us at Ellie Mae.

elliemae.com | 925.227.7000

Hot SIZZLE? Not FIZZLE? 1 1 WHY THE

WHY THE

INTEREST RATES



Yes, they’re still rising. Despite recent criticism of the rising interest rate environment, the Federal Reserve is still expected to raise rates twice more in 2018. President Donald Trump criticized the Fed for raising interest rates, saying he was not thrilled about the interest rate hikes. He later took to Twitter to expand on his thoughts, saying the U.S. should “not be penalized for doing so well.” But experts insist this criticism will not sway the Fed’s decision when it comes time to raise interest rates again this year.



2



3

BANK EARNINGS





2



3

LAYOFFS Unfortunately, layoffs have been on the rise as companies struggle to cope with the increasing competition and rising costs to originate a mortgage. For example, Pacific Union Financial unexpectedly closed the doors to its El Paso, Texas-based mortgage fulfillment call center, leaving the city short 699 promised jobs. And community bank and mortgage lender HomeStreet announced it is closing several offices and laying off more than 100 staffers due to a lack of demand for its mortgage products.

DIGITAL NOTARIZATION Notarize, a digital notary platform and 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner, announced its integration with Title Resources, a subsidiary of Realogy, to expand online notarization for complete digital real estate transactions. The partnership expands Notarize's reach to nearly 265 million Americans across 38 states and D.C. The new states include Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin, according to the company. Earlier this year, Notarize partnered with Westcor Land Title Insurance Company to bring fully digital mortgage closings to 16 states, and as states continue to accept digital notarization, the trend is set to grow.

20 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Some of the nation’s largest banks, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and CitiBank, saw a decrease in their mortgage banking revenue in the second quarter of 2018. While the big banks still reported increases in their net incomes and revenues, it was no thanks to mortgage banking income, which decreased from the previous year and previous quarter.

As mortgage origination costs continue to rise, not even the largest banks are immune to its effects and the increased competition.

NEW GSE CREDIT SCORE MODELS FICO and its competitor, VantageScore, have been held in suspense to see which credit score model, if any, the Federal Housing Finance Agency will choose.

But now, the FHFA announced it is postponing its decision and will instead be shifting its focus to implementing the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, which passed into law in May. Previously, the FHFA announced it would make its final decision on credit scoring models in 2018, but now that decision could be delayed as far out as 2020.

FACEBOOK Facebook shares plunged 20% at the end of July, obliterating more than $124 billion in market value and marking the largest one-day loss in the history of any publicly traded company, ever. And, the company said it expects revenue to continue its downward spiral for the remainder of the year. This could be bad news for mortgage brokers and real estate agents who have long used it as their method of choice for free self-promotion. Now, with fewer consumers logging on every day, perhaps it’s no longer the best way for agents to spread news of services in their local market.

Where experts and pundits sound off on a key industry issue

R I S I N G I N T E R E S T R AT E S “The United States should not be penalized because we are doing so well. Tightening now hurts all that we have done. The U.S. should be allowed to recapture what was lost due to illegal currency manipulation and BAD Trade Deals. Debt coming due & we are raising rates - Really?”

“Together with the fading boost from fiscal stimulus, we expect that will prompt a sharp slowdown in economic growth next year, which will prompt the Fed to reverse course and begin cutting rates in 2020, in sharp contrast to the consensus.”

–Capital Economics Senior Economist Michael Pearce

–President Donald Trump “Rising rates will become an increasing headwind for the economy, especially next year when the boost from fiscal stimulus fades. In real terms, the two-year Treasury yield has risen by 150 basis points over the past three years. That is similar to the increases seen prior to the past five recessions.”

–Capital Economics

“I don't think the Fed should be raising interest rates at a time when Congress and the president under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is trying to grow the economy.”

–B. Riley FBR Chief Strategist Mark Grant

“For now, the best way forward is to keep gradually raising the federal funds rate. We are aware that, on the one hand, raising interest rates too slowly may lead to high inflation or financial market excesses. On the other hand, if we raise rates too rapidly, the economy could weaken and inflation could run persistently below our objective.”

–Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

22 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

“Economic growth is impressive, but home sales are stuck. The reason is declining affordability. Renters feel squeezed out of the market as home prices are rising faster than incomes, and interest rates keep climbing.”

–The National Association of Realtors “Some analysts suggest the additional rise [in Treasury yields] comes as ‘upbeat’ economic data convinces market participants of an upcoming rate hike...this is often what happens when market psychology shifts to the notion of nowhere to go but up. Instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater as investors tend to do when things begin to turn sour, at this point, investors appear to be drinking the bathwater, convinced it is a bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild.”

–Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza

Arch MI Congratulates Jim Jumpe Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Jim has been named a winner for the 2018 HousingWire Insiders AwardTM. We congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition for his vision, dedication and impressive achievements.

ARCH MORTGAGE INSURANCE COMPANY | 230 NORTH ELM STREET GREENSBORO NC 27401 © 2018 ARCH MORTGAGE INSURANCE COMPANY | ARCHMI.COM

The HW Insiders Award is a trademark of HousingWire Magazine.

VIEWPOINTS

By Steven A. Lujan

Better serving the Hispanic market Don’t miss the opportunity to reach this growing market demographic

Early in my career, I was working in origination in Houston and received a referral to a Hispanic buyer. It was 2001 and many lenders had a one-size-fits-all approach that made them ill-equipped to serve this demographic. There were no specific marketing materials for this population and I soon realized the Hispanic community needed to be catered to in a different way than other demographics.

Small things, like communicating with them in Spanish or translating reading materials, helped me to better assist my client and made for a successful transaction.

24 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

After working with the buyer through the loan process, he started sending friends and family from his network to me. I quickly found that Hispanic customers were a growing portion of my business. I quickly began hosting on-site open houses with my real estate and construction partners serving the Hispanic community. Recognizing that the Hispanic market was driving my own success and was an area of significant opportunity, I positioned myself as the face for that market within my company.

I tell this story because serving the Hispanic homebuyer remains – nearly 18 years later – a significant market opportunity that many companies, large and small, are failing to tap into. Hispanics have huge purchasing power in the U.S. and the rate of homeownership among this population has grown every year since 2014, reaching 46.2% in 2017. In fact,

Steven Lujan is the director of multicultural businesses at Radian. He has over 25 years of real estate experience.

Hispanics are the only demographic in the U.S. to increase homeownership rates for each of the past three years and are driving gains in the real estate market overall. By understanding the unique needs and expectations of the Hispanic community and positioning yourself to fulfill those needs, real estate professionals can become an important servicer of this consumer demographic and experience related growth.

Industry wide, the data shows that Hispanics are responsible for 46.5% of the growth in net U.S. homeownership since 2000 and this is not expected to slow down. These stats should come as no surprise since this demographic also accounts for the largest share of the U.S. population growth. Since Hispanics are also the youngest demographic group in the U.S. with a median age of 28 years old and nearly 30% of Hispanics are Millennials, not only will this population continue to grow, but they represent a community that is currently, or soon to be, the prime age for first-time homebuyers. Simply put, the market opportunity is large and is continuing to expand.

For real estate services companies looking to grow, serving the Hispanic community may be a prime opportunity, but it requires more than translating a few materials into Spanish. Just as consumer product manufacturers have come to understand that they can create a product or service to cater specifically to women and men separately because of differing needs or wants, so too can an organization create a strategy to serve a diverse group or demographic.

When I first began focusing on Hispanic homebuyers my business quickly picked up, but so too did the challenges of qualifying these borrowers with a product that would not only get them into a home, but would keep them in their home. I was able to utilize down payment assistance programs with our existing products at no real additional cost to our company and still have the GSEs purchase our loans.

My company took notice as the business started to grow and a short time later hired another Spanish-speaking loan officer.

When I think back to those early days in my career, being a bilingual professional, I was well-positioned to serve the Hispanic customer who was referred to me. Today, as demographics shift, it’s important that front offices shift as well. A front office that mirrors the local market, or market the company is trying to reach in age, race and language skills, is better positioned for success. With a less than ideal pipeline of young professionals in the real estate industry, this means that companies must invest in recruiting and training the next generation of real estate professionals.

This may require retraining professionals from other industries, mentoring young talent or creating and/or partnering with professional groups in the industry.

Among all populations, referrals from friends and families drive business in the real estate market. After working with that first Hispanic buyer through the loan process, he started sending friends and family from his network to me. Hispanics have been shown to place greater emphasis on referrals from within their networks and a greater willingness to promote to their inner circle when they have a positive experience with a business. In the case of my story, this – coupled with the positive experience I provided to my customers – drove significant growth for the company within the Hispanic community. Understanding this referral culture can help a business succeed by finding ways to encourage satisfied customers to share their experience more widely and allow you to develop a more deliberate referral process and strategy to capture the business of this demographic.

One of the reasons referrals are so heavily relied upon in the Hispanic community is trust. Having a trusted relationship with a real estate professional means a buyer is more likely to heed advice about what they should and shouldn’t do. It’s important for real estate professionals to fully understand the many options that can serve the nuances of your customers and be prepared to educate prospective customers on the full range of opportunities.

For example, many Hispanic consum-

ers believe the 20% down payment myth and 56% of Hispanics, compared with 41% of the general population, think it would be difficult to get a mortgage today.

Education is essential in changing misperceptions about what benefits homebuyers most in the long run. Additionally, despite the presence of other high-quality choices like private mortgage insurance, Hispanic borrowers are disproportionately more likely to apply for FHA loans, even if they could qualify for a conventional loan.

Homebuyers can learn more about their options at AchieveTheDream.com Reaching homebuyers in today’s world also means being where the customer is.

Not only should a business explore opportunities to enter growing Hispanic communities with a brick and mortar office in areas that serve as community hubs, but a strong virtual presence targeted to a Hispanic, bilingual audience is also essential. Hispanics spend 25% more time on their phones and engage with social media at higher rates than other demographic groups. The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) points to this as an essential part of any strategy to reach the Hispanic market.

NAHREP states, “As brands decide how to engage with Hispanics or Hispanic Millennials, it is critical to develop a fully articulated social media engagement strategy for these audiences.” A relatively simple way to showcase the diversity of gender, age, race and language is to make sure the photos and posts on social media channels are reflective of the audiences you serve.

With the ever-changing demographic landscape in this country, it is imperative for real estate professionals to understand the marketplace and recognize how better serving the diverse groups within the local community can help achieve growth objectives. If you can fully understand and represent the demographics of the footprint you serve or wish to serve, then the right marketing strategy, business plan, resources and tools to serve the targeted customer base will fall into place.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 25

VIEWPOINTS

By Casey Cunningham

Becoming a self-promoter Marketing strategies to help you stand out in a crowded market

With today’s focus on new and emerging technology, it can be easy for loan officers to rely on electronic, automated solutions to gain new business instead of putting forth their full efforts to reach potential customers and referral sources. While keeping up with technological advances is vital to staying relevant in our industry, the timeless fundamental practices of a natural selfpromoter are irreplaceable. Incredible self-promoters are those who effectively and consistently stand out from the competition and make known their clear and unique value proposition. They are actively seeking the attention of their leads and refuse to be ignored until they have it.

26 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą SEPTEMBER 2018

However, they do not simply make a lot of noise. They know how to make the right kind of noise.

Great self-promoters strategically plan how to market themselves to each audience they need to reach.

Specifically, they follow these three steps: 1) position themselves correctly in front of their Key Targets, 2) create a memorable style, and 3) consistently reach out to leads using multiple touches.

Casey Cunningham is the CEO and founder of XINNIX. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, XINNIX provides nationally recognized sales and leadership performance programs.

POSITIONING The databases of most loan officers are made up of many different types of leads.

A one-size-fits-all approach to marketing is not going to help them stand out as someone who can bring specific value to each client. For example, a loan officer might send out a weekly newsletter that frequently covers FHA lending. While this information is great for referral sources who work with first-time homebuyers, it has no relevance to a Realtor who does only high-end business. This loan officer has just become white noise. Messaging should bring value to the intended audience. Once mortgage professionals know who their Key Targets are, they need to develop communication that speaks directly to the needs of the people they want to reach. This way, they are positioning themselves as a true business partner.

There is an often overlooked group of people loan officers should work to position themselves in front of: friends and family. An LO should ask themselves, “When the people I know think about mortgages, do they automatically think of me?” If the answer is no, an originator needs to work on making their name synonymous with the word “mortgage.”

Here’s an example of two people who accomplished this goal. I know of two loan officers who decided they were going to wear their name tags everywhere they went—the grocery store, restaurants, even their family reunions. These name tags had their company and job title on them, letting everyone who saw them on a regular basis know exactly who these men were and what they did for a living. If anyone were to talk to any of their friends or family members about needing a mortgage, these two loan officers were sure to get a recommendation. Simple and easy practices like this can have an incredible impact on creating recognition for a loan officer in their community.

STYLE When positioning themselves in front of potential clients, mortgage professionals need to consider what their unique style

“

o matter how engaging a communication or N creative their personalized marketing is, loan officers are not going to get their leads’ attention after one touch.

is that will make them stand out from the competition. One of the primary ways to get the attention of a referral source is through personalized marketing. This will require more than just knowing what kind of business they do. It does not normally involve using generic, branded trinkets.

Effective personalized marketing is, as the name suggests, personalized specifically to the referral source. The goal is to form a personal connection that will leave a lasting impression.

In a recent episode of Inside the Mortgage Mind—a podcast from XINNIX, the Mortgage Academy—top producing loan officer Kristi Hardy talks about how she used a personal fact she knew about one referral source to win her business. “I met a Realtor who was really into shoes, so I did a shoe campaign. I sent pictures of shoes mysteriously to her mailbox. After two or three weeks, I sent my business card with a note that said, ‘Mama needs a new pair of shoes. Come see me for your next loan.’ Ever since then, that Realtor has been completely dedicated to me and refers business to me all the time.”

The other vital way for loan officers to differentiate themselves from the competition is through their unique value proposition. Once the loan officer has established a personal connection, their next step is to let the customer specifically know how they will help their business. Every originator in the country will say, “I have great rates, the best service, and the most knowledge.” These are broad statements that are easily ignored. Great self-promoters tell their leads exactly what kind of value they bring. They have an answer to the age-old question, “What’s in it for me?”

They essentially make a service agreement with the customer, ensuring them, “When

you do business with me, I’m going to answer the phone every time it rings or call you back within 30 minutes,” or “I will get someone to the closing table on time every time.” By making specific promises, and then building a reputation for following up on those promises, LOs bring value and build loyalty with referrals.

REPETITION First, they’ve positioned themselves in front of the right people. Then, they made themselves stand out with personalized marketing and a unique value proposition.

All the pieces are now in place for this loan officer, but there’s one more strategy that is nearly always the determining factor in landing someone’s business—the practice of repetition. A common rule in marketing is that someone must see an ad seven times before they remember it. The same general principle applies to referral sources. No matter how engaging a communication or creative their personalized marketing is, loan officers are not going to get their leads’ attention after one touch.

Additionally, the way mortgage professionals reach out must be varied. We have all been on the receiving end of a marketing email campaign that we found far more annoying than engaging. Instead, by combining relevant communication, personalized marketing, phone calls, and other touches, loan officers stand a far higher chance of making an impact on a potential referral partner.

Persistence is key as well. Some referral partners might call back in a few days, but most will take weeks, months, or even years to build a business partnership.

While many will give up, the loan officer who most consistently reaches out will be the one to eventually get their attention.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 27

28 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

BACK ON

TRACK

HOW TIMOTHY MAYOPOULOS FIXED FANNIE MAE

By Jacob Gaffney

Tim Mayopoulos Chief Executive Officer Timothy Mayopoulos has been Fannie Mae’s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s Board of Directors since 2012. Mayopoulos has played an integral role in the successful recovery of the company since the financial crisis. Mayopoulos has led Fannie Mae’s efforts to support the U.S. mortgage market, promote sustainable homeownership, and deliver important reforms to create a better housing finance system for the future.

David Benson Chief Financial Officer David Benson leads the Single-Family and Multifamily businesses at Fannie Mae, covering all segments of the business including customer engagement, capital markets, pricing, underwriting, and credit portfolio management. Benson is also responsible for corporate functions, including information technology, business operations, finance, strategy, human resources, communications, marketing, and economic research.

He also serves on the Board of Managers of Common Securitization Solutions, a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac joint venture.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 29

WHEN TIMOTHY MAYOPOULOS WAS VETTED...

Tim Mayopoulos “When I became CEO, the primary task was stabilize the company. The housing market was so different then, the conditions were very difficult and there was low morale among our people.”

David Benson “We’ve all personally worked with the officer core, we collectively work on the strong vision of Fannie Mae and have momentum around our strategy and can handle the evolutions that come through the markets.”

30 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

prior to joining Fannie Mae nearly 10 years ago in the role of general counsel, board members explained it would only take 12 to 18 months for the company to turn around.

That isn’t what it took. It took putting Mayopoulos in charge, years later, to turn the company around. And that’s exactly what he did.

Mayopoulos joined Fannie Mae in 2009 as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. The next year, in 2010, he became the government-sponsored enterprise’s chief administrative officer. Just two years later, Fannie named him president and chief executive officer.

“It was almost a decade ago, and I didn’t think I would one day be CEO,” Mayopoulos said in a recent interview with HousingWire after announcing plans to step down by the end of the year. “When I became CEO, the primary task was stabilize the company. The housing market was so different then, the conditions were very difficult and there was low morale among our people.”

“We also didn’t have a playbook to deal with all the delinquencies and foreclosures,” he adds. “As for returning to profitability, no one thought we’d be able to do it.”

Mayopoulos championed the company’s emerging customer-centric strategy and pushed for greater delivery of innovations that benefit lenders and borrowers alike. Collateral Underwriter and Day One Certainty immediately come to mind as success stories under the Mayopoulos regime.

“Fannie Mae was proud to intro-

duce Day 1 Certainty [in 2016] and we have worked tirelessly to build on the benefits it provides,” said Mayopoulos last year when providing an update to new services being unveiled at Fannie.

“We continue to listen and learn from our many customers who have signed up for one or more of our Day 1 Certainty services, and we are using that feedback to make the mortgage process faster, less expensive and easier for everyone.”

“We are committed to delivering more innovative solutions that help solve our customers’ most important business challenges and creating a stronger and safer 21st century housing finance system,” Mayopoulos said.

In that same timeframe, Fannie Mae introduced its new Single Source Validation, which allows lenders to validate a borrower’s income, assets and employment through one report using source data rather than multiple paper documents. The company explained this step will amplify savings and simplify loan origination.

Its new application programming interface platform will allow lenders to utilize Fannie Mae’s data and technology solutions to quickly access the full set of Desktop Underwriter Messages data, driving greater efficiency.

Finally, its new Ser v icing Marketplace will connect servicers to sellers who are interested in partnering with each other for serving transfers when sellers sell loans to Fannie Mae, giving more transparency in the system while removing cost and friction.

And before that, in 2015, Fannie introduced Collateral Underwriter, its proprietary appraisal risk assessment application developed to support proactive management of appraisal quality.

Under his leadership, Fannie Mae strengthened both its business model and its financial performance; through the second quarter of 2018, Fannie Mae has paid $167.3 billion in dividends to the Treasury.

And, as an added bonus, his people like him. Among chief executives in the United States rated by their employees, Mayopoulos received a 92% approval rating from full-time and part-time employees. Of the 700,000 companies reviewed on Glassdoor, the average CEO approval rating is only 67%.

Interestingly, in employee comments on Glassdoor, some describe the environment of working as Fannie Mae as one of constant learning of new software products.

These employees list this as both a pro and a con. Mayopoulos can be credited for this state of flux.

“Fannie Mae is now faster, more efficient and less risky,” in part because of these constant improvements, he said. And while he started in law, the tech bug certainly has him now; he believes his next step is to remain in financial services at an automation-forward fintech firm.

MOVING ON On an early August morning, Mayopoulos, and Chief Financial Officer David Benson gathered in a room to call investors. Just like in quarters past, Mayopoulos took the lead role, with Benson providing support and answers for more technical, financial questions. It could be the last time for Mayopoulos, but Benson was remarkably relaxed. And he should be. He’s about to become president of a company on firm footing.

“Fannie Mae reported one of its best quarters in the last three years [that] morning,” said Jim Vogel, a strategist for FTN Financial who publishes regular reports on Fannie Mae. “Second quarter net income reached $4.5 billion, also the results for comprehensive income as well. Pre-tax figures confirm the improved performance before incorporating a lower tax rate.”

But there’s a catch, Vogel mentioned: “As FNMA was already above the $3 billion equity level in the first quarter, it will send Treasury a check for the entire amount of comprehensive income at the end of this quarter.”

Such is life under the yoke of the Federal

“

“

We continue to listen and learn from our many customers who have signed up for one or more of our Day 1 Certainty services, and we are using that feedback to make the mortgage process faster, less expensive and easier for everyone.

- Timothy Mayopoulos Housing Finance Agency, the regulator in charge of Fannie, as well as Freddie Mac. All profits get funneled back to the federal government and, though this quarter marked a profitability milestone, as Vogel mentioned, no one really took note; we are all used to Fannie Mae performing well, at this point, which is pretty impressive, if under reported.

For example, mortgage rates climbed higher the same week Fannie reported its great quarter, reaching its fourth highest level of 2018, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market survey.

Add this to mortgage apps that are largely stalled and there are big economic problems at play.

“The higher rate environment, coupled with the ongoing lack of affordable inventory, has led to a drag on existing-home sales in the last few months,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said. “The Federal Reserve passed on raising shortterm rates, but with the embers of a strong economy potentially stoking higher inflation, borrowing costs will likely modestly rise in coming months.”

At a two-day meeting that ended the same week Fannie reported its second quarter earnings, the Fed voted unanimously to keep its benchmark federal-funds rate in a range of 1.75% and 2%.

In a statement, the Fed noted that job gains and economic activity have been “strong.”

