Technology

HOPE LoanPort has announced a partnership with the state of Maryland and GMAC Mortgage to deliver a direct-to-consumer foreclosure mediation portal. GMAC is funding development of the portal and will be the first mortgage servicer to use it. The portal, scheduled to go live in October 2011, will be the first statewide program in the nation to allow homeowners and servicers to exchange documents electronically prior to foreclosure mediation.

First Preston Management, Inc., based out of Addison, Texas, has taken a new name, First Preston HT. The company's various brands within the asset management industry - First Preston, HomeTelos, HomeTracker, Lender Center, and BidSelect - are now unified in the market under the new First Preston HT name. First Preston HT's combined real estate services and technology have been used to sell more than 400,000 properties and manage a portfolio values at over $35 billion for its clients.

AOL Inc. has launched a new real estate search on AOL Real Estate that is powered by Move, Inc. The new search engine returns homes for sale, foreclosures, new homes, off-market, and recently sold properties provided to AOL through Move's ListHub syndication network. The AOL Real Estate search now delivers new tools that enable users to refine their search by multiple criteria including open houses, new listings, and price reductions. It also connects potential buyers directly to real estate agents.

Aklero Risk Analytics Inc., which provides loan quality and risk mitigation solutions to the mortgage lending industry, has hired John Alarcon as chief financial officer. In this role, Alarcon oversees financial operations, planning, and human resources at Aklero. He brings more than 16 years of senior executive experience to the firm and has held positions in management, finance, and operations at both private and public software, consulting, and financial services companies.

Axios Valuation Solutions, LLC has just made the appraisal process smarter with the introduction of its new mobile application for smart phones and tablets. The new application will be offered to Axios' nationwide appraisal network and will allow the appraiser to receive, accept, or decline orders in real time. Appraisers can even view a map of the property location.

SingleSource Property Solutions has announced the rollout of its proprietary 'cash for keys' calculator. The company says while many firms offer a cash for keys tool, they typically focus on carrying costs alone. SingleSource's calculator arrives at a monthly cost to carry and incorporates actual eviction and redemption timelines, while taking into account rent estimates and the tenant's perceived savings.

Green River Capital, an REO asset management and loss mitigation provider for mortgage servicers, investment firms, credit unions, and banking institutions, announced Tuesday that its REOConnex asset management software is now available via a mobile application for the iPhone and iPad. The app allows agents to view all properties assigned to them, search for REO properties managed by Green River Capital, and view details and pictures stored in REOConnex.

CoreLogic announced the availability of RiskModel Version 4.4 this week. The new technology offering is an analytics application that forecasts future mortgage prepayments, defaults, losses, and cash flows at both the loan and portfolio level. This latest version integrates the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) with new transition and loss-given-default models for Alt-A first and second-lien mortgages, allowing more than 75 percent of the loans in the development dataset to be estimated at the ZIP code level.

Quality Mortgage Services (QMS) provides mortgage quality assurance and mortgage compliance solutions nationwide, and the company says it's able to perform foreclosure audits for any servicers that need or what a retrospective review. In April, federal regulators directed 14 of the nation's largest mortgage servicers to hire third-party firms to conduct a 'look-back' audit of their foreclosure cases from 2009 and 2010. QMS says all servicers should be ensuring they are, and have been, fully compliant with proper foreclosure procedures.

Aklero Risk Analytics Inc., a provider of mortgage quality control software and services, has promoted Julia Hernandez to SVP of professional services. Hernandez previously was Aklero's VP of implementations. Hernandez is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in the information technology, banking, and finance industries.