TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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8 | TH E M R EP O RT MONTH IN REVIEW MTECH required for taxes," said LERETA CEO John Walsh. "This causes an increase in servicing costs and the potential for mistakes that can frustrate borrowers. Total Tax Solutions make it easier for servicers to process tax payments, research tax-related inquiries from borrowers or internal depart - ments, manage delinquency re- porting and risk, and substantially improve customer service." Walsh continued, "The plat- form has allowed LERETA to deliver extraordinary service in an industry where the standard for outsourcing servicing is abysmal. We are proud to now offer our standard tax clients a tool that effectively merges siloed systems and produces a more efficient and secure process. Until now, ser - vicers have been forced to work around system shortcomings by depending on spreadsheets and disparate local databases. These "Band-Aid" solutions did not iden - tify data integrity issues, which could cause reporting events that produce more exceptions, causing manual work for a loan servicer." LERETA's TTS have been in use by LERETA's outsource tax division to manage more than 2.5 million loans. The platform has been a driver in LERETA's abil - ity to meet over 99.6 percent of customer SLA's during that time and 100 percent over the last six months. During that same period, TTS also helped LERETA to reduce its penalties from claims and inter - est down by 70 percent, refunds processed by 30 percent and calls from borrowers down by 30 percent. "An example of the platform's capabilities was when we used TTS' the Escrow Open Items manager module to audit/clean- up all payee codes prior to tax season for Washington State," said Teresa Oates, Escrow Supervisor at Alabama Housing Finance Authority. "This provided accu - rate information on the TARS for a match and pay, which in turn provided true open items under the beta test. We spent less time doing clean up and were able to process and pay all bills in a more efficient manner." IndiSoft Rebrands Technology Platform to Sunesis THIS LAUNCH AIMS TO UNIFY PRODUCTS UNDER ONE OFFERING RATHER THAN MODULAR COMPONENTS. I ndiSoft, a technology devel- opment firm that specializes in systems for the financial services industry announced it had rebranded its module-based RxOffice technology platform to Sunesis, an enterprise-wide plat - form providing more flexibility in work processes. With Sunesis, which means the confluence of two rivers to create a single, deep and power- ful current, IndiSoft offers clients unified products on a single platform along with a continuum of functionality versus modular components. IndiSoft's goal is to continue to put robust technol - ogy in the hands of its users by providing them the regulatory content they need to meet compli- ance requirements. "During this exciting time in the mortgage industry, we have the opportunity to rebuild how we conduct business by implementing technology that fits the needs of companies with the desire to remain compliant," said Camillo Melchiorre, President of IndiSoft. "Sunesis gives our business partners the tools they need to effectively manage risk in their business process." The new platform has out-of- the-box content for critical regula - tory requirements for audits and to oversee counterparties for any business process. The architecture within Sunesis is highly-configu- rable, making for easy adoption as well as easier adaptation. "Technology will continue to play a large role in creating efficiencies and helping companies protect against risk," said Hans Rusli, CEO of IndiSoft. "Sunesis users will immediately see the benefits of having such a system. Sunesis has the agility to allow users to align their processes to meet existing regulations and to conform to new regulations as well. Luxury Living Whether examining the best top-tier housing markets for sellers, the cities that are seeing a rise in expensive homes, or what affluent millennials look for when property hunting, this month researchers sifted through the data to determine the market trends in luxury housing. 1 Luxury home buyers in the age-group of 50 years and above preferred looking for homes in the suburbs, with 60 percent of buyers in this age-group wanting to move away from the city according to a report by Luxury Portfolio International. Around 38 percent of these buyers were looking at homes that were less than 5,000 square feet. 2 Head to Provo, Utah or Denver, Colorado if you're looking for a super-sized home. According to a study by Realtor. com, 71 percent of listed homes in Provo and 61 percent of listed homes in Denver are 3,000 square feet or more. 3 Luxury prices in New York city increased over 30 percent, growing twice as fast as the conventional housing market according to Realtor.com. 4 Apart from the traditional coastal cities, a report on the luxury market by Coldwell Banker found that new tech-hubs like Raleigh, North Carolina and cultur- al capitals like Nashville, Tennessee were the new playgrounds for luxury home buyers. 5 The luxury apartment or condo market is overbuilt, according to a CNBC report. Research cited in the report stated that luxury, upscale build- ing accounted for between 75 and 80 percent of the new supply in the current cycle. 6 According to a report by Redfin, the number of homes for sale priced at or above $1 million fell 23.8 percent, mark- ing three consecutive quarters of declines in luxury supply. 7 Foreign Investment in the U.S. real estate luxury market reached a new high according to a market report from Beauchamp Estates, with foreign sales up 72 percent from the previous year. 8 In 2016 the average price per square foot for a luxury townhouse in Manhattan was $2,665, according to a report by Douglas Elliman Real Estate and Miller Samuel in a Bloomberg report on why the townhouse mansions of Manhattan were fall- ing out of favor. 9 Beachfront communities in Florida saw significant gains in luxury home sale prices, with these prices increasing 25 percent year over year for seven Florida cities, according to a Redfin report. 10 L uxury homes in Seattle boasted the shortest median days on the market for single-family homes, according to a Coldwell Banker report.