While Manilay Khamsyvoravong, Realtor for Mastermind Realty Corp., was apprehensive about her first REO experience, she never thought it would turn out the way it did. Khamsyvoravong says she knew selling her first piece of REO property wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Ellie Mae introduced its Encompass Banker Edition 3.0, the latest version of its popular Encompass Mortgage Management System for bankers and brokers this week, according to a press release from the company.

Market Kinetix, LLC has introduced its Deal Maker Score 3.0, an upgraded version of its well-received credit analysis solution, according to a company press release. The changes reflect adjustments that repositories have made in responding to credit-related instances, such as new revolving credit accounts and accounts with past due balances.

USFN, a nationwide network of attorneys specializing in default servicing and mortgage banking, has forged a partnership with mortgage solutions provider MortgageHub to increase home retention and loss mitigation options for troubled borrowers nationwide.

Visionet Systems Inc. (VSI) has reached a milestone in its business processing by indexing ten million mortgage documents a month using its new auto indexing and data extraction solution, VisiOCR. The new technology can take a raw image mortgage file, convert it into the proper format, index the pages into desired categories and upload the newly categorized documents into a client’s imaging repository.

RealEC Technologies Inc. announced a joint effort with Fidelity National Information Services Inc. this week to launch a nationwide platform for delivering innovative, Web-transactions, according to a company press release.

EMC Mortgage Corp. has promoted Edward Lam to the position of senior vice president and controller within the Financial Management Division. Judy Leto, chief financial officer and executive vice president of financial management, says Lam’s leadership and management expertise will be an asset to the company.

Existing-home sales are likely to decline in the coming months as mortgage disruptions work their way through the housing market, according to a press release from the National Association of Realtors.

In a new report from First American CoreLogic, the company explores two detrimental mortgage fraud schemes plaguing lenders – condo conversions and builder bailouts. While fraud detection technology has become more advanced, criminals continue finding ways to profit by defrauding others , the report concluded.

National Tax Limitation Committee (NTLC) President Lewis Uhler is against proposals to bail out the subprime lending industry, according to an NTLC report. With possible losses at $100 billion, Uhler says borrowers, investors and lenders should be held responsible for their own mistakes and the slowdown has turned subprime lending into subprime returns.