“The FOMC expects that further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will be consistent with sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the committee’s symmetric 2% objective over the medium term,” the Fed said.

Regardless of current, challenging market conditions, Mayopoulos is not concerned about the health of Fannie Mae with his departure looming, as he puts it, “mortgage lending will normalize in time.”

“A lot of factors are beyond our control,” he said. Mayopoulos bemoans the lack of supply for potential homebuyers and be-

lieves that solutions will not be an easy fix.

Current homeowners are living more conservatively, he noted, and not as pressed to move up the property ladder. Further, more and more seniors need to be allowed to age in place, which will not ease the supply burden, either.

Furthermore, the rising costs of labor, materials and land itself is preventing construction from moving forward meaningfully. Plus, he sees more localities intervening and trying to prevent new neighborhoods from being built. “Entry-level is dead,” as he put it.

Fannie Mae veteran Benson will become president, giving him control over the dayto-day business operations.

Benson has been with Fannie Mae for 16 years, including five years as executive vice president and chief financial officer. The search for the new CEO is now underway.

As part of the leadership shake-up, Celeste Brown will replace Benson as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Brown joined Fannie Mae a year ago after 18 years at Morgan Stanley, where she worked as an equity analyst, head of investor relations and global treasurer.

“We’re going to miss Tim,” Benson told me recently, in the run-up to Mayopolous’ departure. “He’s still here, so we haven’t felt it, but it’s coming.”

Benson is ready and willing to take on a larger role.

“We’ve all personally worked with the officer core, we collectively work on the strong vision of Fannie Mae and have momentum around our strategy and can handle the evolutions that come through the markets.”

“But, we going to miss him for sure,” Benson concluded.

“Fannie Mae is better now in so many different ways,” Mayopolous adds, after taking a moment of reflection. “It’s in a position of greater humility. I’m leaving the company in better shape than I found it.”

We couldn’t have asked for anything more.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 31

2018

2018

AWARD PROGRAM

AWARD PROGRAM

32 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

WINNERS Justin Alexander, First American Mortgage Solutions....................... 34

David Kressel, NotaryCam..........................................................................41

Christina Bartning, National MI................................................................ 35

Max Lamb, Qualia.........................................................................................41

Louann Bernstone, FormFree................................................................... 35

Marlene Light, United Wholesale Mortgage......................................... 42

Lisa Birmingham, LBA Ware..................................................................... 35

Scott Little, CoreLogic................................................................................. 42

Toni Bright, CoesterVMS.............................................................................36

Xing Liu, NewDay USA................................................................................ 42

Jill Cadwell, Radian.....................................................................................36

David McCormick, Radian.......................................................................... 43

Charlotte Catalfo, Freddie Mac................................................................36

Carl McLaughlin, Freddie Mac................................................................... 43

Brittany Christerson, London Computer Systems................................37

Bernard Nossuli, iEmergent....................................................................... 43

Denisse De Los Reyes, ServiceLink...........................................................37

David O’Connor, Radius Financial Group...............................................44

Shannon Faries, Land Gorilla.....................................................................37

Michael “Mo” Oursler, NewDay USA........................................................44

Aravinda Gollapudi, Ellie Mae..................................................................38

Beth Ozenghar, Transformational Mortgage Solutions.....................44

Dan Graham, PeerStreet............................................................................38

Jennifer Rand, Amrock...............................................................................45

Tobias Griffith, IDS.......................................................................................38

Eric Rawlings, Digital Risk..........................................................................45

Jami Haddad, PrimeLending.....................................................................39

Kristi Schleicher, TMS.................................................................................45

Kimberly Hartsough, PrimeLending.......................................................39

Stephen Schwartz, Fannie Mae...............................................................46

Michael Holmes, Class Appraisal.............................................................39

Steven Sinn, Mortgage Quality Management and Research ...........46

Phil Huff, Altisource.....................................................................................40

Walter Skrzynski, Auction.com.................................................................46

Art Johnson, Fannie Mae...........................................................................40

Henry Smith, NotaryCam........................................................................... 47

Jim Jumpe, Arch Mortgage Insurance.....................................................40

Jennifer Ward, PrimeLending.................................................................... 47

Adam Krause, Ellie Mae...............................................................................41

Adam Wolfe, United Wholesale Mortgage........................................... 47 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 33

2018

The Ultimate Insiders AWARD PROGRAM

Two years ago, when we began the HousingWire

editorial board carefully selected each of these

Insiders award, we sought to recognize the unsung 40 professionals for their spirited and dynamic heroes of the mortgage finance industry.

contributions to their companies.

Who are the Insiders? They are the go-to team

The job titles of the Insider nominees were

members and those who get the job done, willingly

considerably less important to our editorial

and no matter how big the challenge.

selection committee than their job performance and

This award celebrates those in the mortgage accomplishments. finance and housing industry not usually seen. Our

Read on to see who made our list.

Justin Alexander

Senior Director of Product Management First American Mortgage Solutions

“

With close to 20 years of experience in real estate valuation, and strong people and leadership skills, Justin Alexander has the unique ability to connect and serve all participants in the valuation segment.”

In the last year, Justin Alexander led the product team that built a new process for the company’s Smarter Valuation offering and was instrumental in the enhancement and adoption of ACI Sky, a cloud-based appraisal platform that aims to improve the way appraisal reports are created.

Alexander has a unique perspective that allows him to relate to different stakeholders, including appraisers, lenders, AMCs and investors.

In fact, since joining First American Mortgage Solutions, he has collaborated with internal and external stakeholders to create and execute a product strategy that enhanced the company’s valuation-related businesses, including ACI, appraisal management, automated fraud and collateral risk products.

Alexander’s strong leadership skills, combined with his industry knowledge, are earning him a reputation in the industry as a connector and collaborator who is committed to advancing and improving valuations.

Furthermore, Alexander personifies First American’s “people-first” culture, which is demonstrated in his ability to build effective, lasting and trusted relationships.

34 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Louann Bernstone Head of Risk and Compliance FormFree

“

Louann Bernstone is an unsung hero whose contributions to FormFree and the company’s many partners and customers cannot be overstated.”

Christina Bartning

Vice President of Marketing and Client Solutions National MI

“

There is a reason why Christina is the hub of communication at National MI—she demonstrates excellence in everything she does.”

National MI attributes its success to Christina Bartning’s passion and commitment to excellence. After all, the company has grown from a startup to a successful provider of mortgage insurance in only six years.

As vice president of marketing and client solutions, Bartning has led National MI’s media and PR efforts, advised executives on high level strategic initiatives and helped plan and roll out new product launches.

Bartning, who is an energetic and articulate communicator, was central to the launch of the mortgage insurance provider’s new risk-based pricing platform, Rate GPSSM. As a driving force behind National MI’s corporate messaging and media outreach, Bartning’s led a public relations campaign marking the five-year anniversary of National MI’s entry on the NASDAQ Index. She also oversaw the Boston Women’s Mortgage Leadership Roundtable, where female mortgage industry leaders discussed the importance of building effective mentoring relationships.

As head of risk and compliance at FormFree, Louann Bernstone oversees all matters relating to compliance, vendor management and enterprise risk for the asset verification technology provider.

Bernstone has played a key role in forging strategic partnerships with regulators and GSEs, as well as strengthening its risk management procedures and restructuring HR function at a time when the company is growing and adapting to the many changes happening in the marketplace. Her oversight has been critical to the successful completion of several milestones in the last year, including introducing the industry’s first report combining income, asset and employment verification for Fannie Mae’s Single Source Validation pilot, as well as the VA’s certification that FormFree’s AccountChek service meets underwriting guidelines for VA loans.

Bernstone brings decades of leadership experience to the company. She previously worked as a business control executive at Bank of America, as well as lead risk manager for HOPE LoanPortal, a tech-based nonprofit established during the housing crisis to assist struggling homeowners.

Lisa Birmingham DevOps Manager LBA Ware

“

A development guru of the highest caliber, Lisa Birmingham has lent her considerable talents to LBA Ware to drive product enhancements and increase system adoption in less than two years.”

Since joining LBA Ware, DevOps Manager Lisa Birmingham has made her presence known in a big way. Not only has she increased the number of subscribers to the company’s integration platform LOS Talker by 245%, she led the initiative to rewrite the system’s code, which reduced implementation time from 9 to 10 weeks to just a few days.

Additionally, Birmingham led the team in the design and implementation of a new LOS integration that provided LBA Ware with additional subscriber opportunities. She also implemented a new logging procedure for integration support issues, enabling LBA Ware to be proactive instead of reactive in providing integration support.

In addition to her development contributions, Birmingham is involved in LBA Ware’s internal operations, serving as a member of the company’s SOC and vendor management committees and its disaster recovery team. She also serves as the company-wide resource on LOS functionality and provides training to all LBA Ware staff members on the various LOSs that integrate with LBA Ware’s platforms.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 35

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Jill Cadwell

Senior Vice President of Title Services Radian

“

Jill Cadwell is Radian’s newest fearless, forward-thinking executive leader who takes great pride in her industry and team.

With more than 30 years of title experience, Jill is ready to disrupt the title business with new and innovative technology platforms, catering to both consumers and lenders.”

Toni Bright

Chief Compliance Officer CoesterVMS

“

Toni Bright is the backbone of CoesterVMS. She not only helps steer everyone in the right direction, but she tackles any and all tasks that need to be handled head-on and with 100% effort. If you want it done right, run it by Bright!”

Chief Compliance Officer Toni Bright knows everything there is to know about compliance in the industry, and ensures CoesterVMS maintains it to a T. She may not be the person at the front of the house, but without her and the important role she plays, CoesterVMS explained it would not be the company it is today.

Aside from the wide variety of tasks she is responsible for on a regular basis including state licensing and renewals, regulatory exams, privacy, quality control, fraud, consumer complaints, pending legislation, TILA, RESPA and GLB, she also temporarily took over the company’s HR department while CoesterVMS underwent some transitions, without a single delay or hiccup along the way. Bright regularly ensures that the company remains in compliance with federal, state, and territorial guidelines. She not only helped establish the company’s core values, but is the main enforcer of them as well.

36 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

As the senior vice president of title services at Radian, Jill Cadwell is working to change the face of the title industry. Cadwell, a new face at the company, holds 30 years of experience in the national title and close market and is expected to make noticeable changes to the title services Radian has to offer in the years to come.

Since joining Radian in March, Cadwell has assisted in furthering the company’s drive towards a “one company” model, focusing strongly on title technology platforms. Cadwell has also been responsible for building a digital strategy to accommodate both lenders and customers that continues to make Radian a pioneer in the industry.

Cadwell is described as a hard, driven and fair leader by her co-workers. Not only is she a “team cheerleader,” but she understands that individuals of all levels in a company are the fuel to a business and they have thoughts, ideas and opinions that need to, and should be, appreciated.

Charlotte Catalfo

Senior Vice President, Enterprise Operations Freddie Mac

“

Charlotte consistently exemplifies the core values of Freddie Mac. She fosters an environment of accountability, continuous improvement and collaboration to accomplish our mission.”

Charlotte Catalfo is the powerhouse behind Freddie Mac’s Enterprise Operations department, where she provides leadership and dictates strategy for the development and implementation of technology capabilities as well as the use of information assets within the organization.

Her 30 years of industry experience have been invaluable in forging Freddie Mac into a well-oiled machine. Catalfo is responsible for much of the efficiency and efficacy of Freddie Mac’s operations. In a short amount of time, she was able to pull together a team and eliminate or retool deadweight programs at Freddie Mac. Catalfo understands that change does not happen overnight. To create sustainable change at Freddie Mac, she took a tactful and cautious approach. She and her team employ a deft touch when it comes to initiating change, which has proven to be quite effective. Ever committed to the pursuit of excellence, Catalfo dedicates considerable time to mentoring rising female leaders at Freddie Mac, helping them plug into the industry and excel in their fields.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Denisse De Los Reyes

Vice President, Pre-Foreclosure Title Services ServiceLink

“

Denisse takes a proactive approach to working together as one team to meet our client’s needs – embodying our serve first culture. She fosters internal and external relationships by jumping in and doing whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Brittany Christerson Director of Sales and Marketing London Computer Systems

“

Brittany’s motivation each day is to serve industry professionals by providing business critical solutions to make their work lives easier and more productive.”

As Director of Sales and Marketing at London Computer Systems, Brittany Christerson has been netting never-before-seen revenues for her company, consistently boosting revenue by 16% to 20% every year.

Christerson joined LCS in 2009 as a sales representative for the Rent Manager propert y management software. At the same time, she was pursuing a master’s degree in early childhood education. Thanks to a tenacious, go-getter work ethic, Christerson was promoted to sales manager in 2012. During her time in that role, she drove impressive sales figures by restructuring her team and their processes for optimal performance while creating six new sales positions and hiring 15 additional employees.

Reaching beyond her departments, Christerson’s hard work and savvy are forces felt in every corner of the company, and as one of its leaders, she is setting the pace for the pursuit of excellence at London Computer Systems.

Denisse De Los Reyes started her career at ServiceLink in 2013 and has since proven her excellence every day, by adapting and excelling in various departments at the company.

Currently, De Los Reyes serves as the vice president of pre-foreclosure title operations. In this position, she has improved product workflows and implemented practices that ensure ServiceLink’s relationship and performance remains strong across the board for all clients.

De Los Reyes has also been instrumental in building a national default title endto-end process by recycling title products, reducing foreclosure timelines and ultimately reducing cost to clients.

For many of ServiceLink employees, De Los Reyes has been a mentor, inspiring her fellow workmates to grow and strive for operational excellence. She is an invaluable member of the ServiceLink leadership team and the company looks forward to seeing her future contributions.

Shannon Faries

Director of Risk Management Land Gorilla

“

Shannon Faries embodies trust and innovative thinking that have enabled Land Gorilla to be the leading technology for CTP loan management.”

With 40+ years of experience in the mortgage industry, Shannon Faries understands project stakeholders’ troubles in effectively manage construction loans. He uses this perspective to benefit Land Gorilla customers in everything the company does– from product development to ongoing customer success.

Thanks to Faries’ contributions, Land Gorilla is now the top software solution for construction loan management, and 9 of the top 10 lending agencies use the company’s CLM platform.

Faries has infused his industry knowledge into a tech solution for construction lenders to have the consistency, controls, and best practices they need to be successful.

This year, he worked with the USDA to construct and successfully launch the USDA Single-Family Construction-to-Permanent Loan Pilot Program, a first of its kind program that gives lenders a new option to immediately pool the loan into a Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed security at closing. The guidelines also enable more lenders to meet program qualification requirements to help overcome the severe lack of housing inventory.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 37

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Dan Graham

Head of Portfolio Management PeerStreet

“

Dan is the Cool Hand Luke of our organization. You’ve heard of people who are all hat and no cattle? Dan’s the opposite of that. He manages the teams that get it done for PeerStreet day in and day out to hit record month after record month, all while keeping quality in check and handling situations before they become problems.”

Aravinda Gollapudi Vice President of Engineering Ellie Mae

“

While leading Consumer Connect, Aravinda has demonstrated unwavering focus on customer success and transforming borrower experiences.”

Aravinda Gollapudi leads Ellie Mae’s engineering team responsible for building and delivering Encompass Consumer Connect. Since joining Ellie Mae in 2016, she has driven development of critical products, including Consumer Connect, which serves as the digital front-end for home buyers to interact with their lenders.

Gollapudi and her team built it into a solution for lenders to provide borrowers with compelling, personalized digital experiences. Demonstrating dedication and focus in the presence of challenging demands, Gollapudi delivered on aggressive roadmap demands across multiple teams while focusing on customer success and working with individual customers during implementation and rollout.

Not only is Gallapudi a “tremendous champion of engineering and operational excellence,” as Ellie Mae puts it, she serves as a role model for women in tech, advocating for them by leading the EMerge Women’s Leadership Group, which provides training and support for women across Ellie Mae. 38 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

As one of the founders of PeerStreet, Dan Graham has demonstrated excellence at all levels from designing processes to building his teams.

Graham has been a driving force in supporting and nurturing PeerStreet’s talented real estate team by retaining an impressive majority of his team year over year and almost entirely promoting from within.

Graham oversees over 30 staff members in underwriting, loan quality control, servicing, asset management and real estate operations. Under Dan’s leadership, PeerStreet’s investors have suffered zero principal loss to date.

Graham’s track record speaks for itself, his team has underwritten thousands of loans and done over a billion in volume in a few short years. His analyst team executes over one hundred loans per month in a variety of loan strategies, including fix and flip, buy to rent, fix to rent, refinance, and bridge.

Tobias Griffith Implementation Expert IDS

“

Tobias Griffith is IDS’s secret weapon in ensuring implementation for new clients is as seamless as possible.”

As part of the IDS implementation team, Tobias Griffith is the primary agent for ensuring new clients have a smooth and positive on-boarding experience. Griffith walks IDS clients through product implementation, which at times can be tricky.

Many of the company’s larger clients that often face a more complex implementation process due to the multiple products they offer. Griffith uses his responsiveness, coding abilities, problem-solving acumen and customer service skills to ensure the clients have a smooth implementation.

Griffith assists new clients in taking advantage of the numerous customization options available, such as setting up company-specific fields and data templates to make the client’s process more efficient.

Griffith also often plays mediator between the compliance departments at IDS and lenders to ensure information flows smoothly between the two departments and that idsDoc is configured to meet the client’s individual compliance needs.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Kimberly Hartsough

Senior Vice President, National Production Operations Manager PrimeLending

“

Through her tireless efforts to develop her team, Kimberly has created an environment in which operations employees can achieve their full professional potential and feel valued and appreciated along the way.”

Jami Haddad

SVP, National Post-Closing and Audit Operations Manager PrimeLending

“

Jami Haddad proves that contrary to the adage that the best defense is a good offense... actually a great defense can be a successful offense.”

Jami Haddad, national post-closing and audit operations manager at PrimeLending, ensures lenders can sleep at night after a long day of closing loans.

Haddad and her team’s attention to detail and expertise in compliance have saved more than 1,400 originators time and money on at least 60,000 transactions over the last year.

She has more than 18 years of experience in the mortgage banking industry, with over 14 years at PrimeLending. Haddad began as a branch production team lead, managing six loan officers. That team continued to grow and shortly thereafter she became the production manager for a top-performing branch. At the time, the branch was the company’s third largest. Haddad didn’t stop there. Now, she manages a team of 93 employees and is responsible for protecting the bottom line of more than 300 branches in the U.S. Thanks to her relentless drive, dedication to excellence and expertise, lenders can rest easy.

Kimberly Hartsough, senior vice president, national production operations manager at PrimeLending, is just one of those people who is out to make everything and everyone around her better.

In her role, Hartsough sees every challenge as a unique opportunity to make things better and approaches her leadership role with humility and a hands-on, sleevesup mentality that sets a high bar for the rest of PrimeLending’s team to aspire to.

Hartsough is responsible for engineering one of the most comprehensive and effective operations training programs in the industry. In 2017, she partnered with PrimeLending’s award-winning training department to create a specially-designed training program, Agility, for operation team new hires. The program imbues new hires with razor sharp technical skills and PrimeLending’s “Close one more loan” culture. Hartsough’s leadership, full of verve and inspiration, has created an environment where stellar performance and professional fulfillment are hand-in-glove.

Michael Holmes Director of Client Services Class Appraisal

“

Holmes understands the gap between management and team members, he thinks of innovative ways to inspire the team to be contributors to the success of Class Appraisal.”

Director of Client Services at Class Appraisal Michael Holmes is the energy behind his department, balancing multiple projects at once while exhorting his team to new heights with his contagious commitment to team work and excellence.

A positive force in the company, he uses his influence to encourage his team to find creative solutions that promote collaboration. Holmes continues to build a team that delivers company goals while fostering a productive and empowering environment. He leads multiple projects at once and ensures strong integration throughout the process.

Holmes works vigorously to provide the client service team with all necessary tools and training required to advance their expertise.

He is always ready to coach, mentor and apply innovative effectiveness skills to the client services team. He coaches his team on developing the right mindset. He believes each team member should be engaged, energized and held accountable. They should know how to relate to one another to collaboratively achieve excellence.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 39

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Art Johnson

Director of Securitization Policy Fannie Mae

“

Art Johnson is an expert voice within the company who supports the integrity of the second most liquid securities product in the world, behind U.S. Treasuries.”

Phil Huff

Vice President of Valuations Altisource

“

Since joining in 2017, Huff’s team reduced the average turntime on appraisals by 12% while adding 38 new customers to their originations client list.”

Responsible for the growth and advancement of Altisource’s valuation business, Phil Huff had an immediate impact within the company as its vice president and head of valuations.

Huff drives development for the valuation business and has exceeded revenue targets while delivering outsized investor returns.

Huff’s focus was on diversifying the business by innovating technology, rebuilding teams and rebranding Springhouse, a full-service appraisal management company. In his first six months as VP, Huff relocated Springhouse’s headquarters from St. Louis to Plano, Texas, and led its rebrand, working closely with Altisource’s marketing team.

Huff promoted and grew his leadership team while strategically realigning resources based on priorities to reduce costs. Leading the six departments of operations, sales, client services, reporting, compliance and RentRange, Huff created an effective reporting structure by forming a senior management team and implementing weekly video conferencing.

40 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Art Johnson is Fannie Mae’s director of securitization policy, and in his role, is responsible for protecting Fannie Mae’s mortgage-backed securities. Johnson is responsible for evaluating and deciding on the types of loans that can be pooled into Fannie Mae’s MBS for its single-family and multifamily products, totaling over $3 trillion in outstanding unpaid principal balance as of April 30, 2018.

In addition, Johnson leads a team that supports Fannie Mae’s capital markets execution through assisting with disclosure, analysis and operational considerations. He also manages relationships with third-party data vendors who support the release of MBS data to institutional investors across the globe.

