TeraVendo Inc. recently announced its LoanAce LOS would be made available to mortgage originators for download at no charge.

Initially, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company was going to charge a small monthly subscription, while charging sponsors like Stewart Title, HouseValues and Loan Officer Library a fee for offering services through the system, President Jeff Cunio told MortgageDaily.com.

“We wanted to beat our competition; and as a software (company) you can make money on the backend,” Cunio explained.

HouseValues is integrating mortgage leads at a 20 percent discount for LoanAce users, he said, with real time leads that automatically populate a 1003 for the user; and a patented one-click “quick title” zips the title order directly to Stewart Title saving the LO time and money, he added.

Cunio said a survey of mortgage brokers revealed the number one way to make an impact in the automated loan origination market was by addressing the cost.

TeraVendo addressed this issue two-fold, Cunio said. First they developed a simple LOS that cuts the cost of extensive training. Second, they diverted the cost away from the mortgage professional.

Ellie Mae Chief Technology Officer Limin Hu told MortgageDaily.com in an e-mail statement that LoanAce seemed like an easy-to-use system for individual users, but it was difficult to tell the quality and market acceptance of the program.

A “no-cost” strategy can encourage people to try out the software in this very competitive market, but ultimately, the software will still need to provide proper valuation proposition to help LO’s to get more business, process the loans better or faster,” Hu said. “Furthermore, the company behind the product will need to provide a good customer service and continued maintenance to keep the software up to date and compliant.”

Tech support for LoanAce was quick to remedy any problems Nadia Loeschke has had with the software over the last three months. “There were some kinks but the company worked them out; they were quick to respond,” she told MortgageDaily.com.

Loeschke, a broker for 13 years said she has used Genesis, Encompass and Calyx in the past and ranks LoanAce “right up there.”

“It’s ready to go right after downloading it,” Loeschke said. “Even if you didn’t know what you were doing; it walks you through each page, there are no hidden areas.”

Loeschke said the program also calculates yield spread premiums, a feature she has never seen before but appreciates, along with the fact that the program is free.