Good News For A Change- Mortgage Lenders Enjoying Refinance Surge
December 15, 2008
Mortgage lenders are seeing a flurry of refinancing activity as mortgage rates drop to the lowest levels in several years.
“The volume has definitely increased with the interest rate movement,” said Mitch Redden, regional sales manager for Wells Fargo Bank.
Redden said mortgage applications at his office during a two-week period — the last week of November and the first week of December — were twice the amount of the entire month of October.
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Getting Ahead Without Falling Behind
December 5, 2008
Imagine this scenario: The number of loan applications coming in the door drops, so you reduce your staff. That's a painful event because these are real people that you care about and letting someone go - especially in this economy - makes you feel sick to your stomach. Then the Fed steps in and calls for a secure secondary market. This support makes rates drop below the magic 6% barrier, and a refi boom overwhelms your crew.
What happens? Since you are now understaffed, your customer service levels reach an all time low and your referral business suffers.
On top of all that, your warehouse bank is constantly looking over your shoulder, scrutinizing your financials and business plan to ensure you are going to stay profitable.
Sound familiar? If so, then you are probably asking this question: How do I run a profitable and successful lending business in a chaotic and unpredictable market?
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BusinessTrac Illuminates the Pitfalls
November 7, 2008
Taking a proactive approach to business management by using technology to improve operations and prevent unnecessary losses may be critical to helping lenders survive the most daunting mortgage market in decades.
Del Mar DataTrac, a San Diego-based company specializing in providing the mortgage industry with technology to improve business, says its BusinessTrac product may be just the tool necessary to prevent further bank failures.
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And The Alpha Dog Shall Lead The Pack
Challenging times require secondary marketing officers who display a tenacious and indefatigable spirit. Or, in canine terms, the Alpha Dog personality.
September, 2008
To many lenders, “warehouse line” might as well be an expletive.
During the boom, getting (and keeping) a warehouse line was easy- maybe too easy. Today, acquiring a line has become the biggest obstacle to getting started, and keeping it is one of the worst stress-inducing factors plaguing lenders.
So, what is the magic formula warehouse lenders are looking for today? The answer is simple to say, but hard to achieve: profitability.
To read the full article, please click here.
Pricing With Technology
August, 2008
Near the top of every lender’s wish list is the desire to deal with a single vendor for all its technology needs — particularly to trim costs. “Gartner says that an average of 40% of all IT budgets are dedicated to maintaining disparate systems,” notes Mike Detwiler, CEOof LOS provider Mortgage Cadence. “Companies are looking for solutions that will allow them to focus on their business model and not have to deal with multiple vendors.”
New implementations of monolithic end-to-end enterprise LOS systems may be rare these days, but some observers still go so far as to say that full integration of all components and processes once again has become a “mantra” for LOS systems.
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Ways to Improve Efficiency, Profitability
August 14, 2008
Open the paper, turn on the TV, or surf the web and words like subprime, foreclosure or recession dominate the news. Take this downward spiral feeling and add in a real estate market slump and the result is that lenders feel forced to do everything they can to bring more customers through their doors in order to stay in business. But, what many mortgage bankers don’t realize is that a big part of the solution they need actually lies within.
More than ever before, every dollar not wasted can have a significant impact on the bottom line. So the question that should be on your mind becomes: How can I be sure I’m not wasting any money?
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Zipping Up Integrations Tighter
July, 2008
The old best-of-breed vs. End-to-end debate is quickly fading. Technology advances around XML, Web services and data standardization through MISMO make it easier for vendors to more tightly integrate. The tighter the integration, the more value for the end user.
The days of the loan origination system trying to build everything in a proprietary fashion or force users to deal with preferred integration partners are over. The LOS company wants to offer the lender more choices to keep them as clients and they want tighter integrations with best-of-breed providers so lenders can take advantage of the best technology from within the LOS.
To read the full article, please click here.
Presenting this Year's Best and Brightest Mortgage Technology Players – 2008
May, 2008
This list has gone through several changes over the past few years. For example, we originally honored 100 providers, but have recently sliced that down to just 50 in order to reflect the deep industry consolidation. As lenders look increasingly for one end-to-end solution, technology providers have merged or acquired niche players to offer a variety of services or technology applications under one company name.
To read the full article, please click here.
Integration Ensures Better Compliance
May 8, 2008
As a means of helping its lender clients remain compliant with various and ever-changing local, state and federal lending laws, San Diego-based mortgage banker technology provider Del Mar DataTrac Inc. has integrated with Laguna Hills, Calif.-based QuestSoft in the newest release of its Vendor Service Platform 2.0.
To read the full article, please click here.
Technology Vendors Leverage Partnerships with Lenders
April 24, 2008
Technology vendors increasingly leverage partnerships with other technology companies to provide higher quality systems, reduce development expenses and streamline customer service and problem resolution. The approach enables lenders to offer better quality services while driving down costs, especially to survive current market conditions.
To read the full article, please click here.
Vendors are Feeling the Squeeze
April 1, 2008
Lenders beware: Don’t pick your vendor partners before you take a careful look.
If ever there was a time when mortgage lenders needed to be careful about picking technology partners, it’s now. Turmoil in the mortgage market has once again revived the old end-to-end vs. best-of-breed debate and in doing so made lenders wonder whether it’s not smarter to settle for older technology — lest they partner with hotshot tech providers that may go out of business in a few months after the contracts are signed.
To read the full article, please click here.
Fiserv Sells DataTrac Back to Original Owner
February, 2008
In a consolidation play, Fiserv has sold Del Mar DataTrac Inc. to TVC Capital LLC here.
TVC is private equity fund focused on software acquisitions and investments. In an interesting twist, TVC owned Del Mar before it was sold to Fiserv almost two years ago. Jeb Spencer, managing partner of TVC previously served as Del Mar's executive chairman from 2003 to 2005, during which time the company's customer base more than tripled. Veteran company employee, Rob Katz, has rejoined Del Mar and will help lead the ownership transition. No further details about the sale were released.
To read the full article, please click here.
Analysts Weigh Del Mar DataTrac's Prospects Under New Owners
February 1, 2008
As one Blues Brother once famously quipped, “We’re getting the band back together.”
Whether or not the technology company is on “a mission from God,” Del Mar DataTrac has come full circle.
The provider of mortgage lending software to small and midsize lenders has been acquired by a San Diego private equity fund focused on software acquisitions. TVC Capital bought the business from Fiserv.
To read the full article, please click here.
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