Johnson is an expert voice within the company who supports the integrity of the liquid securities product. He also works behind-the-scenes to provide recommendations to securitization policy. Over the last year, he worked on the Single Security initiative, a directive by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to combine both GSEs’ MBS markets into a $5 trillion market. In his role, Johnson has been instrumental in defining and communicating Single Security disclosures to the market.

Jim Jumpe

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Arch Mortgage Insurance

“

No matter the communications vehicle - email, social media, print ads or an in-person event - Jim Jumpe focuses on the company’s position as the industry leader in customer service and innovation to help lenders expand origination opportunities.”

Jim Jumpe positioned Arch Mortgage Insurance as a leader in customer service and innovation by successfully driving sales through customer communications, events, advertising and marketing campaigns.

When Arch MI acquired United Guaranty in 2017, Jumpe leveraged best practices from both companies to make the consolidated department more focused, creative and productive. Jumpe’s efforts resulted in the award-winning marketing campaign, “Together Is Better.” The campaign displayed the newly combined company’s strengths and ultimately won the Graphic Design USA Inhouse Design award.

Over the past year, Jumpe and his team launched enhancements to RateStar, a solution that provides lenders with more precise and competitive pricing.

Under Jumpe’s management Arch MI has also introduced AMGC Community Heroes, a portfolio lending MI solution that makes homes more affordable for teachers, firefighters, police officers and other essential community workers.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

David Kressel

Co-Founder and Vice President of Finance and Operations NotaryCam

“

If eNotarization represents the “last mile” on the journey to fully electronic real estate closings, NotaryCam is swiftly laying the track for that last mile — thanks largely to David Kressel.”

Adam Krause

Vice President of Technical Support Ellie Mae

“

Adam and his entire technical support team are problem solvers and focus on customer satisfaction behind the scenes.”

As the VP of technical support, Adam Krause is not only responsible for troubleshooting any issue that Ellie Mae’s lenders are experiencing to ensure that they can run their businesses efficiently and effectively, he also ensures that any issues that need attention from the product and engineering teams are brought to their attention.

As the company works to move its solutions to the cloud, Krause focused on getting his team trained and ready to support the customers as they adopt cloud technologies.

Krause has a deep knowledge of mortgage, technology and the Encompass lending platform which he uses to amplify the voice of the company’s lender customers by advocating for enhancements to improve the customer experience.

Krause championed several key initiatives around driving efficiencies in communication to bring solutions to customers. His leadership of Ellie Mae’s multiyear effort to complete its help desk institute certifications, for example, resulted in recognition including winning the HDI KnowledgeCentered Service Award in 2017.

David Kressel, co-founder and vice president of finance and operations at NotaryCam, has played an integral role in the development of the company’s industry-first capabilities, including releasing version 3 of its online, enterprise-grade platform, and expanding its footprint to serve customers nationwide and in more than 70 countries.

Kressel continues to work to keep NotaryCam at the forefront of industry innovation. In May, the company announced it completed its 100,000th remote, online notarization.

An experienced finance and investment professional, Kressel got his start as an equity analyst at Fidelity nearly 20 years ago and went on to build a successful career consulting, leading and founding several consumer apps companies. A move into real estate settlement opened his eyes to the need for modernization in the paper-based notarization industry. He co-founded NotaryCam five years ago and hasn’t looked back since.

Max Lamb

Head of Marketplace Qualia

“

Max took ownership of taking Marketplace from a never-been-done-before concept to reality. With a fastidious commitment to excellence, he worked tirelessly through the challenges and obstacles of navigating a new path to serving title companies and vendors.”

Max Lamb led the Marketplace team at Qualia in launching and developing it as a core offering. Lamb took ownership of taking Marketplace from a never-been-done-before concept to reality.

Lamb’s work resulted in Qualia delivering an innovative service that expands the market for vendors and improves workflows for title companies they support. He drove product enhancements and strengthened customer relationships by guiding user experience improvements that can be rolled out to everyone.

Lamb also works with Qualia’s vendor marketplace. He successfully nurtured this ecosystem of third-party providers who interact with Qualia in some way and provided a framework that enables them to efficiently service title companies during all phases of a real estate transaction. Lamb works to ensure the platform is useful and enables users to not just get their job done but get it done in a better way and improve their businesses.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 41

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Scott Little

Executive, Flood Solutions CoreLogic

“

Scott’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit have made a significant impact on client service and product innovation.”

Marlene Light

Vice President of Lending Support United Wholesale Mortgage

“

Marlene Light is a seasoned mortgage professional, having been in the industry for 14 years.

She is the ultimate insider.”

Marlene Light, VP of lending support at United Wholesale Mortgage, marshals 10 teams consisting of almost 250 people and ensures smooth sailing for the underwriting process.

She and her team fly under the radar, but their work is key to UWM’s success. Under her leadership, the lending support team has nearly quadrupled in size over the last 2.5 years.

At a time when the company is reaching record-setting loan volume, Lending Support is setting the tone.

In May 2018, UWM surpassed 1,000 loan submissions in a single day for the first time in its history with 1,160 submissions. Light’s team submitted each loan with unyielding efficiency.

Light’s secret sauce has been a philosophy of divide and conquer, splitting her department into different groups by specialty. One of these teams is the “SWAT”, or specialists with advanced training, team. This squad gets called in to put out complicated fires and help distribute expert knowledge across the department. It has been so successful that other departments have emulated it and created their own SWAT teams.

42 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Scott Little is an industry pioneer with more than 25 years of operations and product management experience. Throughout his 25-year career at CoreLogic, he has spearheaded the development of numerous products and led the creation of the CoreLogic Spatial Solution division.

Little began his career as an analyst, quickly scaling the ranks to a management position – leading the accounting department as well as compliance and operations groups before settling into a senior management role with the Flood Solutions team.

Little’s eyes for innovation and entrepreneurial spirit have proven beneficial to clients in his return to flood solutions. Over the past year, Little led the redesign of the company’s Flood Zone Determination monitoring service, which supports flood regulation compliance for loan originators and servicers.

Through investments in technology and research, Little led the CoreLogic Flood team to cut back the update process delivery time from 60 days down to just one.

The company’s Next-Day Notification gives servicers the ability to improve upon escrow and insurance processes, reduce exposure to uninsured losses, and improve borrower experience.

Xing Liu

Chief Risk Officer NewDay USA

“

Risk management is important for any mortgage lender, but it is especially critical for lenders that are willing to take chances on borrowers who do not fit the traditional borrower profile. NewDay is such a lender— and an extremely successful one, too— thanks largely to the hard work and expertise of Dr. Xing Liu.”

As an analytics expert, Xing Liu is responsible for managing risk and setting guidelines for mortgage lender NewDay USA. Liu oversees all NewDay’s risk management, underwriting and analytical modeling efforts. Liu has a long track record of creating, developing and implementing risk decisions in highly regulated business environments.

He held a variety of research and managerial positions across different industries.

In addition to his role managing risk, he also applied his analytical skills to develop marketing platforms and tools that enable NewDay to increase production while maintaining compliance with a number of guidelines and regulations. By creating all NewDay’s manual underwriting standards for analyzing credit risk and ensuring the company’s sales teams have marketing materials and a steady flow of borrower leads, the company explained Liu is an indispensable part of its success.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Carl McLaughlin

VP of Multifamily Operations, Loan Servicing Freddie Mac

“

Carl is a core part of our commitment to innovation, using his substantive knowledge to create new products and offerings that are transforming the multifamily market and bringing affordability to renters nationwide.”

David McCormick

Senior Vice President of Enhanced Sales Radian

“

Dave McCormick is a team player who continuously motivates everyone at Radian with his positive, can-do attitude.”

David McCormick has been instrumental in demonstrating Radian’s core mortgage insurance business by balancing a traditional field sales presence with a high quality centralized inside sales function provides a more cost-effective, yet productive means of supporting customer needs.

He spent the past year introducing the same customer sales coverage model to Radian’s other product lines including title and valuation products. His help in creating an integrated sales team attracted and retained candidates with significant industry experience. Radian explained McCormick’s work is critical, since it is the company’s employees who ultimately differentiate it and add value to its customers.

McCormick is a team player who continuously motivates everyone at Radian with his positive, can-do attitude. His responsibilities as senior vice president of enhanced sales mean he must always be thinking of every aspect of Radian’s business and how it can support its customers.

Carl McLaughlin, Freddie Mac’s VP of multifamily operations, loan servicing, is one of the main reasons the government-sponsored enterprise is the largest multifamily financier. He drives servicing operations and loan administration – an oft-overlooked job essential to the success of its multifamily operations. In the last year, McLaughlin played a key role in delivering new multifamily financing innovations like the KT Certificates and K-SKY Certificates.

A trailblazer and a risk transfer wizard, McLaughlin delivers in the complicated and the unknown, setting vision, breaking down complicated processes and orchestrating strategic solutions for tough problems. He is out for the betterment of his team, mentoring his team members and helping them discover tools and strategies to take their performance to the next level. At Freddie Mac, McLaughlin exemplifies inclusion, vision and sleeves-rolled-up leadership. His commitment to innovation calls the entire company up in that department and his substantive knowledge makes the creation of market altering products that promote affordability possible.

Bernard Nossuli Chief Operating Officer iEmergent

“

Bernard is essential to the success of our company and our clients. Not only does he ensure that our analytics and tools are accurate and innovative, he is dedicated to providing exceptional support to our clients.

He is the behind-the-scenes leader we can’t live without.”

From building and executing its client management program to providing advisory support to each client, iEmergent Chief Operating Officer Bernard Nossuli makes certain that the company exceeds expectations. Dedicated to continuously improving the quality of the company’s data, Nossuli is the mastermind behind its most successful decision tools.

The company emphasized the importance of his commitment to moving iEmergent’s goals and ideas forward – through building industry partnerships and writing its marketing content to executing its growth strategies. One of iEmergent’s initial employees, Nossuli was hired as an analyst, but ended up creating the models that were the foundation of the insight the company currently delivers to lenders. The company explained that he continues to show the same fearless, intellectual curiosity that is at the core of what it does. As a leader at iEmergent, his listening and organizational skills, humility and openness to hard work improve every person, program and relationship.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 43

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Michael “Mo” Oursler Chief Credit Officer NewDay USA

“

From his natural leadership skills, to helping dozens of mortgage professionals achieve the most advanced underwriting abilities, and for his commitment to serving American veterans, Mo has become an incredible asset to his organization.”

David O’Connor Chief Technology Officer radius financial group

“

Some of O’Connor’s accomplishments include his work in automated document classification and indexing.”

As chief technology officer at radius, David O’Connor boasts several attributions to the company’s success.

Some of O’Connor’s accomplishments include his work in automated document classification and indexing. His work allows consumers to upload required documents to the company’s application portal.

O’Connor also automated document data extraction through artificial intelligence and machine learning. During the classification process as the documents are being read they will extract certain data points and return those data values to radius’ LOS, where its staff can compare data on the 1003 with supporting documents much quicker.

O’Connor works closely with the finance team to extract detailed costs associated with the loan process.

With loan level detail, radius plans to incorporate time spent working on the loan per staff member, factoring in their role and cost of their time.

The result will provide insight to the exact cost of each loan, allowing the company to make decisions on pricing based on higher cost loan products.

44 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Chief Credit Officer Mo Oursler is the architect of NewDay USA’s accelerated underwriting program, a series of fast-track career training courses that enables young mortgage professionals to earn the MBA’s Certified Residential Underwriter Designation, a specialized designation that demonstrates mastery of the specific skills needed to underwrite residential mortgages.

Since launching the program, six NewDay USA employees have graduated and there are another 32 set to graduate in the next 12 months. In December, NewDay USA posted a 61% increase in revenue over the past three years, an accomplishment company officials credit to Oursler’s leadership, training and underwriting expertise.

Since joining NewDay in 2012 as a mortgage processor, Oursler rose quickly through the company’s ranks – first as VP of processing, then VP of secondary marketing and vice president of underwriting, where he managed a team of 40 underwriters.

Beth Ozenghar

President and COO Transformational Mortgage Solutions

“

Beth Ozenghar’s soup-to-nuts operational mortgage lending expertise, paired with her process improvement hawk-eye has proven indispensable to TMS’ mortgage consultancy, helping elevate the mortgage industry ‘one lender at a time.’”

President and COO of Transformational Mortgage Solutions Beth Ozenghar has been elevating the mortgage industry one lender at a time.

Unafraid of the low-volume, profitability-challenged cycle, Ozenghar has been a proponent of lean and efficient operations before investing in expensive tech solutions.

While at TMS, she has been taking the status quo to task, spearheading lender workflow optimization, streamlining onboarding processes, and helping lenders understand their operations at record speed. Her ability to deftly navigate the realm of constructive criticism is invaluable and has made her a power player in the industry. She takes a people-centric approach to optimization, armed with the knowledge that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all lending model.

Last year, Ozenghar was able to guide an Oregon-based credit union lender to shave 12 days from its closing times by helping them to leverage their investment in the Encompass LOS and increase the amount of performance data it had on its staff.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Eric Rawlings

Chief Technology Officer Digital Risk

“

Eric is a proactive, enthusiastic leader who truly believes in the power of technology and data to improve the lending process for consumers and industry participants alike.”

Eric Rawlings and his team are the architectural backbone and security for Digital Risk’s mortgage services, configurable technology and busi-

Jennifer Rand

Vice President of Marketing Amrock

“

Jen is the embodiment of our core values, inspiring her team members to succeed by nurturing their strengths and creating an inclusive environment where creativity, productivity and innovation thrive.”

As VP of marketing at Amrock, Jennifer Rand has led the company’s rebranding and led the growth of her department. Over eight years, Rand has grown the marketing team from zero people in 2010 to 30 people today and completely restructured the department into channels dedicated to supporting different areas of the business.

In 2017, Amrock underwent a complete rebrand to reflect its growth.

This meant retooling the company’s existing reputation as Title Source and a revamp of mentality for the company. Thanks to Rand’s leadership, Amrock was able to pull off the rebrand successfully. The results of this restructure have greatly benefited the business. Team members are able to deliver specific, goal-driven marketing material to the business areas they serve. Rand has also introduced project management systems and twice-weekly reviews to help the marketing department create the best possible material for the company.

ness operations.

Rawlings and his innovative team customize solutions to fit the needs of clients in the financial services and lending space. Particularly, Rawlings ensured that legacy client systems seamlessly interact with newer front-end solutions to deliver hyper personalized borrower and loan officer technologies.

One of Rawlings’ most important accomplishments involved the creation and rollout of Luminate, which is a machine learning-based document processing platform that leverages both structured and unstructured data analysis to identify hundreds of mortgage documents, extract several thousand data fields from these documents and then automate any number of hundreds of human driven manual processes within loan manufacturing.

He also played a vital role in bringing together the technology of the company’s digital mortgage platform, LoanFx, with Black Knight’s Loansphere Empower loan origination system.

Kristi Schleicher

Vice President of Customer Experience TMS

“

As the leader of our customer experience team, Kristi has the unique ability to put customers at ease, bestowing great knowledge and education, and demonstrating that she sees them as more than a loan.”

Kristi Schleicher has been a magnet for not only making people fall in love with TMS but making them feel like they a part of the family.

Schleicher has been responsible for turning positive and negative callers into some of TMS’ biggest fans.

As an expert in resolving issues, Schleicher handles escalation calls, answers borrower emails, tracks complaints, reviews databases and responds to all borrower comments in a timely manner on all of TMS’ social media platforms.

Over the last year, Schleicher, who has been with TMS for 10 years, has built the foundation of her growing department by developing policies and procedures and coordinating training sessions to ensure TMS’s service team delivers its promise of “rock solid” service. Her role includes making sure she, and the company, live these values internally and externally. From diligently helping TMS be a top lender and workplace, to being a steady point of contact for its customers.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 45

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Steven Sinn

Director of Administration Mortgage Quality Management and Research

“

Risk mitigation is at the core of MQMR’s service offerings, and what MQMR does for lenders, Steven Sinn does for MQMR.”

Stephen Schwartz Director of Economics Fannie Mae

“

Stephen Schwartz is a strong, thoughtful and innovative leader whose fingerprints are visible on our key business results and our high performing teams, Stephen is a true Insider.”

Stephen Schwartz’s leadership and encouragement of team members has led to the development of a work family that allows for career progression as people demonstrate continuous technical improvement and intellectual curiosity, as well as individual professional development plans.

Schwartz commands a tremendous amount of respect throughout the organization and is regularly called upon to provide his perspectives on a variety of strategic topics across the Fannie Mae’s enterprise.

Schwartz has transformed Fannie Mae’s credit analytics and has led an intensive, two-month, biannual data science training program on the “tools of the analytics trade,” which has reached dozens of new single-family, finance and enterprise risk employees.

His work has helped Fannie Mae’s loan quality center enforce eligibility, ensuring accuracy for all loss mitigation activities including credit enhancement and property sales post-foreclosure.

46 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Steven Si n n, who ser ve s a s d i re ctor of Ad m inist rat ion for Mor tgage Qua lit y Management and Research, utilizes his 40+ years of industry experience to help the company achieve its growth objectives by keeping his fingers on the pulse of all aspects of the organization and jumping in as needed to fulfill a variety of roles.

Sinn, known as MQMR’s jack of all trades, played an integral role in restructuring MQMR’s internal audit department to streamline the process workflow and reduce the time it took to complete client engagement. Sinn also served as interim manager of the department during the transition.

In addition to improving the company’s client-facing operations, Sinn also works to ensure MQMR’s back-office runs just as smoothly.

Whether it is boosting the company’s insurance coverage, making additional IT infrastructure enhancements to improve uptime or conducting office lease negotiations, Sinn’s top focus is ensuring the health, longevity and success of MQMR.

Walter Skrzynski

Executive Vice President at Auction.com Auction.com

“

Walter has been leading groundbreaking efforts in the sale of real estate for almost 20 years -- and shows no signs of slowing on passion and creativity.”

Walter Skrzynski isn’t one to rest on his laurels.

His team, which runs Auction.com’s online bidding strategy, works with client management to develop pricing strategies, identify bidding behaviors and manage the bidding process.

Skrzynski continuously pushes himself and the Auction.com enterprise to do better, think smarter, and go beyond to create a best-in-service, best-in-performance culture.

He has been with the company since the beginning and today, just about everything Auction.com has accomplished was touched by Skrzynski in some degree, his nominator wrote.

No longer involved with day-to-day operations, Skrzynski instead uses his auction acumen as a company strategist to create new initiatives, such as the company’s live auction interact event, where sellers review offers and make decisions in real-time, and programs such as Build Your Own Bulk, which lets investors buy in bulk on the platform with only one buyer’s premium fee. His team also created and manages the new online bidding process for third party sales in Ohio, replacing the traditional in-person auction.

2018 AWARD PROGRAM

Jennifer Ward

SVP, National Closing Manager PrimeLending

“

With her uncanny ability to “make it work,” Jennifer is PrimeLending’s Tim Gunn. She and her team are responsible for ensuring the hard work loan originators put into turning leads into lock loans pays off when these same loans close and fund.”

Henry Smith

Director of Notary Operations NotaryCam

“

He has been a driving force behind NotaryCam’s growth and success, helping NotaryCam grow 100-fold to serve customers in all 50 U.S. states and over 70 international countries.”

W hen Henr y Smith joined NotaryCam in 2012 it was still a division of Settleware Secure Services.

At the time, NotaryCam was a typical nine-to-five operation, growing at a rate of just 50 new users per month.

Smith was promoted to director of notary operations when he joined NotaryCam full-time in 2015. Ever since, he has been a driving force behind NotaryCam’s growth.

Customer service excellence is one of NotaryCam’s defining values and key differentiators. The company maintains a 99.8% customer satisfaction rating. This outstanding quality and consistency starts with Smith. In August 2014, Smith founded NotaryCam Academy, the company’s formal program for training, graduating and onboarding professionally certified eNotaries. He continues to oversee the academy’s curriculum and operations and since its launch, NotaryCam Academy has graduated dozens of eNotaries — all of whom report to Smith, who manages their ongoing performance.

Known at PrimeLending as its “unofficial Tim Gunn,” Jennifer Ward is a make-it-work person. No matter what is thrown at her, she finds a way to close. In her role as national closing and funding manager PrimeLending, she is responsible for ensuring all loans close and fund accurately, efficiently and on time. No small feat given the sheer number of transactions that pass through her and her team’s hands in the course of a year.

Last year, Ward’s team was responsible for closing more than 60,000 loans, understanding and utilizing more than 400 mortgage products (and thousands of variable options) and supporting more than 1,400 LOs throughout the country.

Her secret to running such a well-oiled loan producing machine? Clear expectations and lots of communication. Ward has established the training regimen and processes necessary to eliminate gray areas and confusion in loan production, ensuring maximum performance from her team. Thanks to her leadership, her team boasts an 85% pull-thru rate of locked to funded loans and a 96% customer satisfaction rating.

Adam Wolfe

Vice President, Deputy General Counsel United Wholesale Mortgage

“

With an eye on protecting the company and fostering relationships that will help propel UWM’s future growth, Adam is equal parts guardian and game-changer.”

Adam Wolfe touches all areas of United Whole Sale mortgage, as overseer of litigation and contrasts he ensures deals cross the finish line.

Wolfe’s background as a loan officer has provided him with a broad understanding of the mortgage business. His familiarity with the loan process coupled with his legal acumen makes him an integral part of UWM’s leadership team.

Wolfe is responsible for managing relationships with critical outside vendors and working to bring new technology and advancements to both UWM and the mortgage broker community.

In fact, within the last year Wolfe has negotiated agreements with eight of UWM’s largest 10 vendors.

Notably, under Wolfe’s leadership, UWM was able to become the first mortgage lender in the nation to offer a virtual eClosing experience. This ground-breaking remote eClose technology allows borrowers to complete a full mortgage transaction without ever leaving home.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 47

Get more Get more insights Get more referrals Get more proďŹ ts Get more results Get more beneďŹ ts Get more customers Get more mo market share A summit to bring marketers of all experiences into the same space to build relationships, identify best practices, and gain the necessary knowledge to execute a successful marketing strategy.

