TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1481918
M R EP O RT | 9 MTECH attract and retain top talent, and garner more business for its retail, wholesale, correspondent, and consumer direct lending channels. Founded in 2004, EMM Loans is a New Jersey-based lender offering private, direct, and affordable mortgage loans. With 91 Loan Officers licensed in 38 states, EMM Loans selected SimpleNexus to streamline its homebuyer experience, attract new business, and drive referrals from real estate professionals. "At EMM Loans, we support our expert team by giving them the innovative tools they need to attract more business and build lasting relationships," EMM Loans SVP Brad Miller said. "SimpleNexus creates some of the strongest digital homebuying tools for mortgage lenders. Adopting its technology will allow our loan originators and real estate partners to provide a streamlined homebuying journey that converts more borrowers and wins customers for life." EMM Loans will leverage SimpleNexus as a recruiting and retention tool, using its mobile lead engagement tool, Nexus Engagement, and its from anywhere point-of-sale (POS) platform, Nexus Origination, to support collaboration with real estate agents and deliver a better borrower experience. SimpleNexus integrates with EMM Loans' core technology stack, including its loan origination system (LOS), market analytics and product pricing engine (PPE), and customer relationship management (CRM) platform. "SimpleNexus is thrilled to partner with EMM Loans, a mortgage lender that cares about the experience of its team members and the communities it serves," SimpleNexus CEO Ben Miller said. "We look forward to the opportunity to support the exemplary service and award- winning company culture that EMM Loans is known for." LOs Get a Marketing Boost WATERSTONE MORTGAGE TO UTILIZE USHERPA AS LO CRM U sherpa has announced that another mortgage lender has approved the Usherpa Smart CRM for use by its Loan Officers, as Water- stone Mortgage, a subsidiary of WaterStone Bank, has made the company's marketing automation and relationship engagement technology available to its LOs operating in the company's West Region. "Utilizing the best marketing and technology solutions is an important part of creating a com- petitive advantage for our loan professionals," said Rich Harkwell, Waterstone Mortgage SVP–Chief Sales Officer. "Usherpa Smart CRM's innovative functionality and exceptional support allow our Loan Officers reach a variety of contacts—so we can effectively communicate with, educate, and empower our customers and business partners as they begin or continue their homeownership journeys. Coupled with our other proprietary systems, this technol- ogy allows our loan originators to provide a streamlined, efficient home loan process for everyone involved." Waterstone Mortgage created its own loan origination system, Element, an all-in-one platform for its customers, Realtor partners, and Loan Originators. Element is a digital experience that makes the loan application and loan approval processes simple and streamlined. Usherpa's Smart CRM shares data seamlessly with the platform, making it easy for the company to uncover new lending opportunities in its past customer database and easy for loan officers to get new business into their pipelines. "In the past, our team used Usherpa Smart CRM before transitioning to another CRM platform—which did not meet our expectations." said Sue Millspaugh, Waterstone Mortgage Division Executive–West. "We are very excited to reestablish Usherpa as our company CRM, as we believe it's the best CRM— with the highest functionality—for Loan Officers. Many of our Loan Originators have significantly enhanced their businesses by successfully using this technology to reach current and potential customers and business partners." Turning Leads Into Closed Loans STAIRCASE UNVEILS NEW LEADS TOOL S taircase has unveiled Leads Curation, a new feature of the company's PreAp- proval tool that helps Mortgage Originators target specific bor- rowers to meet their goals and capture more business. "Right now, many Originators are under pressure to find high quality leads," Staircase Co-Founder and CEO Adam Kalamchi said. "Leads Curation gives Originators the best possible opportunity to turn a $20 lead into a closed loan. It also provides a competitive edge in today's tough market while delivering a better borrower experience, which increases the chances of creating a customer for life." Staircase's PreApproval pro- vides lenders with a template they can use to create a customized, white-labeled, web- and mobile- enabled pre-approval application process for their borrowers in just 30 minutes. By leveraging data collected from borrowers as they self-qualify using auto- mated verification services, Leads Curation empowers originators to immediately determine whether a borrower meets specific under- writing criteria so they can engage borrowers and close loans faster. Leads Curation also enables lend- ers to home in on specific groups such as borrowers whose data comes from vendors approved by Fannie's Day 1 Certainty program. Additionally, Leads Curation can help lenders meet federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements by automati- cally identifying borrowers who have less than 80% of the median income in their market. Lenders can use Leads Curation to prioritize prospective borrow- ers in real time while they are actively filling out online applica- tions and dynamically optimize whether to spend on borrower verification services. When verifications are needed, Leads Curation leverages Staircase's ap- plication programming Interfaces (APIs) to generate accurate results and high success rates for automated, fast, and cost-effective borrower verifications. Staircase's APIs deliver the highest coverage "Right now, many originators are under pressure to find high-quality leads." —Adam Kalamchi Co-Founder and CEO, Staircase