Technology

First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based provider of advanced property and ownership information, analytics, and services, announced Tuesday that it has joined forces with The Prieston Group (TPG) to offer a comprehensive fraud prevention and insurance solution to mortgage lenders. The new solution combines First American CoreLogic's pattern-recognition fraud tool with TPG's risk management services, indemnity programs, and training.

DepotPoint, Inc. recently announced that it has launched a real estate agent network and modified its proprietary short sale solution to be fully compliant with the administration's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program, which went into effect on April 5.

LenderLive Network Inc. said Monday that it has helped Caliber Funding streamline the upfront disclosure and good faith estimate (GFE) issuance process for brokers by creating completed signature-ready documents with a single click. Arizona-based Caliber Funding, started its partnership with LenderLive in 2007 with document preparation for back office services. Since then, the industry has changed drastically and more broker-specific regulations have been put into place.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. recently announced a new online tool to help lenders see the pricing advantages of PMI mortgage insurance versus Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance on high FICO loans. Lenders can price various scenarios on the new tool by entering loan amounts, credit scores, and loan-to-value ratios.

HOPE LoanPort, the new Web-based housing counselor tool that streamlines the submission of completed loan modification applications, has inked commitments from Bayview Loan Servicing and Ocwen Loan Servicing.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, a real estate company headquartered in Pittsburgh, recently joined the Zillow Listings Feed Program. This partnership enables Howard Hanna to automatically feed all of its 21,000 for-sale listings to the Zillow Web site, which will improve the real estate search experience for Zillow users in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and New York.

In a glimmer of hope for the commercial real estate market, the office sector may be nearing stabilization, according to the First Quarter 2010 National Office Trends Report released Wednesday by Cassidy Turley, a St. Louis-based commercial real estate service provider.

Regulatory compliance has become a major issue in the mortgage industry. And to help lenders stay ahead of pending state and regulatory changes, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a Minneapolis-based provider of compliance, content, and technology solutions and services for the mortgage industry, has added new functionality to its StateLink tool, a Web-based compliance knowledge base.

Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based PHH Mortgage Corporation, a private label outsourcing company that provides cost-effective mortgage solutions for financial institutions, real estate brokers, and government agencies, recently announced that it is has enhanced it sub-servicing offering, which allows organizations to outsource the servicing of their loans, including customer service, escrow administration, payment, and collections.

Got an insider's view into the workings of the nation's mortgage market, what's right and what's wrong? How about a strategy on reforming the housing finance system? President Obama and his administration want to hear your ideas. Somewhere in the trenches may lie the answers policymakers are looking for. The federal government released a list of questions Wednesday soliciting input and opinions from market participants and industry groups on how to restructure the mortgage finance system.