September 13-14, 2018 Dallas, TX CHECK OUT WHERE YOU CAN GET MORE! Engage.HousingWire.com

Mortgage

Tech Product Showcase

Black Knight 50 CoreLogic 51 DocMagic 52 Docutech 53 Ellie Mae 54 Ephesoft 55 Factom 56 First American 57 FirstClose 58 Genworth 59 Land Gorilla 60 LoanScorecard 61 Mortgage Cadence 62 Pavaso 63 PromonTech 64 RES.NET 65 SimpleNexus 66 Speedpay 67 Sutherland Global 68 TMS 69

a Web: www.BlackKnightInc.com

SPONSORED CONTENT

Black Knight introduces AIVA, a virtual assistant for mortgage lenders

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

The solution uses artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to reduce expenses and relieve staff from repetitive tasks AS A TRUSTED BUSINESS PARTNER, Black

Service: AIVA

SNAPSHOT: The AIVA platform is Black Knight’s virtual assistant for mortgage and home equity lenders. AIVA combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to perform certain mortgage functions more quickly and accurately than traditional methods.

AIVA helps lenders verify income, assets and insurance coverage in minutes, compared to the hours-long, error-prone manual verification process.

Knight is continuously looking for ways to help its clients overcome their most critical business challenges. With the recent acquisition of HeavyWater, Black Knight now offers artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities specific to the mortgage industry.

AIVA is a state-of-the-art AI/ML virtual assistant that can help lenders accelerate their processes, reduce expenses and allow staff to be reassigned from repetitive tasks to focus on projects that are more strategic to a company’s success. Available as a standalone assistant, or integrated with a loan origination or servicing system, AIVA has the power to deliver greater automation and efficiency to the origination process.

AIVA will be available with Black Knight’s enterprise loan origination system (LOS): Empower. Empower supports reta i l, con su mer d i rect, wholesa le and home equity lending channels by delivering comprehensive functionality to electronically capture and process data for every facet of the loan origination process.

AIVA can read, comprehend and draw conclusions based on content and context to take on “stare-and-compare” responsibilities from today’s mortgage professionals. With AIVA, lenders will experience cutting-edge processing with human reinforcement to accelerate processes, reduce expenses and relieve staff from repetitive daily tasks.

As AIVA gains more knowledge and as manual routines are integrated for automation, lenders will be able to shift their focus toward next-level projects and challenges.

AIVA’S SKILLS INCLUDE:

Verify Income • Receive orders from lender LOS systems • Order tax transcripts from the IRS via credit reporting agency 50 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

•

Make tax transcripts available to Fannie Mae as part of Day 1 Certainty Verify Assets • Order bank statements using API or third-party apps • Intake statements via email or API • Send custom emails to borrowers asking for account credentials • Pull and organize accounts, display summaries or make available via API • Look through statement details and identify large deposits • Calculate liquid assets and maintain traceability into account statements Track Insurance • Intake hazard and flood insurance documents • Extract and identify key data • Use key data elements to find the corresponding mortgage • Identify insurance coverage gaps with complete traceability to insurance documentation “With the cost of origination near alltime highs, our new AI/ML capabilities will help increase efficiencies to improve turn times and drive down costs for Black Knight clients,” said Rich Gagliano, president of Black Knight’s Origination Technologies division.

“AIVA is the future for delivering enhanced productivity and capabilities to our clients, and we are very excited about applying this groundbreaking technology to our powerful systems as we pursue our goal of helping to transform the mortgage industry.”

After integrating AIVA into its origination technologies, Black Knight will soon extend the AI/ML capabilities to its servicing and data and analytics solutions. Combining Black Knight’s extensive fintech experience with AIVA’s advanced capabilities will offer lenders and servicers powerful innovation that will significantly advance their operations.

a Web: www.corelogic.com SPONSORED CONTENT

Property Tax Estimator combines up-to-date tax information with the company’s proprietary estimation engine CURRENT MORTGAGE ORIGINATION PROCESSES

require several property tax procurement points before the closing of a purchase in order to satisfy regulatory requirements and homeowner information.

Unfortunately, many loan processors and underwriters perform these procurement activities through non-standard processes and databases, which may result in quality issues that create closing delays, loss of business, loss of productivity and homeowner dissatisfaction before and after loan closings.

CoreLogic recognized the need for a higher standardization process to acquire tax information prior to loan closings and developed Property Tax Estimator. The product enables the instantaneous procurement of property tax information for any new or existing property via XML call.

“With our unmatched access to data and proprietary estimation algorithms, we can deliver a 100% standard solution for use by loan origination officers and underwriters at any point during the closing process,” said Dominique Lalisse, principal of product management at CoreLogic.

The solution helps lenders streamline the closing process while managing client expectations by combining up-to-date tax information with the company’s proprietary estimation engine.

P rop e r t y Ta x E st i m ator de l ive r s a comprehensive view of real property tax information for any specific address and even for new construction loans, increasing production for lenders.

“The key benefit of Property Tax Estimator is accuracy,” said Nancy Langer, executive of real estate tax and payment solutions at CoreLogic.

“Clients appreciate the level of accuracy as it helps to ensure downstream efficiencies by starting the process with correct data.”

Loan officers can rely on the Property Tax Estimator to educate the borrower on property taxes and maintain transparency between the two parties.

But the product is not limited to these two audiences. In addition to loan originators, Property Tax Estimator assists Realtors, loan underwriting officers, closing agents, investors and servicing teams.

“Each group can leverage a standard, independent source of information to help calculate and prepare property tax estimates throughout the loan origination process,” said Langer.

The product brings the full value and capabilities of CoreLogic data in an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution with an option to integrate with the lender’s system.

By facilitating the delivery of highly accurate data before closing, CoreLogic helps increase the accuracy of both the Loan Estimate and loan underwriting. This improved accuracy helps increase the quality of the closing and servicing experience.

Product: Property Tax Estimator SNAPSHOT: Property Tax Estimator is a transactionbased product enabling lenders to instantly access comprehensive real property tax information for a specific property address at the time of loan application.

It also allows lenders to monitor tax information throughout the origination process.

“With our unmatched access to data and proprietary estimation algorithms, we can deliver a 100% standard solution for use by loan origination officers and underwriters at any point during the closing process.” — Dominique Lalisse, principal of product management at CoreLogic HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 51

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

CoreLogic’s Property Tax Estimator streamlines closing

a Web: www.docmagic.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

DocMagic’s new app maximizes borrower engagement The LoanMagic app and the LenderPortal work together to provide a pain-free loan process for borrowers and lenders WHAT BORROWERS WANT is easy, convenient

Products: LoanMagic & LenderPortal SNAPSHOT: The LoanMagic app and the LenderPortal work together to maximize borrower engagement and minimize delays.

LoanMagic has all the tools for borrowers to eSign and otherwise comply with instructions.

On the other side of the process, the LenderPortal enables lenders and closing agents to assign to-do items and track documents from borrowers.

52 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

lender interaction… free from the hassle of paper, faxes, emails etc. At the same time, lenders and closing agents need a way to keep borrowers happy and responsive in order to keep things flowing. The LoanMagic app is a win on both sides of the relationship.

LoanMagic and the LenderPortal keep the loan process moving, giving borrowers, lenders and closing agents 24/7 access to track and manage the loan process. Everyone communicates in real-time — easily sending, signing and sharing critical loan data and documents.

The notification system alerts users to outstanding items and helps to close loans quicker than ever.

LOANMAGIC: ”MORE THAN A LOAN... IT’S AN EXCITING LIFE EVENT AND IT DESERVES TO FEEL THAT WAY”

LoanMagic is for borrowers.

It lets them do ever ything right from their phone or tablet.

This means that they can eSign documents or send you missing information using one hand while the other is holding that chai latte.

Borrowers can also follow the progress using LoanMagic’s visual tracker. Who needs to call their loan officer every day when the closing date is right there on your phone and updated in real-time?

That’s right, the experience has the side benefit of reducing calls from confused or frustrated borrowers. Like a Swiss Army knife, LoanMagic packs all sorts of neat productivity tools like integrations to DropBox, Google Drive and OneDrive, a documents scanner, fingerprint and facial recognition, integrations to your calendar and more.

“When we created this app, we were obsessed with keeping the loan process moving forward

at all times… maximizing borrower engagement and minimizing delays.” said Ron Carrillo, product manager.

FOR BORROWERS:

• • • •

A loan tracker gives the borrower a sense of momentum The ability to sign and return documents in seconds A task manager speeds up the loan process Intuitive design ensures borrower loyalty, autonomy and satisfaction

LENDERPORTAL: IT’S BUSINESS TIME

The LenderPortal is a web platform for lenders and closing agents that works with LoanMagic.

It allows them to assign borrowers To-Do items, track disclosures and documents, schedule events and request documents or information.

Because of LoanMagic’s push notifications, integrated messaging and intuitive design, those requests will get turned around faster than you can say “initial disclosure agreement” (ok maybe not that fast, but still fast).

As if this wasn’t enough, these tools are directly integrated with your LOS, meaning much of the complexity is already automated for you. The whole system rests on DocMagic’s eVault so every transaction is stored securely for bullet-proof compliance which means that your security folks are friendlier than usual.

Oh, did we mention that the Lender Portal is optimized for mobile too? Now we did! Mortgage professionals can get it all done whether at their desk or on the move.

FOR LENDERS:

•

LOS Integration - works with what you are already using • Integrated messaging eliminates phone calls & emails • Triggers faster borrower reactions • Every transaction is stored securely in the eVault Connect better... and close faster w ith LoanMagic.

a Web: www.docutech.com SPONSORED CONTENT

Lenders can now add documents to any loan package

IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, finding

a solution that is flexible and easy to use is more important than ever. Docutech recognizes that a key pain point for lenders is the difficulty of including independent documents with loan packages and enabling those documents for eSignature.

With the new Editor functionalit y of Docutech’s Solex eSign, lenders no longer have to send borrowers’ documents separate from their loan document packages or wait for or incur costs for ink signature, scanning and mailing. Now, additional documents can easily be added and enabled for eSignature.

Solex eSign serves as a lender’s all-inone eSign platform. The solution is directly integrated with Docutech’s dynamic document generation engine, ConformX, which provides lenders access to the most comprehensive library of current and compliant documents in the lending industry and is integrated with leading loan origination systems (LOSs), automatically pulling in necessary information to dynamically generate the required documents. And because ConformX generates dynamic versus static documents, it has become the trusted solution for some of the nation’s leading lenders and is responsible for producing over a billion documents to-date.

Once a document is generated, Solex enables lenders to electronically send the documents to the borrower, facilitate eSigning, access the status of loan packages, and store authoritative copies in its secure and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-approved eVault. ConformX and Solex work together to power a streamlined and seamless workflow for all document-related needs.

Solex eSign with Editor functionality is fully compliant with ESIGN and UETA, ensuring eSigned disclosures meet all regulatory requirements. Solex captures completed data for every signature or form-fill item along with the date/time each occurred. Once completed and submitted, Solex then creates an audit log with a tamper-evident seal. With additional features as

such two-factor authentication, Single-Sign-On, full disaster recovery, failover print fulfillment, and access to the industry’s most trusted eVault, Docutech promises an eSigning platform that ensures the utmost security and compliance.

When the borrower is ready, Solex’s mobile interface enables them to sign documents from any location and on any device. “The ability to push eSignatures to a mobile setting is crucial for today’s lenders. Without the ability to provide their customers convenient, 24/7 access to documents and signatures, a lender is much less competitive in today’s instantaneous, technolog yrich environment,” said Harry Ga rd ner, e xe c ut ive v ice president of eStrategies for Docutech.

The ConformX integration also includes access to the most comprehensive library of documents in the lending industry and directly imports data from the LOS. SOLEX ESIGN ALSO INCLUDES:

•

• • • •

eDelivery – electronically deliver documents to the borrower and gain complete visibility into document status I-Frame (borrowers stay in lender-branded portal) One-time consent and lender-managed consent Non-borrower signing support Streamlined processes and seamless workflows

Product: Solex eSign Editor DESCRIPTION: Solex eSign is the all-in-one eSignature solution enabling digital delivery and signature of loan documents anytime and from any device.

Now with new Editor functionality, lenders can add documents to any loan package generated through Docutech’s ConformX document engine and then enable those documents for eSignature through Solex eSign.

“Users of Solex eSign appreciate the improved borrower experience. Borrowers can review loan documents in advance of the closing table, allowing for plenty of time to ask questions and gain a better understanding of the terms of their loan before they sign,” Gardner said.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 53

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Docutech adds Editor functionality to Solex eSign

a Web: www.elliemae.com SPONSORED CONTENT

Ellie Mae provides a customizable, branded and mobile online application

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Encompass Consumer Connect engages borrowers and provides lenders with faster results TODAY’S AVERAGE HOMEBUYER is three times

Product: Ellie Mae’s Encompass Consumer Connect SNAPSHOT: Encompass Consumer Connect gives Ellie Mae Encompass lenders the ability to offer a consumer web experience that goes beyond a mere online application.

It is truly a state-ofthe-art, completely customizable, branded and engaging digital mortgage experience for homebuyers – accessible from any device.

more likely to find a lender online than they were five years ago, and 60% of homebuyers expect to apply for and complete their home loan application completely online. In order to meet these expectations, Ellie Mae developed Encompass Consumer Connect, which allows lenders to offer an engaging online consumer experience that’s transparent and compliant.

Encompass Consumer Connect goes beyond a mere online application. The product is completely customizable, branded and accessible from any mobile device.

The platform, coupled with Encompass CRM marketing automation and Velocif y sales automation solutions, ensures that every application is met with a customized and personal experience. The integration with Ellie Mae’s Encompass allows information to flow into one single system of record and help lenders close loans faster, reduce the cost of origination and do so with complete compliance.

ENCOMPASS CONSUMER CONNECT ALSO INCLUDES:

Modern, responsive design: Homebuyers can easily access and navigate the lenders’ site and application from any desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone, anytime and anywhere at their convenience.

Easy configuration and controls: Lenders can control and customize their site design, application flow, specific business process workflow and ensure consistency of their unique and specific brand.

Easy-to-complete applications: Lenders can automate and authenticate data collection through integrated services, such as pulling a credit report and online asset verification, 54 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

which allow consumers to accurately complete loan applications in less time.

A secure online borrower portal: Lenders save time by giving consumers a paperless way to collaborate with lenders by allowing them to drag and drop documents or images into the portal, upload photos from a phone, eSign documents and receive real-time updates.

Built-in business intelligence: Lenders will gain insight into consumer engagement and keep consumers connected with immediate follow up.

More automation: Lenders will automatically receive applications in Encompass underwritten

by Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter or Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor to help close loans in fewer days.

Native compliance: Whether or not a consumer completes the entire application, Consumer Connect leverages the business rules within Encompass to ensure lenders are alerted to any compliance obligations they may have, even with incomplete or abandoned applications.

Prospective borrowers will discover a secure, customized web experience where they can research rates and loan options, fill out a simple, conversational-style loan application, securely upload documents from any device and receive real-time status updates. The product allows borrowers to stay engaged throughout the loan process and keep every party on the same page.

“With Encompass Consumer Connect, Ellie Mae has created a transparent and efficient workflow, where the amount of change we have to introduce to our operations staff is minimal, but we save time and get a huge lift in our customer experience,” said Andria Lightfoot, senior vice president of Information Systems, George Mason Mortgage. “The real icing on the cake is that Ellie Mae understands that we want to uniquely brand and design this experience for our customers – we don’t just want to buy something off the shelf and look like everything else. We can customize almost every aspect of the platform.”

a Web: www.ephesoft.com SPONSORED CONTENT

The Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage solution improves deployment time by 80% LISTENING TO THE INDUSTRY’S CHALLENGES

around customer satisfaction due to slow loan processing times, Ephesoft developed a cloud solution that easily recognizes over 600 types of mortgage documents with cloud processing.

“Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage is the first SaaS cloud solution tailored for mortgage document processing which improves deployment time by 80% and dramatically accelerates processing time so lenders can boost customer satisfaction and reduce costs,” said Ike Kavas, CEO at Ephesoft.

The company used a patented, supervised machine learning technolog y, Ephesoft Transact, which ingests, classifies, extracts, validates and exports documents and data into any LOS system. The system automatically recognizes where each document starts and stops within large multi-file PDFs, splitting up individual document types. This eliminates the hefty professional service fees or internal IT investment required to manually categorize appraisals, lease agreements, tax returns and hundreds of other document types found in mortgage applications.

The key to “Ephesoft Transact m a nu f ac t u r i ng a for Mortgage is the zero-defect loan is first SaaS cloud often locked away solution tailored for in the data in the mortgage document documents. Manual d at a e nt r y f r o m processing which improves deployment these documents is slow, error prone and time by 80% and expensive. dramatically E p h e s o f t ’s accelerates mortgage data processing time extraction can so lenders can identify, extract and boost customer validate hundreds satisfaction and of key fields within a reduce costs.” — package in a fraction Ike Kavas, CEO at of the time and cost of Ephesoft manual data entry.

Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage also determines which documents are needed to process loans and which are ancillary, such as the cover pages, blank pages and invoices often attached to the appraisal documents.

The platform does the heavy lifting, removing extraneous content and focusing on high-value documents that can be categorized into batches such as lease agreements, tax returns, loan applications and disclosures. Transact for Mortgage also primes relevant documents for data extraction and business insight providing customers with the option to apply Ephesoft’s patented supervised machine learning for broader use. “ O u r c u s to m e r s h av e used Ephesoft’s technology to improve their mortgage d o c u m e n t p r o c e s s e s ,” sa id Ja ne Chr ist ie, COO of eDocument Solut ions.

“Customers have reported accuracy reports of 90% or higher, loan processing time reduction of 92% and savings of over $100 per loan. The combination of accuracy, consistency and speed for mortgage documents impacts their bottom line and improves customer satisfaction and retention rates.”

Ephesoft’s customers also report that the ability to process documents using the technology is 20 times the speed of manual human classification. While similar software requires a lengthy and costly set-up process, Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage allows rapid deployment and continual learning with minimal user intervention.

“Ephesoft empowers mortgage lenders by providing the tools for closing loans faster with less manual effort, while pinpointing and eliminating process bottlenecks to yield higher data accuracy,” said Kavas.

Product: Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage SNAPSHOT: The Ephesoft Transact for Mortgage solution is a cloud-based modular platform pre-trained to recognize and classify more than 600 mortgage document types, dramatically accelerating processing speeds for mortgage lenders who bundle it with the Ephesoft Transact smart document capture platform. The platform makes meaning out of unstructured data for decision-makers worldwide.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 55

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Machine learning technology recognizes over 600 types of documents

a Web: www.factom.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Factom builds blockchain platform for business data Factom Harmony allows businesses and software vendors to quickly add blockchain capabilities using simple API calls THE USE OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY for

Product: Factom Harmony SNAPSHOT: Factom Harmony is an integration platform designed to allow enterprises and software vendors to quickly add blockchain capabilities to any application or workflow using simple API calls.

fintech companies is on the rise and Factom, a blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) technology company, specializes in solving the major pain points companies face when implementing blockchain technology.

Providing a scalable solution with a predictable cost model, Factom has the ability to handle complex data, while providing cryptographic proofs to satisfy audit and compliance requirements — all packaged into robust API calls that don’t require cryptocurrencies or long development cycles.

“From the beginning it was clear that trying to fit all business use cases into a coin transaction, as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most other blockchains require, would be an awkward approach to handling many real-world problems,” said Laurie Pyle, COO of Factom.

“What was needed was a blockchain specifically built to deal with complex business data and documents rather than one optimized for tracking a value transfer.”

The Factom Blockchain was designed to handle many complex business use cases and the data required, including those in the mortgage industry, resulting in a robust solution for audit and compliance requirements.

Unlike other blockchains, the Factom Blockchain features a fixed-cost model that protects enterprises from volatile cryptocurrencies and is designed to efficiently

store business records and associated entries in chains for fast searching.

Factom’s product, Factom Harmony, is an enterprise-grade solution that can be integrated seamlessly with existing services to create blockchain-powered audit and compliance workflows through the mortgage ecosystem.

Harmony also allows developers to start using blockchain without dealing with cryptocurrency or standing up their own network node. Users can create portable, archivable cryptographic proofs to use as trusted inputs for internal and external audits.

And a private blockchain can be used for permissioned networks, with public anchoring available.

What makes Factom Harmony a gamechanger is that it reduces the time and resource requirements to perform audits and meet compliance objectives. Using Harmony, blockchain capabilities can be implemented seamlessly into existing business processes via simple integrations.

When audits are conducted, companies will have proof that their business process decisions and conclusions were made according to protocol.

Writing these decisions and points to a blockchain can save a company time, money and valuable resources that could be more efficiently spent elsewhere.

“The mortgage industry has a trust problem that results in costly audits and re-audits during the origination process and over the life of the loan. Blockchain can put an end to the redundancy of current audits and result in more cost-efficient and streamlined processes,” said Pyle.

“What was needed was a blockchain specifically built to deal with complex business data and documents rather than one optimized for tracking a value transfer.” — Laurie Pyle, COO 56 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

a Web: www.firstam.com

SPONSORED CONTENT

First American’s solution provides a platform to help achieve digital transformation IN FANNIE MAE’S Q2 2018 Mortgage Lender

Sentiment Survey, cost-cutting was cited by 30 percent of lenders as one of their two most important goals, with business process streamlining also among their top priorities.

First American Mortgage Solutions developed the Digital Gateway so lenders can access data earlier in the origination process and gain greater flexibility in the order placement and status events that are important to borrowers.

Greater flexibility results in lower origination costs and a faster mortgage process.

