TheMReport

April 2016 - Tech Revolution

TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.

Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/663718

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 6 of 67

TH E M R EP O RT | 5 MTECH an online auction or an online version of the traditional non-auction process. To date, Ten-X has facilitated $14 billion in commercial sales, with more than $300 million in commission fees paid to brokers. In total, the company's combined residential and commercial sales have grown rapidly to account for $37 billion, with $8.5 billion in 2015. "The role of technology in the real estate process represents an undeniable and necessary advancement in our industry, and we believe that Ten-X is at the leading edge of this evolution," said 2016 CCIM Institute President Steven Moreira. "Through our partnership, we'll be offering sophisticated resources that will provide brokers with a distinct competitive advantage in this ever-changing industry landscape, helping them to gain greater visibility and increase their transaction volume." The CCIM designation, or Certified Commercial Investment Member, is a recognition of elite proficiency in the practical implementation of commercial and investment real estate transactions. Awarded by CCIM Institute, the prestigious certifica - tion grants access to a network of more than 10,000 leaders in the brokerage, appraisal, investment counseling, development, lending, and real estate law industries. Ernst's New Tech Offering Facilitates Fee Calculations with Small Settlement Companies WITH TRID THREATENING THE VIABILITY OF SMALL SETTLEMENT COMPANIES, ERNST DEVELOPED ITS SETTLEMENT AGENT GATEWAY TO EASILY AND ACCURATELY CALCULATE LOAN FEES, MAKING IT EASIER TO WORK WITH THESE SMALLER FIRMS. W hen the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules advanced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) went into effect last October, many worried compliance concerns would force larger lenders to suspend all activity with smaller settlement agents and title companies. According to Ernst Publishing Company, a provider of technology and closing cost data for the real estate and home finance industries for the past 26 years, that crisis was averted by technology. "Having the nation's largest lenders boycott smaller firms over the fear that they would not be able to comply with TRID was a very real threat last year and could have changed the entire landscape of the lending business," said Gregory E. Teal, President and CEO of Ernst Publishing. "We've been working with many of these companies for over 26 years and there was no way we were going to allow that to happen." Ernst's answer to TRID was its Settlement Agent Gateway, a collaborative fee manage- ment system the company launched last spring. The technology allows settlement agents to work with lenders to negotiate fees and then manage these fees in a web-based tool through which they certify the accuracy of their fees and then make them available to lenders who need to provide Loan Estimates required under the new require- ments. This ensures full TRID compliance, protects the lenders from having to re-dis- close later for quoting the wrong fees, and protects smaller settlement agent firms from being pushed out of the market due to non-compliance concerns. Ernst designed the technology with simplicity in mind, and it uses MISMO data standards to allow the settlement agent to enter pre-negotiated fees into a spreadsheet that includes cells for the required services by geography, and then certify that the fees are accurate with a single click. Teal pointed out that Ernst's Gateway is not a closing portal. "Fees must be disclosed accurately to borrowers long before they get to the closing table. Both lenders and settlement agents needed a tool that will allow fees to be negotiated far in advance of the close and then locked into the lender's closing cost search engines. Our software makes that possible," Teal said. "Lenders under TRID must have 100 percent accurate fees for compliance purposes creating challenges when working with fees from many providers. TRID could have put a lot of good companies out of business," said Jan Dalton Clark, VP of Sales and Marketing for Ernst. "This would have been disastrous for smaller industry firms, but it would have also put lenders at a competitive disadvantage because it would have dismantled their local business referral networks across the country." The Mortgage Collective Expands Offerings to Include Solutions Group THE MORTGAGE COLLECTIVE'S SOLUTIONS GROUP OFFERS THE COMBINED EXPERTISE OF MULTIPLE LEADING SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS FOR A MULTI- FACETED, ONE-STOP APPROACH TO MORTGAGE BANKING. T he Mortgage Collective recently announced its continued expansion with the addition of a new compo-

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of TheMReport - April 2016 - Tech Revolution