Technology

As part of an effort to provide technology solutions for RESPA challenges, Caliber Funding, LLC, a national wholesale and retail lender based in Tucson, Arizona, has launched an originator forms feature on its proprietary software system, H2Online. The new feature provides fully-completed, signature-ready documents with a single click, the company said.

In hopes of stimulating the local housing market, Broward County in South Florida, which had the state's third-highest foreclosure rate in February, recently launched a new Web site to auction off foreclosed homes. The first online auction will take place on March 30, 2010.

Default Services Technologies (DST) has launched DispoSolutions 3.0, a new version of its Web-based REO servicing platform. The new technology was developed in collaboration with Select Portfolio Servicing (SPS), a division of Credit Suisse. According to DST, DispoSolutions 3.0 sets a new standard in automation and offers greater efficiency and flexibility to companies involved in the REO servicing process.

In an effort to help financial institutions overcome the challenges faced in complying with the recent changes to the Real Estate Procedures Act (RESPA), Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a compliance, content, and technology solutions and services provider, has launched its new RESPA Post-Implementation Audit Service.

Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS) has launched Broker360, a Web-based portal that allows REO brokers to access the status of preservation work completed by MCS. The company says its approach greatly enhances communication between servicers, field service providers, and real estate agents, and in turn will help reduce the amount of time it takes to market and sell REO properties.

Seven housing industry veterans will lead HOPE LoanPort, the counselor Web-based tool that streamlines the submission of completed loan modification applications. In an announcement Wednesday, the organization named its CEO and the six individuals that will serve on its board of directors.

Intelenet Global Services and SigniaDocs Inc. have partnered to offer lenders and servicers a scalable eModification solution. The two companies explained that this online, real-time approach compresses today's lengthy and arduous loan modification process to identify and collect required documents into a "Mods in Minutes" solution - technology they say could help to overcome some of the biggest obstacles of the government's Home Affordable Modification Program.

A new ranking of the mortgage loan servicers in the United States published by a national mortgage industry trade publication put eight of the top 10 largest servicers on the active client list for Palm Harbor, Florida-based Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC), a document and services provider for the residential mortgage industry.

IndiSoft, LLC, a technology development firm that focuses on systems for the default services industry, announced Tuesday that it has opened an office in Washington, D.C. The company, which is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, says its presence in the nation's Capitol will help to ensure that it's got the most current information from regulators and policymakers as they work to reform the mortgage marketplace.

Since the new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) changes took effect at the beginning of the year, a number of title firms have rolled out their own rate calculators to help lenders compute the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) for HUD transactions. While improved technology is a key factor to providing the type of title work that aligns with new RESPA compliance, Advantage Title Company warns that ""not all technology is good technology,"" and says GFE calculators are ""exactly what the industry needs to avoid.""