“Recognizing our client partners’ focus on reducing costs, improving efficiencies and increasing customer satisfaction, we’re committed to investing across our business to empower innovation with proven data and digital solutions,” said First American Mortgage Solutions’ president, Kevin Wall.

The Digital Gateway’s interactive platform enables lenders and technology platforms to test and understand the various APIs offered for data and services across the larger First American enterprise that can help achieve digital transformation more quickly.

The various APIs may be deployed across the loan lifecycle from origination to servicing as needed by application developers from lending organizations, loan origination software (LOS) providers, Point-of-Sale (POS) solutions, document providers, and other technology platforms.

APIs can be easily accessed for testing and development, and services can be accessed on demand, when and how customers need them.

Since the launch of the Digital Gateway in 2017, First American Mortgage Solutions continues to expand the platform’s capabilities to focus on multiple APIs: identity, property and ownership, liens and judgment, bankruptcy, watchlist, HOA, FEMA, fraud, verifications and compliance. The Digital Gateway provides a single point of access to all of First American’s data and services across the loan lifecycle, from origination to closing to post-closing and servicing.

“Our identity, property and ownership APIs

enable lenders to quickly verify applicants and identify issues in order to make better lending decisions, while the liens and judgment, bankruptcy and compliance APIs help further mit- Product: igate potential risk and enhance compliance,” Digital Gateway said Wall.

The integration of compliance APIs through the Digital Gateway allows customers to run multiple compliance checks on loans in SNAPSHOT: order to alert lenders about any potential The Digital Gateway violations so corrections can be made in provides access to First a timely manner. Compliance tests, American’s industry-leading such as ATR, QM, TRID and others, can be run independently or as data, analytics and services. a part of First American’s full First American’s APIs, along compliance suite through the with its flexible architecture, Digital Gateway APIs. create efficiencies for technology “Our customers’ appetite platforms and lenders looking for for digital solutions indicates application components to assist that the transformation of with loan auto-population, data the mortgage industry is set validation, ordering and receiving to accelerate, increasing the status updates. This allows lenders to pressure on vendor partners deliver an improved online mortgage to deliver solutions that are process and borrower experience scalable, enable effective colfrom one of the industry’s most laboration, simplify operational structures and help their clients trusted and proven remain compliant,” said Wall. “The service providers.

Digital Gateway is a single-source solution designed to meet all these goals across the entire mortgage lifecycle.”

“Recognizing our client partners’ focus on reducing costs, improving efficiencies and increasing customer satisfaction, we’re committed to investing across our business to empower innovation with proven data and digital solutions.”

— Kevin Wall, President HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 57

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Digital Gateway offers lenders a single point of access to all of First American’s data and services

a Web: www.firstclose.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

The FirstClose Report reduces costs and closing times Refinance and home equity loan solution gives lenders everything they need to close in one file WITH INNOVATION AND CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Product: FirstClose Report

SNAPSHOT: The FirstClose Report is the first comprehensive refinance and home equity loan solution with capabilities to deliver title, flood, valuation and other important data in one report.

By tapping multiple data sources and utilizing proprietary algorithms, the FirstClose Report keeps lenders in compliance while reducing both costs and closing times.

top of mind, FirstClose developed a refinance and home equity loan solution, the FirstClose Report, that gives lenders everything they need to close within one file.

The FirstClose Report offers a fully customizable interface that can be used on home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, second mortgages and refinances from any bank, credit union or mortgage lender. It is also applicable to lenders’ servicing divisions for portfolio reviews, REO properties, default and loss mitigation.

“The FirstClose Report is all about enhancing efficiency, streamlining operations and ensuring compliance for lenders,” said FirstClose Chief Executive Officer Tedd Smith.

“Many of the innovative solut ion s t hat we have implemented are customerdriven, including the FirstClose Report. Lenders wanted information quickly and succinctly, and FirstClose worked hard to make that happen.”

The report utilizes multiple data sources and proprietary algorithms to deliver current market values, interior and exterior property photos, flood certifications, copies of the deeds, liens, judgments, transaction history, subject property data and tax information — instantly.

The FirstClose Report can also reduce traditional property report costs by an average of 40%. One lender compared costs on 334 HELOC applications and found that after implementing the FirstClose Report, they were able to save $113,319.

58 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

The ability to get accurate, compliant information in one place allows lenders to save time and money. In one case study, the FirstClose Report was able to reduce application-to-fund turn times by 10 days. In 2017, the average turn time for the report was less than 30 seconds, with ancillary manual services delivered in 1.8 days.

The FirstClose Report can also reduce traditional property report costs by an average of 40%. One lender compared costs on 334 HELOC applications and found that after implementing the FirstClose Report, they were able to save $113,319.

“FirstClose customers love that the technology of the FirstClose Report is easily implemented via the web or through their loan origination system and has the ability to be tailored to their own unique underwriting guidelines,” FirstClose Chief Revenue Officer Tim Smith said.

Customers also appreciate that they can receive all necessary information instantly, within one comprehensive report. And, the report allows them to choose from nationally recognized providers, as well as keep local vendors. The fact that the FirstClose Report dramatically reduces both costs and closing times is icing on the cake.

“The FirstClose Report is truly the first of its kind. The report uses cutting-edge technology and nationwide data sources to achieve the optimal balance between costs and efficiencies, while maintaining regulatory compliance in the mortgage lending industry,” Tedd Smith said.

The report is the product of the environment FirstClose has cultivated which allows innovation to thrive internally at the employee level and externally through customer feedback.

“Innovation is a driving force within FirstClose and is the foundation of our success. As one of our corporate core values, the desire for use of technology to streamline lending pushes our ongoing innovation to ensure we continue to progress and remain ahead of the competition,” Tim Smith said.

a Web: www.new.mi.genworth.com SPONSORED CONTENT

The MI Site features a visual pipeline system that allows users to track the status of each MI application

BY MAINTAINING d e d i c a t e d ,

personal relat ion sh ips w it h mor tgage lenders, Genworth Mortgage Insurance continually identifies new opportunities to serve housing finance professionals through technology and innovation. One of its recent opportunities was also one of its most significant: launching a premier website designed after extensive user experience (UX) research.

The site, new.mi.genworth.com, incorporates advanced cloud-based technology and has now been ranked No. 1 for ease of use compared to all other mortgage insurance websites, according to a 2018 Genworth survey.

Genworth began this project by discovering how loan officers and processors interact with Genworth online on a foundational level.

“We conducted surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews throughout the development process to ensure that the site’s function aligned to customer needs,” said Kevin McMahon, senior vice president, commercial strategy.

MI application forms were designed with fewer required form fields, pre-filled data and available preference settings to eliminate data entry time. And document uploads were made faster through a bulk upload drag-and-drop functionality.

THE NEW WEBSITE ALSO MAKES SUBMITTING AND MANAGING MI APPS EASY THROUGH ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY, INCLUDING:

• • • •

Searching for submitted MI apps Viewing app status in real time Modifying submitted applications Getting personal assistance from Genworth representatives

A visual pipeline tracking system is a highlight of the MI Site. Similar in design to online package delivery services systems, the visual pipeline tracks the status of each MI application as it travels through submission to underwriting to approval.

“Customer feedback on the visual pipeline has been overwhelmingly positive,” McMahon said. “It provides users with insight into their MI-related workflow, eliminating the pain related to lack of transparency associated with other websites.”

The MI Site also features fast and accurate rate quotes and product comparisons through a redesign of the Rate Express® rates and comparisons tool. Rate quotes can be generated, compared, and shared among colleagues for easy collaboration.

All of that functionality has been designed using a mobile-first design approach for easy on-the-go access from any mobile device.

Users can even add Genworth’s MI Site icon to their mobile home screen.

Genworth delivers a more customized experience to users with dedicated pathways, or journeys, through the MI Site based upon the user’s role, company, or experience on the site. Users get a differentiated view of key MI products and services that are most relevant to them through personalized website content.

Finally, Genworth has baked ongoing improvement into the website’s design, with an iterative user program that continually identifies ways to enhance user experience and functionality. With every innovation Genworth’s goal is the same: to help mortgage professionals work more efficiently to meet and exceed borrower expectations.

Product “MI Site” website SNAPSHOT: Genworth’s MI Site combines today’s advanced cloud-based technology with insights from experts — our customers. It’s proofpositive that, while technology is a key enabler of innovation, user input and feedback are the true drivers of change and evolution of the online experience.

“It provides users with insight into their MIrelated workflow, eliminating the pain related to lack of transparency associated with other websites.” — Kevin McMahon, SVP HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 59

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Genworth’s new website was built with customer feedback

a Web: www.landgorilla.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Land Gorilla’s Construction Loan Manager mitigates risk Allows lenders to confidently return to construction lending

WHEN THE HOUSING INDUSTRY CRASHED IN 2007,

construction lending was viewed as high risk and regulations were added to an alreadyProduct: struggling industry, causing many lenders to stop originating those loans. Around the same Construction time, the concept of cloud computing — using a Loan Manager network of remote servers for data storage and management — was beginning to take off in the information technology sector.

SNAPSHOT: It was in this environment that Land Gorilla’s Land Gorilla developed a solution to Construction Loan encourage lenders to confidently Manager is the most return to construction lending by making it easier to collaborate complete software to and manage construction manage and streamline loans via cloud. all aspects of the loan Before the launch of Land process — from pre-closing Gorilla in 2010, there was no due diligence to post-closing available technology that draw administration. brought construction Featuring comprehensive l e n d i n g a n d o v e r s ig ht draw management, into a single management platform. Lenders’ portfolios servicing functionality, were created from seemingly and reporting tools, countless spreadsheets prone lenders gain efficiency and to for mu la er rors, lack i ng scalability, and mitigate aggregated reportable data, and the risk associated with requiring timely manual entry — all of construction lending. which hampered their ability to mitigate risk.

Land Gorilla offers the only construction loan management solution engineered by construction lending experts.

Land Gorilla’s product, Construction Loan Manager, provides lenders with full visibility into their loan pipeline, with detailed insight into pipeline health, loan level performance and payment risk analysis.

All stakeholders involved in the project — such as lenders, contractors, borrowers, and inspectors — are able to stay connected around milestones, change orders and draw requests.

As a result, lenders are able to manage construction loans 82% faster with lower associated costs. Construction Loan Manager 60 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

“With Land Gorilla, lenders can seize the opportunity to launch a construction loan program, or scale existing programs to meet ever-growing demand,” said Sean Faries, CEO, Land Gorilla. “They have the confidence that every step of the process was based on best practices to mitigate risk and maximize efficiencies.” also gives lenders access to a panel of 11,000 vendors to order services directly through the platform. Users appreciate the ability to scale with channel production, streamlining the construction loan process with an easy-to-use interface, a painless onboarding process and risk mitigation alerts.

All features of this product help avoid common mistakes while speeding up the process with more efficiency and accuracy.

OTHER FEATURES INCLUDE:

Contractor Management: Key contractor and consultant tools to gain visibility into contactor status, activity, and project concentration.

Servicing: Essential tools to calculate interest monthly billing statements, including interest matrix, loan ledger, state tables, and statement transactions.

Accounting Platform: Superior account reconciliation features including account connection, payments, payment history, check printing and account reports.

Reporting: Custom reporting tools to gain visibility into the performance of a single loan or an entire pipeline. Standard reports include 1098/1099 reports, draw reports, contractor reports, consultant reports and billing statements.

a Web: www.loanscorecard.com SPONSORED CONTENT

LoanScorecard’s solution empowers the non-QM market

AUTOMATING THE UNDERWRITING PROCESS has

been one of the biggest leaps forward in the modern mortgage era, ensuring consistent, fair and safe lending after the financial crisis. But the many benefits of using automated underwriting systems — required for agency loans —haven’t been affordably available for lenders and investors who keep loans in portfolio. For those non-agency loans, many financial institutions are still relying totally on a manual process, which increases risk and leaves many highquality lending opportunities on the table.

LoanScorecard solves this problem with its Portfolio Underwriter solution, the only non-agency AUS available today. This gamechanging solution allows direct lenders, wholesalers and investors to confidently, consistently and securely deploy more capital and distribute differentiating loan products to this underserved and growing market.

“Manually underwriting every file presents a high risk of human error, is time-consuming and costly, and can be problematic for managing exceptions consistently and without unintended bias,” said executive director Ben Wu. “By running the Portfolio Underwriter engine with LoanScorecard, you are in control of your credit risk profile and documentation requirements.

We are the only technology/underwriting engine that can run guidelines of your specific loan programs.”

Portfolio Underwriter provides originators and underwriters with a unique, in-depth findings report branded with their company’s logo and information. It also includes a detailed underwriting analysis based on specific credit policies and criteria.

Lenders, wholesalers and investors rely on Portfolio Underwriter for: EFFICIENCY

At whatever point in the process that clients would run Desktop Underwriter (DU) and Loan Product Advisor (LPA), they run LoanScorecard instead for loans outside agency parameters.

Instead of setting up an entirely different department for the manual processing of nonQM loans, Portfolio Underwriter helps clients reduce overhead, increase efficiency and translate the story of a loan in real-time.

COMPLIANCE

Product: Portfolio Underwriter

Portfolio Underwriter provides data-driven analysis that safeguards lenders SNAPSHOT: or wholesalers from fair lending Portfolio Underwriter violations resulting from the inherently from LoanScorecard inconsistent and resource-draining enables capital market manual underwriting process.

The LoanScorecard engine investors, banks, and credit t ra nslates g uidelines a nd unions to analyze loan data provides an automated, rulebased on their unique products by-rule analysis and result and specifications in seconds. so that lenders can reliably The engine makes it easier to u nder w r ite loa ns a nd deploy capital, is more efficient focus more on managing and consistent than manual exceptions.

GROWTH

underwriting, and ensures soundness in mortgage operations in regards to fair lending.

With Portfolio Underwriter, clients can confidently open a The engine empowers non-QM non-QM lending channel to drive market leaders and enables new business. new players to enter the The efficiencies of the non-agency space with confidence.

AUS allow for more production per individual, enabling clients to rapidly scale non-agency lending to achieve or exceed overall revenue goals.

“Clients and inf luencers are learning that along with DU and LPA, Portfolio Underwriter is the third leg to the automated underwriting ecosystem and the key to serving more borrowers and increasing production in the much desired non-QM and portfolio lending market,” Wu said.

“Non-agency lending is now taking off as a viable, market-driven channel with more and more players entering the space or doubling down with our Portfolio Underwriter to navigate the nuances and simplify complexities for robust mortgage lending growth and scalability.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 61

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Portfolio Underwriter automates non-agency loans

a Web: www.mortgagecadence.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Borrower Center delivers rare digital mortgage performance As an innate feature of Mortgage Cadence’s LOS, Borrower Center creates a fully integrated digital experience for borrowers R E C O G N I Z I N G T H AT H I G H PERFORMANCE LENDING depends

Product: Mortgage Cadence Borrower Center SNAPSHOT: Ideal for those that seek a modern borrower portal coupled with the robotics and automated workflow engine of the Mortgage Cadence LOS, Borrower Center revolutionizes the way lending maintains a single system of record.

•

Offers customization through a userfriendly configuration-based tool. No more coding!

•

Reduces implementation time from months to mere weeks

•

Eliminates the need for duplication of system administration and maintenance

•

Removes any application integrity concerns and saves you time by using a single system of record

•

Remains a native part of the LOS, instead of being a separate Point of Sale (POS)

•

Exhibits a proven record of success with millions of loans having been processed for lenders of all sizes

62 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

on the interplay of people, process, a nd te c h nolog y, M or tg age Cadence solves for inefficiencies in the origination process. They knew the creation of an experience that made it easier for borrowers to shop, compare, and apply for a mortgage, while simultaneously creating a lending experience t hat i ncrea sed ef f iciencies through automated workflows, would provide the industry with the most innovative lending solution on the market.

As part of their comprehensive approach to revolutionizing the mortgage process, Mortgage Cadence developed Borrower Center, an intuitive online origination platform, to meet these needs.

Rather than a standalone portal, Borrower Center is a native element of Mortgage Cadence’s Loan Origination Systems, Enterprise Lending Center and Loan Fulfillment Center. As an innate feature of the LOS, Borrower Center creates a fully integrated and comprehensive digital experience that automates vendor services, runs AUS, initiates loan estimates, and generates pre-approvals.

This is what has enabled high-performing lenders using Borrower Center to consistently achieve a cost-to-close of over 40% lower than the MBA industry average.

With features and functionality that replace tedious and costly

labor with automation, Mortgage Cadence clients consistently experience increased profitability through streamlined workflows.

The Enterprise Lending Center and Loan Fulfillment Center seamlessly order services, run calculations and make credit decisions, which is unparalleled in the market.

“There are many POS solutions on the market, but they don’t carry the automation, workflow, and borrower experience all the way through post-closing – Mortgage Cadence does,” said Trevor Gauthier, Mortgage Cadence president.

Borrower Center creates a modern experience for borrows through a pre-configured solution that still offers easy customization.

Borrowers not only benefit from this digital experience, but lenders also benefit from a simplified setup and maintenance of the software by ut ilizing capabilit ies of Enterprise Lending Center or Loan Fulfillment Center. This assures compliant lending and reduces the investor risk that comes from using multiple systems of record.

“It is rare to find a product that has this level of ease of use and implementation without compromising advanced configuration and automation throughout the entire mortgage process. Our users appreciate just that; its simplicity and power. With our technology, our lenders rely on system data to make decisions that drive profitability,” said Paul Wetzel, EVP and managing director of product management.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Pavaso connects all parties of the mortgage process to one central solution

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Documents are stored in the Pavaso Platform with anytime access

WITH DIGITAL MORTGAGES poised to transform

the entire housing industry, Pavaso has been working for the last several years to advance the mortgage industry forward and to provide all stakeholders in a mortgage transaction everything they need to achieve an efficient, seamless digital closing.

Pavaso’s groundbreaking technology delivers a collaborative, all-encompassing platform that enhances and streamlines the process for everyone.

The Pavaso Platform is a complete suite of digital mortgage products for lenders, warehouse lenders, title companies, real estate agents, investors, and homebuyers and sellers.

For decades, the mortgage industry has struggled with costly integrations and the unfulfilled promises of digital technologies.

This has resulted in a technology gap between what homebuyers and sellers want and what the mortgage industry currently delivers. Pavaso is closing the gap and helping everyone collaborate during the loan process with technology.

Digital Close Enterprise, the Platform’s f lagship closing solution, includes the functionality to eDeliver early disclosures, eClose and eNotarize (including Remote Online Notarization). The Platform product suite is completed with PavasoDocs, Pavaso eSign, Pavaso SMART Note, Pavaso eVault and eData.

“Because the Pavaso Platform is a complete digital solution where all stakeholders work together in one central location, they can securely deliver documents, communicate and collaborate during the closing process. It delivers massive operational efficiencies and eliminates errors all while providing a straightforward, transparent consumer experience. Audit and QA reports improve loan quality, prevent missed signatures, and yield compliant, accurate loan packages, consistently, every time,” said Mark McElroy, Pavaso CEO. The platform allows homebuyers and sellers to access their documents from anywhere, at

any time and review them prior to closing and get answers to their questions through a robust educational library.

They can also sign all the contracts and document packages online, from anywhere, moving the process along much quicker and more efficiently than the traditional pen-andpaper model.

“Through automatic status updates and streamlined communication, the closing and document delivery process is extraordinarily more transparent and collaborative for everyone,” said Dan McGrew, COO, Pavaso.

Decrease costs by reducing errors and missed signatures, eliminating courier fees, and avoid printing excessive stacks of documents.

Because closings can now take as little as 15 minutes on the Pavaso platform, loans can be funded and sold on the secondary market much quicker, saving lenders money on warehousing.

The Pavaso Platform is a complete suite enterprise offering that provides every element needed to conduct a paperless closing — leaving the days of working with multiple technology providers in the past.

The platform is scalable with the flexibility to conduct hybrid digital closings, all the way through to eNotes and delivering them to the Pavaso eVault.

“The bottom line is that we wanted to provide a better closing experience for homebuyers and sellers, while providing all the tools needed in one convenient, robust platform that delivers a seamless, efficient process for everyone else involved,” McGrew said. “And the Pavaso Platform does exactly that.”

Product: The Pavaso Platform

SNAPSHOT: The Pavaso Platform is a full product suite that includes PavasoDocs, Pavaso eSign, Digital Close Enterprise with Remote Online Notarization, and Pavaso SMART Note, eVault and eData.

The platform connects all parties in one location to collaborate, securely exchange data, drive efficiencies, and deliver compliant, fully electronic closings.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 63

a Web: www SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

PromonTech uses augmented intelligence to reduce costs Borrower Wallet + Income AI improves data quality and gives transparency to underwriters and borrowers THE DEMAND for a fully online mortgage process

Product: Borrower Wallet + Income AI SNAPSHOT: Borrower Wallet Point of Sale technology, released in 2017, provides a fully online mortgage process for borrowers, with greater pullthrough for lenders.

PromonTech’s soon-to-be released Income AI product uses augmented intelligence to drive an income calculation engine that helps underwriters make faster, auditable, more compliant credit decisions – paving the way to a truly digital mortgage.

continues to rise. Innovation is vital in keeping the industry moving forward, especially because mortgage lenders have seen the cost to produce a loan double in the last 10 years.

PromonTech created Borrower Wallet and Income AI to boost dynamic collaboration between applicants and lenders and improve data quality. And most importantly, PromonTech is focused on creating loan fulfillment efficiencies aimed at saving lenders up to 20% on the cost to produce a mortgage.

“Our products leverage a unique tech stack that improves compl ia nce t ra n sp a re nc y and drives data qualit y,” s a id M ichael Kolbrener, PromonTech’s chief technology officer.

P r o m o nTe c h ’s I n c o m e AI product identifies and improves data quality through a process called Perfected Qualifying Data, which ensures that Underwriters are evaluating the right data at the right time. As a result, Underwriters make faster, more compliant credit decisions — while reducing overall costs.

