Prompted by annual conventions for the mortgage servicing industry, a number of default servicing offerings were unveiled this week by companies that cater to the sector. Several of the new products are the result of collaboration between providers.
Mortgage servicers and distressed-loan service providers are meeting this week in the Dallas area for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Mortgage Servicing Conference & Expo. In addition, the trade group is hosting its National Short Sale and REO Summit at the same venue.
The nature of challenges facing servicers vary by the size of the organization, according to Retreat Capital Management General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Loren Morris. He noted that larger servicers are challenged by capacity, while small and mid-sized servicers face difficulty with their compliance processes.
“Over the past few years, larger servicers have grown accustomed to an increasing amount of attention being paid to their operations. They tend to implement best practices that cover the operations imposed by regulations, and they do so long before the regulation is enforced,” Morris stated. “Small to midsize servicers, on the other hand, often find themselves reacting to new regulations when they’re enforced, so they tend to have difficulty developing and implementing the processes to ensure they’re compliant.
“They simply don’t have the budgets that larger servicers do to implement technologies and get permanent staff up to speed.”
BSI Financial Services Inc. said Wednesday that it has been selected as the servicer for NYMT Residential 2012-RPI, Asset-Backed Notes Series 2012-PRI. The portfolio includes 515 re-performing, residential loans for $92 million secured by properties in California, Florida, Maryland and Texas.
Irving, Texas-based BSI noted that it recently completed a major upgrade of its loan servicing platform to LoanServ. The enhancement enables the privately held firm to tailor servicing solutions to its clients.
A 250 percent increase in revenue for 2012 was reported by Fay Servicing. The special servicer says that it helped avoid foreclosure on more than half of the seriously delinquent loans serviced through its platform.
A database that includes two-thirds of homeowners associations helps Sperlonga Data & Analytics clients comply with HOA requirements outlined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in June 2012, according to an announcement last month from the Arlington, Va., firm. In addition to avoiding repurchases or re-conveyances of properties, Sperlonga said its products help servicers ensure they will be reimbursed by HUD for payment of pre-foreclosure HOA fees, interest and late fees.
Sperlonga is owned by Matt Martin Real Estate Management LLC, which said in December that it had been selected by the U.S. Marshals Service as a real property national contractor.
Tempo, a web-based default management platform, was launched this week by ISGN Corp. A news release indicated that Tempo offers dynamic, real-time work queues and reportable communication that ensures internal and external parties quickly fulfill all required steps to complete a loan while reducing risk and error with less human interaction.
“Tempo seamlessly integrates with any servicing application, attorney network, or other third-party system, ensuring all parties are aware of each step’s progress,” ISGN stated. “In addition, the web-based platform features a powerful, fully customizable workflow engine, allowing institutions to change or add tasks at anytime throughout the process.”
Streamlined settlement services are now being offered to small and -mid-sized investors, including sellers of REOs, by Orion Financial Group Inc., a Feb. 19 announcement indicated. The offering involves a partnership with Lenders Title Solutions. Orion, a Mortgage Daily advertiser, plans to introduce several new solutions this year. The Southlake, Texas-based firm said transaction volume increase 170 percent during the past five years, while its client base has tripled since 2008.
A partnership announced this week between Butler & Hosch P.A. and Stewart Lender Services creates an expanded platform for nationwide REO title curative and settlement services. The venture seeks to capitalize on the growing demand of REO properties flowing into the market. Clients of the Dallas-based law firm “will have access to Stewart’s extensive array of title curative talent and underwriting expertise to effectively and timely assist with the disposition of its REO assets.”
Another partnership between Carrington Technology Solutions LLC and Equator Business Solutions was also announced this week. Financial institutions, institutional investors and large-scale property management companies are being promised a scalable, end-to-end, single-family asset management suite that efficiently maximizes the performance of multiple-property portfolios.
The arrangement involves the integration of Carrington’s proprietary software application, RentPointe, into Equator’s EQ investor platform, which reportedly provides due diligence, acquisition, asset transfer, REO rental and REO disposition. RentPointe will be delivered as a software as a service solution, providing EQ users “with a robust, comprehensive system to more effectively meet their acquisition, property management and asset disposition needs.”
Keystone Asset Management Inc. said last month that it teamed up with RealtyPilot LLC to utilize its cloud-based valuation technology. RealtyPilot’s automated solution utilizes an integration with nationwide multiple listing service. MLS data availability reportedly provides additional validity to necessary property and portfolio analytics.
REO-to-Rental and rental valuation intelligence are available to lenders, servicers and investors as a result of a recently announced partnership between DataQuick and RentRange. Clients of DataQuick will be able to access RentRange data as part of a DataQuick National Property Database file license.
