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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 8 June 2023 M T E C H tal, receiving approval in less than 24 hours, and closing in as little as three days. "Our HELOC product arrives at a critical moment for American homeowners," Better CEO & Founder Vishal Garg said. "Flexibility is a lifeline in the current climate, and cus- tomers deserve products that take the stress out of home improvement. Better HELOC is a massive step in continuing our mission to make homeownership cheaper, faster, and easier for all Americans." With Better's HELOC offerings, consum- ers can apply fully online in minutes with immediate pre-approval and no unnecessary fees. Better customers will be able to keep their existing mortgage rate and pay interest only on what they withdraw. This is a crucial point of flexibility for homeowners that often have varying home improvement costs and would face higher expenses with more tradi- tional lending models. REGGORA LAUNCHES APPRAISAL MARKETPLACE R eggora announced the launch of its appraisal fulfillment solution, The Appraisal Marketplace. Traditionally, most appraisal orders are sent to an appraiser, or an appraisal manage- ment company (AMC), who then sends it to an appraiser based on the appraiser's general location and performance. Since this rudi- mentary process relies on incomplete and imperfect information, it doesn't optimize performance. For example, there could be an appraiser already visiting a neighborhood for an inspection on a given day that would also be able to pick up an extra assignment in that area and get the appraisal done quickly. However, due to the fragmented ap- proach described above, typically, a lender or AMC wouldn't know that and would assign the order to a different appraiser who can't inspect the property until a later date. As a result, turn times, revision rates, and fee es- calation rates remain lackluster—despite the industry's best efforts to improve them. Reggora's new solution directly address- es this problem for mortgage lenders. The Appraisal Marketplace leverages the rich data running through the Reggora Appraisal Management Platform to provide superior appraisal performance. Using this much larger set of accurate, real-time data points to match orders with appraisers, the market- place significantly improves performance by automatically matching each order with the appraiser that's truly right for the job. The "Uber-style" algorithm relies on real-time evaluation of appraiser performance at given workloads, anticipated drive routes and proximity scores, due date urgency, subject property complexity scores/appraiser exper- tise, and much more. "Within a matter of weeks, we saw a 35% improvement in our turn times. That's a dra- matic improvement, especially in the craze of a refi wave where if we can cycle through them faster, we can bring on more & more business," said Jim Dell'Anno, VP & Sales Director, North Easton Savings Bank. The Appraisal Marketplace is an industry first. By using real-time data to fulfill orders intelligently, on top of a modern software platform that streamlines order management, lenders can dramatically reduce the time and expense it takes to get appraisals done. "Lenders want to provide mortgages in five days or less, but appraisals are still too slow and inconsistent to make that a reality," said Brian Zitin, CEO and Co-Founder of Reggora. "With The Appraisal Marketplace, we've made getting an appraisal done as sim- ple as ordering a ride from Uber. It's a huge step forward for lenders who want to offer a fast, convenient digital mortgage experience that will keep their borrowers and loan offi- cers happy even in high volume markets." NEWREZ EXPANDS ACCESSIBILITY TO AFFORDABLE HOME FINANCING N ewrez LLC has announced that it will offer Freddie Mac Bor- rowSmart Access, a mortgage pro- gram designed to assist first-time homebuy- ers by helping subsidize their closing costs "Lenders want to provide mortgages in five days or less, but appraisals are still too slow and inconsistent to make that a reality." —Brian Zitin, CEO and Co-Founder of Reggora.