PromonTech leverages the potential of augmented intelligence by creating an “event stack” that provides fine-grained detail on all

“A home purchase is the single-largest transaction most consumers will make in their lifetime. And in order to deliver a compliant solution, all loan characteristics must be evaluated including income, assets, debt and property valuation.” — Michael Kolbrener, CTO 64 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

lending activities. Income AI evaluates and analyzes the aggregate event stack to provide unparalleled compliance insight throughout the loan journey. The platform captures every user activity in Borrower Wallet and Income AI, providing the vast amount of data needed to facilitate AI-based solutions.

“The complexity in lending technology is often underestimated. It won’t, in the near term, be solved by brute-force computing. It will take a detailed understanding of compliance, process and credit characteristics to create innovative lending solutions,” Kolbrener said.

Borrower Wallet allows borrowers to upload documents, chat with their loan officer, e-sign disclosures and view the status of their loan.

The Dashboard allows borrowers to see DTI information, assets, credit score and loan-tovalue in a way that is catered specifically for them based on the data they entered and the documents they uploaded.

Loan officers are able to co-pilot Borrower Wallet by sharing screens with the borrower and working through the process alongside them.

Not only does this provide transparency for both the borrower and the loan officer, but borrowers are also able to ask questions and communicate clearly in real time. Loan officers can also place third-party orders and generate pre-qualification letters, all in one online portal.

PromonTech has also developed an eConsent and eSign solution that works seamlessly within a lender’s current processes.

“A home purchase is the single-largest transaction most consumers will make in their lifetime. And in order to deliver a compliant solution, all loan characteristics must be evaluated including income, assets, debt and property valuation,” Kolbrener said.

“Each of these categories have their own nuances and complexities. PromonTech is improving the home purchase process through education, detailed event management and a dedication to providing applicants a transparent and collaborative process.”

a Web: www.res.net SPONSORED CONTENT

REO Portal’s new features include value analytics tools with MLS integration, a mobile home module and custom marketing sites ABOUT A DECADE AGO, REO outsourcing company

USRES was looking for a comprehensive system to manage its clients’ REO assets efficiently.

When it realized there wasn’t a product that met those needs, it spun off a technology company, RES.NET, and developed its REO Portal.

Since then, RES.NET has matured into a complete suite of servicer-facing solutions for REO, loss mitigation, valuations, vendor tasking and consumer marketing.

And the REO Portal has matured too — allowing clients to utilize a low-cost and flexible, user-defined interface system that can be customized and easily implemented into any asset management organization.

“RES.NET is an industry standard for a reason,” said Rob Pajon, senior vice president of marketing and product. “Over the last decade, we’ve built our reputation on stability, improvement, and customer centrism. We will continue to be guided by these solid principles into and beyond the next generation of REO asset management.”

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES REO PORTAL:

Value: Value is the most important attribute of any product in any business, and we haven’t and won’t forget that.

Off-the-shelf usability with user-managed customization: Anyone managing REO assets can easily implement our system and then quickly customize it themselves to meet their individual needs. Our system works if you’re managing 100 assets or 10,000 assets.

Customer service: Our account managers are experts in the REO field. All of our clients have access to an assigned account manager who knows them and their business.

“Clients appreciate the flexibility of the system and ease of implementing workflow and data changes,” Pajon said. “Clients also appreciate the level of customer service and attention they

receive from our RES.NET account managers.

Whether it’s a custom report, guidance on a workflow change or help with training, they Product: know our people are ready to assist.”

RES.NET recently added new features to the RES.NET REO Portal, such as value analytics tools with MLS integration, a mobile home module and client-defined custom marketing sites.

The mobile home module tackles the SNAPSHOT: challenging regulations surrounding this The RES.NET REO Portal asset class, providing procedural and is the award-winning, technological workflows and tools to industry standard for remain compliant.

The portal has received praise off-the-shelf REO software for the smooth implementation with the ability to customize process, allowing for an asset and integrate. management organization to l Straight-forward, get up and running as soon as comprehensive user interface possible. l Simple, task-oriented Once online, a simple, taskportals for vendors and agents oriented interface makes training easy and moves the l Ability to customize fields, process forward with vendors workflow, escalation rules, and integrations and agents harmoniously integrated into the process. l Extensive reporting tools When changes arise within l 24/7 live support an organization’s process or new compliance issues develop, they are All of this at the best handled quickly with custom tasks, value in the business. fields, and integration capabilities.

“Clients can now get all the features and customization they need with RES.NET’s low-cost and flexible, user-defined interface, for a fraction of the cost and time compared to the competition. Add this to the dedicated support we give our clients, and we’re looking at software in a whole new light,” Pajon said.

“RES.NET is an industry standard for a reason,” said Rob Pajon, senior vice president of marketing and product. “Over the last decade, we’ve built our reputation on stability, improvement, and customer centrism. We will continue to be guided by these solid principles into and beyond the next generation of REO asset management.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 65

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

RES.NET delivers off-the-shelf REO asset management

a Web: www.simplenexus.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

The SimpleNexus platform can cut origination time by 20% The platform turns loan officers into mobile originators and gives borrowers unprecedented transparency into their loan status MATT HANSEN’S BROTHER-IN-LAW, a mortgage

Product: SimpleNexus

SNAPSHOT: SimpleNexus, a leading provider of private-label digital mortgage platform solutions, enables lenders to originate and process loans from anywhere.

The SimpleNexus platform serves 15 of the top 25 retail mortgage lenders in the U.S. with more than 180 enterprise mortgage companies and more than 18,000 loan officers nationwide.

66 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

loan originator, was tired of constantly recalculating customer loan payments by hand. Hansen decided to help in his spare time and developed a mobile mortgage app over the weekend. Within weeks, more originators were asking Matt for their own version of the app. Hansen continued to add features and his customer base grew, fueled exclusively by user referrals.

The app, which started as a family favor, quickly grew into a n ent repreneu r ia l vent u re filling a real market void in the industry. Today, SimpleNexus is an enterprise-level digital mortgage solution used by 15 of the top 25 retail mortgage lenders in the U.S. Early in its development, the company made a priority of listening to its users as it improved the app and added new features. The platform turns loan officers into mobile originators, giving them the ability to view applications, pull credit reports and oversee all aspects of the loan process, all while connecting in real time to their LOS. The app increases transparency with push notifications that save loan officers the hassle of sending emails or returning multiple calls on loan status, while also allowing every party to be on the same page on the status of the loan.

“SimpleNexus recognizes a need in the mortgage industry for not only improving the customer experience, but also streamlining processes to reduce costs on the back end and empowering loan officers,” said Ben Miller, SimpleNexus president and COO. “We keep originators connected with their customers, Realtor partners, systems, and tools they need to do their jobs compliantly, efficiently and competitively.”

“SimpleNexus recognizes a need in the mortgage industry for not only improving the customer experience, but also streamlining processes to reduce costs on the back end and empowering loan officers. We keep originators connected with their customers, Realtor partners, systems, and tools they need to do their jobs compliantly, efficiently and competitively.” — Ben Miller, President and COO

Over 18,000 loan officers nationwide now use SimpleNexus. The platform has serviced more than 450,000 borrowers while managing the flow of $100 billion in transactions.

“O u r u nprecedented g row t h clea rly demonstrates the leading role SimpleNexus occupies in the digital mortgage movement and an industry-wide embrace of our mobile-first technology that is making the mortgage process more efficient,” said Matt Hansen, SimpleNexus founder and CEO. Clients using SimpleNexus are reporting their originators are closing loans 20% faster compared to industry averages. This time savings enables mortgage lenders to sell more, and make more, without devoting more time to their job.

The platform has also transformed what can be a daunting process for borrowers into a simple-to-understand, user-friendly experience that can be managed from the convenience of their mobile device.

Cultivating the human-to-human interaction between lender and borrower remains a core focus of SimpeNexus as it continues to develop its digital mortgage technology to support the role loan officers play instead of replacing it.

a Web: www.speedpay.com SPONSORED CONTENT

Bill payment solution provides servicers with innovative omni-channel payment and communication options SPEED PAY PR OVID E S EL EC T R O NIC BIL L PRESENTMENT AND PAYMENT SERVICES across

a wide spectrum of platforms. Speedpay’s platform, Next Gen, provides a bill payment solution through modern, responsive web and CSR desktop designs utilizing industry best practices and client feedback. This includes customer profiles, wallet management, notification preferences and enhanced IVR and web experiences.

“The release of Next Gen is the result of continuously listening to our clients’ needs and desires so they can better serve their customers,” said Frank Lockridge, senior vice president, Western Union Global Payments, and head of Speedpay.

“As an industry leader with nearly 30 years of expertise, we strive to stay at the forefront of payments by offering the latest solutions in bill presentment and payment.”

Speedpay provides servicers a solution to maximize customer engagement and collections through innovative communication options and omni-channel payments, which allows customers to pay when and how they want.

Wit h Ne x t G en, ser v icers c a n add communication channels and payment types, easily update messages and branding, and even send IVR prompts in minutes through an automated deployment process.

Speedpay’s Next Gen platform is constantly upgraded so users receive the latest channels, features and compliance updates. Clients simply choose when they would like to turn on new capabilities.

Within Next Gen’s core are multiple self-serve mobile billing options so customers can choose which option best suits their needs.

OPTIONS INCLUDE:

• •

Pay by text: SMS payment alerts allow customers to pay via a reply text.

Mobile Wallet: Seamlessly integrates bills and payment options directly into customers’ mobile wallets.

•

• • •

Mobile app: Allows customers to pay bills, save preferences and track payment status just by downloading an app Mobile swipe: Takes in-person card payments from customers Mobile site: Mobile responsive for any customer device Integration tools: Connect your existing mobile solutions to Speedpay’s robust payment functionality

ABOUT SPEEDPAY

Product: Next Gen

SNAPSHOT:

Speedpay is dedicated to helping mortgage companies improve their customer experiences around electronic billing and payments.

Speedpay, a Wester n Un ion Company, is a pioneer in the billing and payments industry, driving measureable results for clients for nearly 30 years.

Speedpay provides expert, We enable mortgage account-based consultation to servicers with options such develop bill presentment and payments strategies tailored as mobile wallet integration, to clients’ unique needs. debit cards, intuitive and easy From web to mobile, IVR, web and IVR payments, and CSR or walk-in, Speedpay offers more. Speedpay makes it innovative solutions that help easy and more convenient simplify the customer payment for customers to pay on experience to ensure customers can time, at any time. pay according to their preferences, and billers get paid on time.

The company’s configurable approaches that help billers manage billing and payments are proven to maximize ROI, reduce costs, increase operational efficiency and improve customer experience and satisfaction.

“The release of Next Gen is the result of continuously listening to our clients’ needs and desires so they can better serve their customers,” said Frank Lockridge, senior vice president, Western Union Global Payments and head of Speedpay. “As an industry leader with nearly 30 years of expertise, we strive to stay at the forefront of payments by offering the latest solutions in bill presentment and payment.”

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 67

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Speedpay’s Next Gen delivers self-serve mobile billing

a Web: www.sutherlandmortgage.com

SPONSORED CONTENT MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Sutherland’s data-driven solutions lower operation costs SmartRPA and SmartMortgageAPP were created to meet the demand of tech-savvy consumers WITH THE ACQUISITION OF NUEVORA,

Sutherland Mortgage has expanded its existing capabilities using analytics and artificial Products: intelligence. Sutherland’s solutions are designed to translate massive amounts of data SmartRPA and SmartMortgageAPP into useful real-time action that drives newcustomer acquisition, minimizes customer churn, optimizes pricing and lowers the cost of operations. The company’s SmartRPA SNAPSHOT: and SmartMortgageAPP were created to SmartRPA is a transform the customer’s business for transformative solution the digital era. that brings together With a demand from tech-savvy human and virtual agents, consumers, Sutherland utilized providing a faster and more robotic process automation effective means for completing (RPA) in SmartRPA. tasks. RPA integrates with T he “robot s” i n R PA any LOS or servicing system to are software routines that perform complex, rules-based, or ca n be prog ra m med to checklist-driven work. use a mortgage company’s enterprise application to SmartMortgageAPP streamlines gather, read, understand, and expedites the origination react to and execute new data and loan modification process. entry activity according to Borrowers now have the ability business rules. to upload required documents R PA reproduces hu ma n via their mobile devices, while decision-making and data entry offering real-time visibility using a virtual keyboard and mouse, to the loan process as controlling applications through the documents are received existing commands of legacy systems in the system. already in place.

“SmartRPA is a transformative solution that brings together human and virtual agents, providing a faster and more effective means for completing tasks,” said Krish Swaminathan, senior manager of client relations at Sutherland.

In a recent study, Sutherland found that RPA expedites its mortgage process by 20% through automation. More specifically, Sutherland reviewed a 300-item QC checklist and identified about 60 items, or 20% of tasks, that could be performed by a robot instead of a human.

RPA integrates with any LOS or servicing system to perform complex, rules-based, 68 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

or checklist-driven work. The product can easily be scaled up or down to meet changing workload needs, has availability 24/7, a higher level of accuracy, reduces costs and improves morale, freeing humans of repetitive tasks.

And to maximize its benefits, this product is combined with other tools like SmartOCR and minibots.

Sutherland’s SmartMortgageAPP is the only mobile app in the market focused on the operations aspect of the loan lifecycle.

The app allows borrowers to streamline and expedite the origination and loan modification processes with improved communications and document collection, allowing visibility into the status of the loan throughout the lifecycle.

Borrowers have the ability to upload required documents via mobile devices, track timelines of progress to their loans closing.

SmartMortgageAPP cuts several days off the time to close, providing a faster process. The app was also created to improve communication between the processor and borrower in the operations stage and reduce cycle times.

The product includes two digital rooms that allow processors to communicate with the borrower at any time, and features push notifications to all parties, an easy uploading process for documents and simple integration with any LOS. Users of these products appreciate the ease of integration, development and deployment.

Sutherland takes a design-thinking approach to create products that not only move the industry forward in automation but also create a meaningful customer experience.

“It’s transformative,” said Neil Armstrong, v ice president of mor tgage bu si ness development at Sutherland.

“As an industry, we have seen the cost per loan more than double since 2010. Technology needs to enable us to look at our processes and find a way to get our productivity per employee back to a higher level. RPA allows us to achieve this.”

a Web: www.themoneysource.com

WHILE THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE has been laser-

focused on creating digital loan applications to drive leads into their pipeline, TMS laid the foundation for a new way of doing business by focusing on the borrower first. Recognizing the need for innovation in servicing, TMS created a subservicing platform, SIME, Service Intelligence Made Easy, that allows more transparency between lenders and servicers.

“On the origination side, a lender was used to transparency and innovation, but there was nothing like this on the servicing side, only reporting systems that gave snapshots at the end of the month. We decided to step up and fill in the gap by building something that gave the lender full access and transparency into their portfolio in real time,” said Ali Vafai, TMS president.

Rather than just a month-by-month reporting system, SIME tracks all interactions between the borrower and servicer, including payments, escrow, recorded calls, documents and more, all in real time. The platform allows access to all servicing data and information without relying on a response from a subservicer.

“Before SIME, lenders would wait days for their subservicer to get back to them, and in that time, a lot can happen that impacts the borrower and the portfolio,” Vafai said. “And given that a lender’s portfolio is their greatest asset, it’s imperative for them, and their borrowers, to be able to connect.”

TMS recently updated SIME with a new borrower-facing mobile app, TMS Happinest Mobile. Borrowers can communicate with TMS through the app on their schedule and through their preferred line of communication. With the first version of the app, borrowers are able to access their account, view their statements and transaction history, and pay their mortgage.

And for the first time in the servicing industry, borrowers are able to upload and submit documents for their loan directly from a mobile phone. TMS plans to update the app with a 2.0 and 3.0 version throughout the year.

“Subservicing customers greatly appreciate that SIME is a self-service portal, giving them access to everything on demand,” Vafai said.

Product: “They’re able to check on their portfolio, gather reports, and check compliance without having SIME to ask.”

Lenders are able to fully brand SIME to their preferences through customer call centers in their brand identity so they remain the face SNAPSHOT: their clients already know and trust.

SIME disrupted the SIME is custom-built for servicing servicing industry compliance requirements and with its bold new houses data in a way that is simple to report for compliance audits. approach to servicing.

With SIME’s tracking abilities, The award-winning lenders can also stay on top of loan servicing delinquent loans and utilize platform provides unique management solutions full transparency to create portfolio projections into a lender’s loan to ensure the safety of their portfolio, offering business. reliable and unheardSIME also increases revenue of oversight tools. for lenders by re duci ng inefficiencies and increasing Lenders finally have productivity. real-time access to “Overall, SIME is a gametheir most valuable changer for the industry because it asset, along with all is like the nanny cam for servicing. In interactions between the past, parents would drop their kids the borrower and off at daycare, and they had no idea what servicer. their kid was doing. Similarly, when you gave your loan to a servicer, you had no idea how well they were taking care of the loan.

“With the invention of the nanny cam, parents could finally see everything that was really going on with their “Before SIME, lenders would wait child and how well they days for their subservicer to get back were being cared for. SIME to them, and in that time, a lot can does the same thing for happen that impacts the borrower lenders. It provides a realand the portfolio. And given that a time look into your portfolio lender’s portfolio is their greatest to see how it’s performing asset, it’s imperative for them, so you can proactively and their borrowers, to be able to manage your borrowers,” Vafai said. connect.” — Ali Vafai, TMS president HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 69

MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT SHOWCASE

Includes new borrower-facing mobile app, TMS Happinest Mobile

SPONSORED CONTENT

SIME provides transparency between lender, borrower and servicer

REACHING RENTERS

This National Renters Month, help ren

This September, as we recognize the second annual National Renters Month, it is time that we talk about treating renters as we have treated homeowners for years.

At the National Rental Home Council, we believe that all renters deserve the same opportunities that homeowners have, regardless of why they rent.

70 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą SEPTEMBER 2018

By Diane Tomb

nters access the American Dream

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 71

Renters have different reasons for why they rent – they want to live in a good home, in a safe neighborhood, with strong schools for their kids, they want to be close to their job, or, they want the flexibility to move, often not offered by homeownership – but, perhaps most critically, they want and deserve the freedom to choose the housing option that is right for them. The NRHC is committed to a more inclusive vision of the American Dream, one that offers promise to all Americans, not just those who own their homes.

It is often assumed that renters only do so because they can’t afford to be homeowners, but more Americans are renting today for a variety of reasons, including demographic shifts such as an aging population and young adults delaying major life decisions like getting married and having children.

Some can’t easily get a mortgage, and others, particularly many Baby Boomers and Millennials, enjoy the flexibility of not owning a home.

As researchers from the University of California, Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation found in research published earlier this year: People often choose to rent because it offers flexibility and affordability. First, we found that many households made the decision to rent for reasons that had nothing to do with the housing stock itself. Instead, the surveys and 72 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

interviews revealed the important role that renting plays in people’s housing trajectories, and especially in managing life transitions. […] Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents were already renters before moving into their current units — 35.8% rented single-family homes, while 30% had been living in multifamily buildings. Many also said that they chose to rent because of its positive attributes: 42.9% of respondents indicated that they were renting because it was more affordable, more convenient, provided more flexibility, and/or allowed them to access a better neighborhood.

Almost one in five respondents said that they had no plans to own in the future.

In single-family rentals, we offer many of the amenities of homeownership to a population that consists primarily of working families. Some of our renters want the flexibility of being able to change neighborhoods or cities within a few years without having to buy and sell a house each time; others are saving up for the down payment required to buy their first home; others are single parents who want a yard for their kids and a garage for their car, plus the convenience of being able to quickly pay rent and make maintenance requests online.

Those renters are all hard-working, productive members of society; they deserve just as much as anyone else to feel that they are part of the American Dream.

Our colleagues in the apartment industry offer a different type of dream, one that more often places an emphasis on urban, walkable lifestyles better suited for those without children, and shared amenities like gyms and rooftop pools.

As a society, we should not pick winners and losers between the different types of housing options that Americans are inclined to choose. Instead, we should recognize that different types of people can and will make different choices about what housing option is right for them at a certain point in their life, and support those choices accordingly.

Single-family rental homes are not a bet against homeownership. Rather, they are an important piece of a vibrant housing market and, for many, are a stepping stone to homeownership. The NRHC firmly believes in the importance of fostering public policies that incentivize homeownership and offer Americans access and the opportunity to purchase a home. But we also recognize that homeownership is not the right option for everyone at every point in their lives. We

Renters deserve the same commitment from policymakers that homeowners are afforded:

improved access and choice, and the opportunity to reside in a high-quality home.

believe that all Americans should be supported by policies that provide access to quality housing, no matter where they are on the continuum of renting or owning.

Indeed, it is at the policy level where far more time is spent debating and passing key policies associated with homeownership, like the mortgage interest tax deduction.

As the researchers from Berkeley wrote: U.S. housing policy has long privileged homeownership (including through the m o r t ga ge i n te re s t ta x de d u c t i o n a s well as through inst it ut ion s like the Federal Hou sing Administration), but rental housing provides important benefits, and the surveys and inter views revealed that the majority of respondents were happy with their decision to rent, at least for now.

One scholar from the Brookings Institution summed it up more concisely: “Under U.S. housing policies, homeowners mostly win, while renters mostly lose.”

Renters deserve the same commitment from policymakers that homeowners are afforded: improved access and choice, and the opportunity to reside in a high-quality home. At the federal, state and local levels, there are exciting new policy ideas, like renters tax credits and zoning changes, entering the bloodstream of policy discussion about how to build housing markets that work for everyone.

We believe it is critical to bring the single-family rental industry, and renters themselves, to the table to participate in these important discussions. We recognize and share concerns about housing affordability, and are glad to see non-traditional political coalitions forming that are focused on the only policy solu-

tion that will truly make housing available and affordable for all Americans: reducing barriers that hinder more affordable housing supply from coming to market.

Those of us within the single-family rental industry also have an important role to play in changing the perceptions of renters and renting.

NRHC members have spent almost $4 billion rehabilitating homes in communities across the country. Our members are developing new technology that continues to make operating and maintaining thousands of disparate properties not only possible but operationally efficient. We are offering more housing choices for families and providing a best-in-class experience that upholds the reputation of the industry as a whole. Our members are active in the communities in which they operate, teaming up with nonprofits to fill backpacks for students in need and encouraging employees to give back to their community. We also encourage our residents to be good citizens and active, involved members of their community. Their presence in neighborhoods should never be marginalized.

Renting is ultimately about flexibility and choice: The choice to live in a single-family house, with a garage for your car, a yard for your kids, and enough space to make your house a home. And that, is the American Dream.

Many of the new technological solutions that have come on line to help the single-family rental industry mature are aimed at making this vision a reality.

From self-showing for new rentals, allowing prospective renters to look at more homes and find the perfect fit, to 24/7 online maintenance requests, the SFR industry is focused on providing a superior rental experience that enables more Americans to access the housing solutions they desire. These amenities and benefits can range from the biggest things to the smallest: One of the surprising findings of the Terner Center’s study was that having access to private laundry was among the most important factors in respondents’ housing choices.

A vibrant housing market is one that provides all Americans with as many quality options as possible – renters are an important piece of this equation and deserve the same support and choice as homeowners, support that allows them to live a life of freedom, prosperity, and choice.

A life, in other words, that fulfills the American Dream.

Diane Tomb is the executive director of the National Rental Home Council, the non-partisan organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of the 16 million home single-family rental industry on legislative, regulatory and capital market matters. Learn more about the NRHC at rentalhomecouncil.org.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 73

Multifamily Bulletin

74 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Multifamily Bulletin

Zillow makes big move into rental services NEW TOOLS ALLOW RENTERS TO APPLY TO UNLIMITED PROPERTIES FOR FLAT FEE AND PAY RENT THROUGH ITS PORTAL

BY JEREMIAH JENSEN AND BEN LANE

ZILLOW is at it again, aiming to take more ground in the rental market. This week, the online real estate giant rolled out new online tools that allow renters to apply for multiple rentals with one application that includes a background check and eviction history through Checkr and credit reports through Experian.

The new functions also allow renters to pay rent through Zillow. Yes, you heard that right. Pay rent directly through Zillow, which will then pass the funds directly along to the property manager or owner.

“Renters tell us they want the entire rental process to happen online, from search to application to payment,” Zillow President Jeremy Wacksman said in a

statement. “However, most landlords don’t have the resources to offer these services. We’re excited to provide the technology to help renters and landlords have a better experience.”

With its new tools, Zillow is angling to jump straight in the middle of all that mess and allow renters to pay a flat fee of $29 for an all-encompassing application they can send to as many properties as they may be interested in during a 30-day period.

Additionally, Zillow will be collecting rent payments from renters, who can choose the payment type (debit or credit) that works best for them. The payment system also allows renters to set up automatic payments.

According to the company, these new products are part of the company’s effort to build an end-to-end solution that allows renters to complete the entire transaction using Zillow. The company said that once its rollout is complete, renters will be able to search for properties, schedule tours, apply, sign a lease and pay rent all from within Zillow itself.

NEW YORK CITY PROPOSES SWEEPING NEW RULES FOR SECURITY DEPOSITS New York City is in the middle of an affordability crisis, and now, the city is proposing sweeping new rules to address one piece of the affordability crunch that often stands in the way of renters finding a quality apartment or moving to a new HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 75

one – the security deposit.

Newly released data from RentCafé and Yardi Matrix shows that the average rent in Manhattan recently surpassed $4,000 per month, meaning prospective renters would have to save up $4,000 or more to use as their security deposit.

And often, renters can’t use that money at any point during the tenancy and they frequently don’t get that money back.

And that’s a problem, according to New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Recently, Stringer released a new proposal that would change the city’s policies surrounding security deposits and put limits on how much landlords can charge renters upfront.

Stringer’s proposal would limit security deposits to one month’s rent on a one-year lease for all units in New York City. Currently, rent-regulated units in the city are limited to one month’s rent as a security deposit, but the proposal would expand this rule to all units.

“Every day, New Yorkers are working harder and saving less – and right now, huge portions of their annual incomes are being held hostage in security deposits.

These may just be considered the costs of being a renter in New York, but it’s not right and it’s not necessary,” Stringer said in a statement.

“To tackle our mounting affordability crisis, we need to think outside the box and put bold ideas into action,” Stringer added. “Our proposals will change the rules of the housing market and put money back in the pockets of thousands of families looking for a bigger apartment in a better school district, to new gradu-

“

ates who have to find a place to live while paying down their student loans.”

In some cases, the upfront cost of moving to a new apartment can be more than 20% of a household’s yearly income, Stringer’s office noted. Oftentimes, landlords require tenants with low income or questionable credit to put up multiple months’ rent in a security deposit. in addition to capping the amount a landlord can charge for a security deposit, Stringer’s proposal would open up renters’ security deposit options beyond paying a full month’s rent upfront to include installment plans and using insurance as a security deposit alternative.

Under the installment plan, for example, tenants would have to pay in increments rather than paying the full month’s rent prior to moving in.

bad debt, get ahead of regulatory trends and increase efficiency.

A security deposit alternative is essentially the replacement of a standard security deposit with a one-time premium that covers losses in the event that a resident leaves a unit in shambles or walks out on his or her lease prematurely.

Employing a security deposit alternative does two main things: eliminates bad debt and lowers move-in costs.

According to Tom Schickel, vice president and general manager at DepositIQ, a subsidiary of RealPage, multifamily operators will continue to show interest in security deposit alternatives as the old way passes away and more municipalities put restrictions on how much properties can take for a security deposit, like New York City’s proposal.

This adds complexity to a property SECURITY DEPOSIT ALTERNATIVES GAIN- manager’s job, and security deposit alING GROUND IN RENTAL INDUSTRY ternatives have quickly established themProperty managers are turning to security selves as a viable solution for the added deposit alternatives as a way to mitigate complexity.

o tackle our mounting affordability crisis, we need to think outside the box and put bold T ideas into action. Our proposals will change the rules of the housing market and put money back in the pockets of thousands of families looking for a bigger apartment in a better school district, to new graduates who have to find a place to live while paying down their student loans.” – Scott Stringer, New York City Comptroller

76 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Multifamily Bulletin

“If you take the current standard re- REALPAGE LAUNCHING PLATFORM TO HELP fundable deposit, from an owner’s stand- TURN EMPTY APARTMENTS INTO SHORTpoint, you are taking the deposit; you are TERM RENTALS depositing it into the bank; you are hav- RealPage subsidiary Kigo, a vacation ing to pay interest in a lot of jurisdictions, rental booking and management platrefund or return interest, sometimes on form, is launching a new program that an annual basis even if the resident still will help landlords turn empty apartlives there; and then the vast majority of ments into short-term rentals. the time you’re returning the deposits,” The launch of this product comes at a Schickel told HousingWire. time when short-term rentals are a hot“So that whole transaction didn’t really button topicfor the industry, and while do anybody any good. So, when you go some multifamily entities are against with a security deposit alternative, you short-term rentals, RealPage is leaneliminate the management of that pro- ing into the issue as an opportunity for gram, the burden of returning the deposit, growth by targeting short-term rentals in paying interest…[and] it provides more multifamily properties. flexibility to the resident,” he added.

According to the company, the new Right now, Schickel says he’s seen offering is being rolled out nationwide about 10% of the rental market adopt se- after a successful pilot and beta testing curity deposit alternatives in some form with existing RealPage clients. The plator fashion and thinks that in the next two form will provide apartment owners and to five years, that percentage could reach operators with a technology platform to 20% to 30% market saturation. manage short-term rentals.

This is driven in part by the regulatory “KigoHospitality provides a real opporclimate seen in some of the major mul- tunity to optimize supply and demand tifamily markets, like Seattle and New through the secondary revenue stream York City, where governments are imple- that short-term rentals can deliver. Just menting limits on the amount of money a as important, pushing inventory out property manager can hold as a security of the long-term rental pool helps condeposit. strain supply, which YieldStar and LRO Schickel said there were marked up- monetize for owners in the form of higher ticks in interest and adoption of his rents,” RealPage Senior Vice President of product in markets where the regulatory Asset Optimization Keith Dunkin said in climate is moving the market away from a statement. traditional security deposit practices.

Though the short-term rental issue has “I would definitely anticipate see- ruffled some feathers in both the singleing more of this [legislation]. In states family and multifamily realms, consumer like California where they already have demand for the product continues to inrequirements on capping the move- crease with the increasing demand for in costs…I can see them following in travel.

Seattle’s footsteps. Obviously, the surMany multifamily owners and operarounding states and boroughs around tors want to capitalize on this increased New York might follow what they’re demand but can’t afford to foot the bills doing,” Schickel said. associated with doing so.

“There are a lot of different iterations Staffing, taxes, regulations, cleanalready, but I don’t see it getting easier. I ing services and guest screening all see it getting a little bit more difficult for add up and make running small-time property management companies to man- short-term rental operation more hassle age this process,” he added. than it is worth for many properties.

KigoHospitality offers management services for between five and 30 units that multifamily properties want to allocate for short-term rental use.

OVERSTOCK.COM MOVING INTO THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY Overstock.com is breaking into the real estate market.

The online retailer will begin to manage properties for landlords of single-family rental properties and multifamily housing developments via its new property management site, Houserie. Overstock purchased Houserie back February in preparation for its bid to become a onestop real estate shop.

“For nearly 20 years, Overstock has connected customers with premium home goods, helping them build their dream homes; now, we look forward to expanding those services in the real estate industry,” Overstock.com Senior Vice President of Strategy Seth Moore said in a statement.

“We’re always finding ways to use our technology to help customers find just what they want for their homes. Adding real estate to the mix was a natural fit for our brand,” he added.

Upon relaunching as an Overstock subsidiary with an overhauled design and an expanded suite of services, Houserie will offer property management services to landlords such as identity verification, eviction history, credit check, background check, tenant scorecard and comprehensive screening as well as rent payment management.

Rolling out the redeveloped site is the first phase of Overstock’s O Real Estate initiatives, the company said. These initiatives are tech-oriented and geared to take advantage of Overstock’s pre-existing search technology.

The company plans to become a onestop real estate shop offering a portal for renting, buying and managing properties.

The full O Real Estate website is slated to launch in September.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 77

CFPB Watch

78 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

CFPB Watch

Senate postpones CFPB director vote VOTE POSTPONED DUE TO RECESS

BY KELSEY RAMIREZ, CAROLINE BASILE THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE was set to vote on August 2 on the confirmation of the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau but announced suddenly that it would postpone its vote.

The committee planned its vote for the nomination of Kathy Kraninger as the next director of the CFPB, along with other nomination votes. However, on the evening before, the Banking Committee announced the postponement of its vote. The new date for the vote is still to be determined.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, scheduled the vote despite the fact that Kraninger has yet to submit responses to questions for the record from Senate Democrats concerning her views on financial regulation and immigration.

At the nomination hearing, Crapo told senators to submit any remaining questions to the nominees, saying they would have until July 31, 2018, to respond to the questions.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized Crapo’s decision to allow the vote to move forward, despite Kraninger’s irresponsiveness to senators’ questions, specifically those concerning the nominee’s role in constructing the controversial border policy

that separated illegal immigrant children from their parents.

“Ms. Kraninger and the Trump administration have offered no credible legal or factual basis for withholding this information, yet you are accepting their position and pressing forward with a rushed vote on Ms. Kraninger’s nomination,” Warren said. “I am deeply concerned by your willingness to accept their untenable position and by your refusal to work with your Committee members — as you have in the past — to resolve their good-faith concerns.”

But while the committee did postpone the vote, it was not due to Kraninger’s lack of response. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Wednesday his plan to end senate business Wednesday for a short recess until August 13.

Kraninger’s nomination hearing did not go smoothly. Due to Kraninger dodging questions and the senators asking loaded questions or giving little time to answer, very little actually got resolved in the hearing.

Many question Kraninger’s ability to pass the nomination process, and some even suspect that her nomination could simply be a ploy to keep CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney at the helm. If HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 79

CFPB Watch NAFCU PUSHES CFPB FOR MORE PAYDAY LENDING EXCEPTIONS Back in October last year, the CFPB announced its new 1,690-pagelong payday lending rule that included several exceptions for credit unions.

The rule, while setting limits on payday lending, does provide several exceptions. The final rule exempts loans issued by credit unions in conformance with the National Credit Union Administration for payday alternative loans.

These PAL I loans allow members of federal credit unions to borrow small amounts of money at a lower cost than traditional payday loans, and repay the loan over a longer period. The loans CFPB OPENS INNOVATION OFFICE must be issued to members of credit unions who have been with In July, the CFPB announced it opened a “regulatory sandbox” for the union at least one month. They are for amounts from $200 to fintech companies developing new products and services. $1,000 with a maximum annual percentage rate of 28% with an The bureau’s newly created Office of Innovation, which was cre- application fee of no more than $20. It must be fully repaid after ated after a dramatic reorganization of the agency, will be led by one to six months, and no rollovers are allowed. Borrowers cannot Paul Watkins, a former lawyer with the Arizona attorney general’s have more than three PALs within a six month period. office. who set up the FinTech Regulatory Sandbox, a program But now, the National Association of Federally Insured Credit meant to encourage companies to bounce ideas off Arizona state Unions wants more. officials.

NAFCU sent a letter to Mulvaney, calling on the bureau to exAccording to the bureau’s press release, the new Office of empt all credit union PAL loans. Currently, it only exempts PAL I Innovation will “focus on encouraging consumer-friendly inno- loans, not the newer PAL II loans. vation, which is now a key priority for the Bureau.” The CFPB “Expanding the safe harbor exemption to encompass loans comalso announced the work that was previously done under Project pliant with any of NCUA’s PALs programs will assist in widespread Catalyst will be transitioned to this new office. adoption of the PALs program amongst credit unions,” NAFCU “The Bureau intends to fulfill its statutory mandate to promote said in its letter. “Expansion of the safe harbor exemption will competition, innovation, and consumer access within financial give credit unions peace of mind knowing that they are in comservices. To achieve this goal, the new office will focus on creating pliance with both the NCUA and the bureau’s rules.” policies to facilitate innovation, engaging with entrepreneurs and The PAL II loans, proposed in June, would permit loans up to regulators, and reviewing outdated or unnecessary regulations,” $2,000 with no minimum, and have a maximum loan term of up to a statement from the CFPB said.

12 months. These new loans would also not have the 30-day memIn an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mulvaney ex- bership requirement. There would also be no limit to the number plained that the new office will be looking at different financial of PAL II loans consumers could use in a six-month timeframe, tech based on blockchain, private and cryptocurrencies, and but they would only be permitted to hold one PAL II loan at a time. microlending.

“Alternatively, NAFCU recommends that at a minimum, the Mulvaney told the paper that the office also could help compa- bureau expand the safe harbor exemption to encompass PALs II nies explore alternatives to traditional credit-scoring methods, when finalized by the NCUA,” the letter said. “NAFCU respectfully such as considering rent and mobile-phone payments, consumer requests that the bureau work with the NCUA in expanding the shopping behavior and social media activity in credit decisions. safe harbor exemption.”

“You can make a strong argument...that new technology acThe letter argues that credit unions are responsible lenders that tually offers new and innovative ways to protect consumers,” provide safe, accessible and low-cost loans to meet the demands Mulvaney told the WSJ. “You are moving light years beyond the of their members’ short-term, small-dollar needs. It explained complaint hotline to where you can really see things happening that in a recent survey, 40% of adults reported they would need to in real time,” he added, referring to the bureau’s public consumer borrow money or sell something in order to cover an unexpected complaint portal. The database is popular with consumers but emergency expense of $400 dollars or more. not with financial companies, which say it spreads unverified “According to NCUA’s proposed rule, PALs II may fall within negative information about them. the bureau’s alternative loan exemption; however, any future PALs programs are afforded no protection from the rule,” the letter stated. her nomination is denied in the Senate, President Donald Trump will have another 210 days to nominate a new replacement.

Kraninger’s nomination wasn’t the only one held back either.

Other votes that were pushed backed included Kimberly Reed to be president of the Export-Import Bank, Elad Roisman to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael Bright to be president of Ginnie Mae, Rae Oliver to be inspector general of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Dino Falaschetti to be director of the office of financial research for the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

80 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

More happens here.

Congratulations!

We congratulate Charlotte Catalfo and Carl McLaughlin on receiving HousingWire’s 2018 Insider’s Award and Lauren Garren and Jodi Morton for being honored with HousingWire’s 2018 Women of Influence Award.

It’s the varied backgrounds, insights and ideas of leaders like these that give our organization strength and enable us to redefine the housing finance industry.

Do you seek a career that embraces diversity, accountability, and collaboration?

Find that and more at Freddie Mac.

FreddieMac.jobs

Kudos MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS • HOUSESFORSALE.COM PARTNERS WITH DOTLOOP AND CONTACTUALLY Upstart real estate listing service, HousesForSale.com, is getting an extra vote of confidence from some big names in the real estate transaction business. The ZIP code, flat-fee-based listing service aunched to great fanfare this year, and now it just announced partnerships with Zillow-owned Dotloop and HousingWire Tech 100 winner Contactually to automate each step of the real estate transaction lifecycle. The partnerships are notable because it takes the tech-heavy lifting away from real estate agents so they can focus more on their online property sales.

LENDINGTREE ACQUIRES STUDENT LOAN HERO LendingTree closed on the acquisition of Student Loan Hero, a personal finance website that helps borrowers manage their student debt. Student Loan Hero is led by CEO Andrew Josuweit, who founded the company in 2012 to help manage the nation’s immense student debt burden. Over its six-year lifespan, Student Loan Hero says it has helped more than 200,000 borrowers manage and eliminate over $3.5 billion in student loan debt. LendingTree plans to leverage the acquisition to accelerate the growth of its student loan business, and to that end, it will pay $60 million in cash for the acquisition.

MILESTONES • FANNIE MAE TRANS-

ACHIEVEMENT • WOMEN’S MORTGAGE BANKING COLLECTIVE RELEASES NEW LOGO The newly formed Women’s Mortgage Banking Collective just released its logo.

The group was founded in April to bring together women working on all levels in the mortgage banking community to educate, connect and empower each other.

Co-founded by Stacie Rankey and Toni Bramley, the group meets monthly in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. “We knew what we were looking for in a group, connecting women was the foundation, but also having a speaker share her story and offer practical applications was key,” said Rankey. “The format is casual, and everyone is welcome whether you live in Dallas/Fort Worth or you are in town for business,” added Bramley.

82 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

FERS RISK ON $23 BILLION IN SINGLE-FAMILY LOANS Fannie Mae announced its third credit insurance risk transfer transaction of 2017 on $23 billion in single-family loans. The GSE explained that the risk will be transferred to 17 insurers and reinsurers, a sign of growing interest in its CIRT program. This latest transaction is part of Fannie Mae’s ongoing effort to reduce taxpayer risk by increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market. This transaction increased the total insurance coverage the GSE acquired to $5 billion on $305 billion in loans through the CIRT program.

QUICKEN LOANS NAMED TOP MORTGAGE SERVICER Despite recent technological advancements in the mortgage industry, servicers continue to fall behind in an already lagging industry. The latest survey from J.D. Power shows Americans are not impressed. On a 1,000-point scale, the overall satisfaction average is 758 in 2018, virtually unchanged from 754 in 2017 and 755 in 2016. But while servicers struggle to improve consumer satisfaction, some mortgage servicers stand out above the rest. To no one’s surprise, and for the

fifth year in a row, Quicken Loans took the spot as best servicer with a score of 857.

The company’s success is largely attributed to its marketing of Rocket Mortgage, a tool that walks consumers through the mortgage process.

CONGRATULATIONS

Jami Haddad

Jennifer Ward

Kimberly Hartsough

SVP, National Post-Closing and Audit Operations Manager

SVP, National Closing Manager

SVP, National Production Operations Manager

2018 HousingWire Insiders Thank you for your relentless drive, commitment and focus on excellence. Through leadership and hard work, each of you have made a tremendous contribution to PrimeLending and strengthened our outstanding Operations Team.

One Team. One Purpose.

PrimeLending.com

Š 2018 PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company. PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company (NMLS: 13649). Equal Housing Lender.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Rida Sharaf is senior vice president of operations at USRES.

Executive conversation: Rida Sharaf on providing REO liquidation for mobile homes USRES leverages its expertise in asset management to navigate challenging regulatory hurdles Q. USRES is one of the oldest providers of real estate services in the country.

What led USRES to start providing REO disposition for mobile homes?

A. Two foundational tenets within USRES’ corporate culture are continual service growth and innovative service solutions, both of which are paramount cornerstones in our quest to address our clients’ challenges and needs. Our many years of experience have provided us with a multitude of important attributes that give us a solid foundation to manage the disposition and liquidation of mobile homes.

First, adaptations and incorporation of new processes and procedures have been standardized in a fashion that expedites implementation, while maintaining QC expectations and guidelines.

Second, our strong and established relationship with our national vendor network. Possessing the “boots on the ground” is an intangible value that we have been very fortunate to have forged through our time within the industry.

Third, our expedited access and proficiency at adapting our existing technology to accommodate new product/asset

workflows. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the experience of our tenured staff of real estate experts. Understanding the nuances of real property assets, specifically REO assets, has enabled us to quickly gather and master the unique idiosyncrasies associated with mobile homes.

All of these attributes positioned us perfectly to expand our industry-best REO management and liquidation services to the mobile home asset class. Simply stated, it just made sense, we have the capability, and there is a definite need.

Q. What are some of the challenges around providing this service for a new asset class?

A. As with traditional REO management and liquidation, the biggest challenges within the mobile home asset class are related to relationships and compliance.

The mobile home industry is a closeknit community with long-standing relationships between varying participants.

Developing relationships based on trust and cooperation has been paramount.

Taking the time to understand the needs,

“Our many years of experience have provided us with a multitude of important attributes that give us a solid foundation to manage the disposition and liquidation of mobile homes.”

84 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

nuances, and expectations of our clients, mobile home dealers, manufacturers, vendors and buyers has played a vital role in establishing our presence and value within this community.

At the forefront of this relationship building are professionalism and integrity. Once we established trust and clearly communicated our vested interest in the collective success of all parties involved, we were able to quickly begin streamlining procedures and process, thus making management and liquidation faster with heightened accuracy.

Just as important as the aforementioned relationships is the understanding of the regulatory guidelines involved with managing and liquidating mobile homes.

Every state (and in some cases, county) has different rules governing the various aspects of the management and sale of this asset class. Being able to quickly aggregate, process and learn these laws and guidelines was of the utmost priority.

Our robust implementation procedures and subject-matter-expert staff, through our vast vendor networks, were able to accomplish the necessary steps to understand the different rules and regulations, while simultaneously implementing procedural and technological workflows and tools to remain compliant.

Q. What role does technology play in successfully liquidating mobile homes?

A. Technology has become a cornerstone in almost all aspects of real estate man-

agement and liquidation (and life in general). Mobile home asset management is no exception. Through USRES’ intimate understanding and proficiency of the RES.NET REO Portal, we were able to quickly utilize existing workflows and tools to begin standardizing the process.

Additionally, through the REO Portal’s custom field and task capabilities, we were able to add critical waterfall-type workflows and procedures to assist our clients and us in maintaining a high level of quality assurance, while establishing a higher degree of transparency and performance reporting related to the management and liquidation of mobile homes. Technology has played a critical role in our successful implementation of this product offering.

Furthermore, we are in discussions to develop even more robust tools to continue to expand our reach and transparency, while improving execution and results related to the mobile home asset class.

Q. How does your company’s long experience in REO disposition help you understand the nuances of servicing this unique property type?

A. Our extensive experience in the management and liquidation of traditional REO Asset Management puts us in a unique position to successfully enter the mobile home REO space. Over the course of 25 years, we have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from our clients, vendors, and specifically challenging situations, which has made us adept at problem-solving related to new products,

processes and the associated procedures necessary to be successful.

I believe that what sets our service (and our company in general) apart from our competitors is our focus and attention on what our clients expect and need. We take the time to go through every detail to gain a full understanding of what is required and potentially what can be improved upon. We take a lot of pride in our accountability and ownership related to everything we work on or intend to take on. I believe these two specific qualities provide a platform that breeds a culture of success.

Given this culture and the high expectations we put on ourselves, taking on new products and/or services is something that we welcome and look forward to.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 85

Knowledge

Center

86 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

W H I T E PA PE R: Infor m ati v e R ese a rch | SP ONSOR E D CON T E N T

Knowledge Center

Managing mortgage loan costs in a competitive market HOW LENDERS CAN SAVE MONEY AND AVOID INVESTING RESOURCES IN UNQUALIFIED BORROWERS

THE MORTGAGE FINANCE INDUSTRY continues to adapt to new market conditions and new borrower expectations. The number of lenders offering online applications is growing quickly, but the efficiency and reach of this technology have a downside: Borrowers cannot only quickly and easily shop for multiple mortgage loan products using these online applications, they can also apply with multiple lenders. This adds a whole new layer onto the normal percentage of loans that fall out of the process due to a low appraisal or the inability of a borrower to qualify.

The necessity of serving borrowers online is projected to grow substantially as more Millennials enter the mortgage market. As Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, noted in a recent Reuters article, “The biggest group of new homebuyers in 2018 and subsequent years are folks…who are very comfortable with transacting digitally. Lenders who are catering to and marketing to those digital natives are the ones that are experiencing the most growth.”

But with that growth comes the possibility of investing resources in borrowers who won’t end up at the closing table. In 2017, more than 5,000 financial institutions reported data under HMDA on about 12.1 million home mortgage applications, including

approximately 2.3 million applications that were closed by the lender as incomplete or were withdrawn by the applicant before a decision was made.

Unfortunately, those applications don’t just represent a lost future opportunity — lenders spend money serving borrowers in the application process, even when those borrowers don’t end up qualifying for a loan or go with another mortgage company.

FINDING EFFECIENCIES IN THE MORTGAGE LANDSCAPE Economic factors such as rising interest rates and increasing home prices are contributing to a very competitive housing market in 2018 — for both buyers and lenders.

The Federal Reserve was widely expected to raise rates three times in 2018 and two more times in 2019, but with strong labor market conditions and strong GDP growth in the first quarter, rates might be raised more frequently, putting the nail in the coffin of any remaining refinance segment of the mortgage market.

To read the entire white paper, visit the Knowledge Center at knowledge.housingwire.com.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 87

Knowledge

Center

88 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

W H I T E PA PE R: A rch M I | SP ONSOR E D CON T E N T

Knowledge Center

The cost of not using mortgage insurance MORTGAGE INSURANCE OFFERS FLEXIBILITY HOUSING ANALYSTS point to decreasing home affordability as a vital issue in 2018, with costs for buyers rising sharply due to a series of recently announced and future expected interest rate hikes over the course of the year.

If interest rates rise as expected, this “would make 2018 one of the worst full-year deteriorations in affordability for the past 25 years,” according to Dr. Ralph DeFranco, global chief economist, mortgage services, Arch Capital Services. DeFranco’s comments are in the Spring 2018 issue of Arch MI’s Housing and Mortgage Market Review (HaMMRSM).

Zillow Research economists say the lack of affordable homes already exceeds historic norms in four California cities, plus Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Miami, Florida.

If mortgage rates increase from their current level of about 4.75% to 6%, homes in 20 of the largest 35 cities would become less affordable than the historic norm.

HOWEVER, FOCUSING ON HOME AFFORDABILITY IN LARGE CITIES ONLY TELLS PART OF A MULTI-FACETED STORY: • Thanks to a strong housing market, homeowners benefited from an average 39% rise in the price of a median-priced home over from 2013 through 2018, according to the National Association of Realtors.

• Many renters have been experiencing price hikes year after year. The cost of one-bedroom rentals soared 10.1% over the past year.

• Across much of the country, buying a house remains affordable in comparison to historic levels.

• Rising wages are starting to lessen the impact of home price increases, resulting in solid growth in homeownership rates.

All of this shows the importance of helping potential homebuyers understand the full picture of rising home prices.

Due to rising costs, more and more potential buyers are being shut out of the market, especially at the entry level. Since renters typically devote a higher percentage of their income to housing than homeowners, providing flexible downpayment options can help renters with solid earnings purchase a home – and gain a fixed-rate mortgage with principal and interest payments that will not increase over the life of the loan.

According to the Zumper National Rent Report, the monthly rent on a one-bedroom apartment is up 9.8% over 2017, averaging $1,255 nationally in January 2018. Two-bedroom apartments averaged $1,388 in January, up 2.2% over the previous year.

In addition to stable payments, homeownership is the most common way for a family to acquire a solid asset by building equity as the mortgage is paid down and benefitting when property values rise.

To read the entire white paper, visit the Knowledge Center at knowledge.housingwire.com.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 89

Knowledge

Center

90 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

W H I T E PA PE R: Docu tech | SP ONSOR E D CON T E N T

Knowledge Center

Remodeling dreams HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS MAKE THEM A REALITY WITH A HELOC HOMEOWNERS have a collective $5.4 trillion in “tappable” equity; an increase of 285% in 6 years!

Interest in remodeling is surging and homeowners are transforming their existing homes into their dream homes by adding eco-friendly enhancements, accessibility accommodations and luxury upgrades, to name a few.

Now is the time to help your customers make their remodeling dreams come true with access to a home equity line of credit.

And with Docutech, you can deliver a streamlined document and eSign experience to make those dreams come true even faster.

TAPPING INTO THE RISING TIDE OF HOME EQUITY What is the most significant generator of wealth for Americans right now? According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, it’s the increasing appreciation of their homes and real estate. The survey found that the median net worth of homeowners increased 15% since the previous report in 2013, largely due to the rebound in housing values across the country. On the other hand, renters saw their net worth decline 5% in the same period.

This increase in wealth, combined with strong consumer confidence for the future, creates a growing interest in leveraging home equity for home improvement and remodeling initiatives.

This significant increase in equity wealth could drive an increase in HELOC originations over the next few years. This is particularly significant for financial institutions because HELOCs still tend to be an institution-offered secured lending product.

HELOCS AND THE NEW TAX LAWS For consumers, home equity often provides a low-cost option for accessing cash for major purchases. Traditionally, consumers

have used HELOCs for everything from home improvement projects to reducing credit card debt to financing higher education.

However, the recently passed tax law provides incentives for borrowers to limit HELOCs to certain categories. Under the new law, interest payments toward a HELOC are only deductible if the money is used to make “substantial improvements” to the home and all combined mortgages on a property are less than $750,000.

That’s not to say that other uses of a HELOC can’t be leveraged, but the tax implications must be considered by the borrower when deciding if the line of credit is beneficial to them.

In some cases, consumers may still decide that the lower interest rate of a HELOC is worth the trade-off of using their home for collateral and not being able to take advantage of the tax deductions on interest for certain situations – paying off very high interest credit cards, for example.

Despite the tax changes, how large will the market grow?

TransUnion projects that 10 million consumers will originate a HELOC between 2018 and 2022.

This would more than double the 4.8 million HELOCs originated in the previous five-year period (2012-2016). Financial institutions need to be prepared for the demand and understand how to identify those customers who present the best opportunity for a new HELOC. As the economy remains strong, the appetite for remodeling is growing quickly, and one of the most affordable sources of funding for major remodeling projects is a HELOC.

To read the entire white paper, visit the Knowledge Center at knowledge.housingwire.com.

HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 91

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

INDEX

HW INSIDERS 40 industry players whose outstanding accomplishments have set them apart

P. 32

TECH SHOWCASE Innovative tech solutions that are taking mortgage lending to the next level

P. 49

HOUSINGWIRE MAGAZINE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

TIMOTHY MAYOPOULOS

How he fixed Fannie Mae p. 28

BACK ON

TRACK

HOW TIMOTHY MAYOPOULOS FIXED FANNIEMAE

COMPANIES

G

PromonTech.............................................................................49, 63

A

Genworth...................................................................................49, 59

Q

Altisource............................................................................10, 33, 40

H

Qualia.............................................................................................33, 41 Quicken Loans ................................................................................82

American Land Title Association .........................................10

HomeStreet......................................................................................20

Amrock.........................................................................................33, 45

HousesForSale.com.....................................................................82

R

I

Radian........................................................................... 25, 33, 36, 43

Arch MI .........................................................................14, 33, 40, 89 ATTOM Data Solutions .............................................................87 Auction.com.............................................................................33, 46

IDS.................................................................................................. 33, 38 iEmergent...................................................................................33, 43

B

Informative Research ...............................................................87 Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital ��������������������10 Black Knight ....................................................................45, 49-50

C

RealPage..................................................................................... 76-77 Redefy Holdings ............................................................................10 RentCafé............................................................................................76

J

RES.NET..............................................................................49, 65, 85

JLL...........................................................................................................10

S

JPMorgan Chase ...........................................................................20 Calyx Software ...............................................................................10

radius financial group .........................................................33, 43

ServiceLink.......................................................................... 10, 33, 37

K

SIME..................................................................................................... 69

Citadel Servicing ............................................................................18

Kigo.........................................................................................................77

SimpleNexus............................................................................49, 66

CitiBank...............................................................................................20

L

Capital Economics .......................................................................22

Class Appraisal .......................................................................33, 39 CoesterVMS...............................................................................33, 36 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ��������������������������79 Contactually.....................................................................................82 CoreLogic..................................................................... 33, 42, 49, 51

D

Land Gorilla .......................................................33, 35, 37, 49, 60 LBA Ware ...................................................................................33, 35 LendingTree......................................................................................82

Docutech..............................................................................49, 53, 91

E

Ephesoft.....................................................................................49, 55 ERA Real Estate..............................................................................10

TMS....................................................................... 33, 44-45, 49, 69

Mortgage Cadence ..............................................................49, 62 Mortgage Quality Management and Research 33, 46

N

National MI ...............................................................................33, 35,

Factom........................................................................................49, 56

O

Fannie Mae .. 5, 7, 10, 30-31, 33, 35, 40, 46, 50, 53-54, 57,

FICO.......................................................................................................20 First American Mortgage Solutions ............33-34, 49, 57 FirstClose...................................................................................49, 58 FormFree.....................................................................................33, 35 Freddie Mac..................................................10, 31, 33, 36, 43, 54

B Bartning, Christina.................................................................33, 35 Benson, David.....................................................................10, 29-31 Bernstone, Louann................................................................33, 35 Birmingham, Lisa...................................................................33, 35 Blomquist, Daren...........................................................................87 Boggs, Dennis...................................................................................10 Bright, Michael...............................................................................80 Bright, Toni.................................................................................33, 36 Brown, Celeste...........................................................................10, 31

C Cadwell, Jill.................................................................................33, 36 Catalfo, Charlotte...................................................................33, 36 Christerson, Brittany.............................................................33, 37 Christie, Jane....................................................................................55 Connett, Jordan...............................................................................10 Crapo, Mike........................................................................................79 Cunningham, Casey.........................................................5, 26-27

Dougherty, Bob................................................................................10

United Wholesale Mortgage .................................. 33, 42, 47 USRES..................................................................................65, 84-85

V

Dretler, Dan........................................................................................10 Dunkin, Keith.....................................................................................77

F Falaschetti, Dino...........................................................................80 Faries, Sean......................................................................................60 Faries, Shannon.......................................................................33, 37

Wells Fargo ...............................................................................10, 20

Fisher, Will...........................................................................................18

Westcor Land Title Insurance Company �����������������������20

G

X

Gagliano, Rich..................................................................................50

XINNIX.................................................................................................. 27

Gardner, Harry.................................................................................53

Y

Gauthier, Trevor..............................................................................62

Overstock.com.................................................................................77

P

Yardi Matrix.......................................................................................76

Pacific Union Financial ..............................................................20

Z

Griffith, Tobias......................................................................... 33, 38

Pavaso.........................................................................................49, 64

Zillow.......................................................................................8, 75, 89

H

Optimal Blue ....................................................................................16

PeerStreet................................................................................. 33, 38 Planet Home Lending ................................................................10 PrimeLending................................................................... 33, 39, 47

92 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018

Armstrong, Neil............................................................................. 68

U

W

NotaryCam..........................................................................33, 41, 47

Alexander, Justin.....................................................................33-34

D

National Credit Union Administration ���������������������������80

Facebook............................................................................................20

A

TRELORA.............................................................................................10

VantageScore.................................................................................20

Notarize..............................................................................................20

82, 92

Transformational Mortgage Solutions ������������������33, 44

National Rental Home Council .................................5, 70, 73

NewDay USA.................................................................... 33, 42, 44

F

T

LRES.......................................................................................................10

National Foundation for Credit Counseling ..................10

Ellie Mae ...............................................................33, 38, 41, 49, 54

Sutherland................................................................................49, 68

The National Assocation of Realtors ........................22, 89

Digital Risk .................................................................................33, 45

Dotloop...............................................................................................82

Stifel......................................................................................................22

London Computer Systems ............................................33, 37

M

DocMagic...................................................................................49, 52

Speedpay................................................................................... 49, 67

PEOPLE

Gollapudi, Aravinda............................................................. 33, 38 Graham, Dan............................................................................ 33, 38

Haddad, Jami............................................................................33, 39 Hansen, Matt.................................................................................. 66 Happ, Scott........................................................................................16

AD INDEX A Haro, Jill.............................................................................................................10

Oursler, Michael “Mo”........................................................................33, 44

Hartsough, Kimberly........................................................................33, 39

Ozenghar, Beth....................................................................................33, 44

Holmes, Michael.................................................................................33, 39

P

Huff, Phil...................................................................................................33, 40

J

Pajon, Rob..................................................................................................... 65 Pearce, Michael............................................................................................22

Johnson, Art..........................................................................................33, 40

Powell, Jerome............................................................................................22

Josuweit, Andrew.......................................................................................82

Pyle, Laurie.................................................................................................... 56

Jumpe, Jim.......................................................................................14, 33, 40

R

K

Rand, Jennifer....................................................................................... 33, 45

Kavas, Ike........................................................................................................55

Rawlings, Eric........................................................................................ 33, 45

Kolbrener, Michael.....................................................................................63

Rediger, Chris..................................................................................................10

Korsmo, Michelle.........................................................................................10

Reyes, Denisse De Los.......................................................................33, 37

Kraninger, Kathy.........................................................................................79

Roisman, Elad.............................................................................................80

Krause, Adam........................................................................................ 33, 41

S

Kressel, David........................................................................................ 33, 41

L

Schickel, Tom................................................................................................76 Schleicher, Kristi.................................................................................. 33, 45

Lalisse, Dominique.....................................................................................51

Schwartz, Stephen............................................................................33, 46

Lamb, Max............................................................................................... 33, 41

Sharaf, Rida..................................................................................................84

Langer, Nancy................................................................................................51

Sinn, Steven...........................................................................................33, 46

Light, Marlene....................................................................................... 33, 42

Skiadas, Niko..................................................................................................10

Lightfoot, Andria....................................................................................... 54

Skrzynski, Walter................................................................................33, 46

Little, Scott............................................................................................ 33, 42

Smith, Henry..........................................................................................33, 47

Liu, Xing.................................................................................................... 33, 42

Smith, Tedd.................................................................................................. 58

Lockridge, Frank..........................................................................................67

Smith, Tim..................................................................................................... 58

Lujan, Steven A.................................................................................... 24-25

Steele, Rebecca............................................................................................10

M

Swaminathan, Krish................................................................................68

Mayopoulos, Timothy.................................................. 1, 5, 7, 10, 29-30

T

McChesney, Mike..........................................................................................10

Tomb, Diane.......................................................................................5, 71, 73

McConnell, Mitch........................................................................................79

V

McGrew, Dan................................................................................................64 McLaughlin, Carl.................................................................................. 33, 43 McMahon, Kevin......................................................................................... 59 Miller, Ben.......................................................................................................66 Moore, Seth................................................................................................... 77 Moran, Monty................................................................................................10 Mulvaney, Mick........................................................................................5, 79

N Nossuli, Bernard.................................................................................. 33, 43

O

Arch MI.................................................................................................3, 23 B

Black Knight Financial Services.......................................................2 C

Computershare Loan Services........................................................17 D

DocMagic.................................................................................................. 11 E

Ellie Mae............................................................................................. 6, 19 F

FICS...........................................................................................................85 Freddie Mac............................................................................................81 M

MBA.............................................................................................................4 N

McCormick, David............................................................................... 33, 43 McElroy, Mark...............................................................................................64

American Advisors Group................................................................. 15

Vafai, Ali..........................................................................................................69 Vedder, Justin................................................................................................10

New American Funding...................................................................96

W Wacksman, Jeremy...................................................................................75

P

Wall, Diana......................................................................................................10 Wall, Kevin......................................................................................................57

PrimeLending.......................................................................................83

Ward, Jennifer.......................................................................................33, 47 Warren, Elizabeth.......................................................................................79

S

Watkins, Paul...............................................................................................80 Weinstein, Ilya...............................................................................................10

Stewart Title Guaranty Company................................................ 21

Wetzel, Paul..................................................................................................62 White, Brandon............................................................................................16

O’Connor, David...................................................................................33, 44

Wolfe, Adam..........................................................................................33, 47

Oliver, Rae......................................................................................................80

Wu, Ben.............................................................................................................61

T

The Mortgage Collaborative........................................................... 13 HOUSINGWIRE ❱ SEPTEMBER 2018 93

PARTING SHOT

â?ą THE DIGITAL MORTGAGE HAS ARRIVED Recently, Texas had its first-ever, fully digital closing. Its bill legalizing remote notarization went into effect July 1, bringing the total number of states where a 100% paperless, bits and bytes exclusive, ones and zeroes only closing is possible up to 38. The digital mortgage is here, and it is a mere 12 states away from full adoption in the United States.

The first-ever online closing in the U.S took place last year in Illinois, and now just one year later, we are approaching the final push for complete revolution. The future is now, folks.

94 HOUSINGWIRE â?ą SEPTEMBER 2018

HW VANGUARD AWARDS™

Celebrating the U.S. housing economy's leaders of the year Nominations close September 28, 2018

The HW Vanguard Awards™ recognize top-level business leadership driving the growth of the U.S. housing economy and its various sectors, including residential mortgage lending, servicing, investments, and real estate. HW Vanguards represent an elite level of leadership, and an undeniable commitment to excellence.

Look for results in HousingWire Magazine’s Dec/Jan 2018 issue.

Visit us at HousingWire.com/Vanguard

RICK ARVIELO CEO, New American Funding

PATTY ARVIELO President, New American Funding

Bring it all together

www.BetterAtNAF.com

NMLS ID #6606. Licensed by Arizona Department of Financial Institutions license BK-0912376, Department of Business Oversight under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act License, N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance, Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance. www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee, License # 22564. Illinois Residential Mortgage Licensee. Kansas Licensed Mortgage Company Licensed MC.0025168. Mortgage Lender & Mortgage Broker License MC6606, Ohio Mortgage Broker Act Mortgage Banker Exemption License MBMB.850190.000. Rhode Island Licensed Lender.

Texas licensed location 6504 International Pkwy, Ste. 1300, Plano, TX 75093. Consumer Loan Company License #CL-6606. Corporate Address: 14511 Myford Rd, Ste. 100, Tustin CA 92780 Corporate Phone: (800) 450-2010