Blend Labs announced a new soft credit pull for the mortgage prequalification process.
Blend says the move is a response to an increase in the cost for lenders requesting hard tri-merge credit reports. FICO and the national credit bureaus have raised prices for credit reports, saying the “vast majority” of mortgage lenders would see price increases anywhere from 10% to 400%.
With its soft credit functionality, customers save up to 71% compared to all hard inquiries, according to initial data from Blend users.
Soft credit pulls do not negatively affect credit scores. Consumers’ data will be safe from sale to data brokers or other mortgage companies as “trigger leads.”
“With our new soft credit feature, we’re excited to provide a…
Korth Direct Mortgage CEO James Korth is stepping down, to be replaced by current President and CFO Holly MacDonald-Korth.
KDM is a national commercial real estate finance firm that offers fixed-rate loans up to $100 million for multifamily, office, retail, mixed-use, self-storage, industrial, and other select properties.
James Korth, his daughter Holly MacDonald-Korth, and Danny Llorente, KDM’s Chief Lending Officer, founded the company together in 2016.
“It has been the great honor of my life to work with my father and to be a part of this team of hard-working, dedicated, and passionate professionals who work tirelessly to help commercial real estate owners and borrowers achieve their business goals, while simultaneously bringing value to our investors. I look forward to…
Sun West Mortgage and Cellifence announced enhancements to its “empathetic” real estate AI MORGAN.
MORGAN is a 24/7 personal assistant A.I. platform designed to automate certain tasks for real estate professionals, primarily in lead follow-up and marketing.
Company leaders said MORGAN has gone through “unprecedented innovation,” adding several new capabilities to the platform. It can now create property listings, create and execute email or phone call campaigns for new leads, follow daily mortgage interest rates, and accept applications from prospective homebuyers.
To create new listings, users input details like address, price, and photos. MORGAN will then design a landing page including a property description and real estate license info.
MORGAN can also use users’ email templates and phone scripts to…
Rocket Mortgage is launching a product for low-to-moderate income borrowers to help get them on the ladder of homeownership.
With ONE+, homebuyers pay a down payment of 1% of the purchase price. Households with income equal to or less than 80% of their area median income are eligible.
Rocket will then kick in the remaining 2% required for a loan. ONE+ covers the monthly mortgage insurance fee required if a buyer places less than 20% down.
The program is available for single-family home purchases, including manufactured homes, and it is expected that more than 90 million Americans can save thousands of dollars.
Bob Walters, CEO of Rocket Mortgage, said in a statement that no other lender has an option that…
Incenter Mortgage Advisors launched a new marketplace for buying and selling eMSRs.
Mortgage servicing rights are contractual agreements in which the right to service an existing mortgage is sold by the original mortgage lender to another party that specializes in servicing. The eMSR Exchange connects buyers and sellers of co-issue flow offerings online.
The Exchange purchases offerings from sellers directly, then acts as an intermediary to buyers.
According to projections from Rice Park Capital Management, the MSR market is expected to grow by an additional $1 trillion unpaid principal balance by 2025. It currently totals $14 trillion, which translates to around $200 billion of market value.
But values have dipped thanks to an imbalance in supply and demand. Companies now…
Jonathan Nahil has joined mortgage fintech FormFree as Chief Technology Officer.
Nahil brings more than two decades of software and leadership experience to the position. Prior to FormFree, he served as a software architect for customer service automation platform Ada.
“I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new position as Chief Technology Officer at FormFree. I’ll be working with the team to build the next iteration of Passport (and some even more exciting things!) to help achieve FF’s vision of democratizing lending,” Nahil said in a post on LinkedIn.
Passport is a mobile application that automatically updates consumers’ financial info while letting them control their financial identity when browsing.
Nahil’s other experience includes a decade at Accenture as global…
Down Payment Resource has announced four new hires to help expand its sales footprint, relationships, and customer base.
The new crew includes two leadership appointments – Tani Lawrence as Enterprise Sales Executive and Angel Romero as HFA relationship manager – as well as two DPA program specialists, Keith Futrell and Kathy Gault.
“Intense consumer demand for homebuyer assistance has driven explosive usership across our tools for lenders, agents, and listing sites — prompting us to grow our team with the addition of four incredibly knowledgeable and passionate housing finance professionals,” said DPR Founder and CEO Rob Chrane.
“I look forward to working with the expanded DPR family to champion innovative tools, strategies, and programs that make homeownership more affordable and…
CBC Mortgage Agency is celebrating its 10-year anniversary by rebranding its correspondent investor and Chenoa Fund Program.
The Chenoa Fund has assisted more than 42,000 families with down payments since May 2013 and operates in 49 states and territories. Roughly 75% of the homebuyers who receive down-payment assistance from CBC Mortgage are first-time homebuyers, and about half are minorities.
“Our rebrand represents our renewed commitment to extending housing programs, including providing down payment assistance for those who are most in need of it,” CBC President Miki Adams said. “We are proud to support economic stability for homebuying families and their communities, and we look forward to continuing this for many more decades.”
At the same time, CBC announced a slew…
Industry veteran Jodi White is joining First Home Mortgage as branch manager of its new Gainesville, VA, office, company officials announced in a press release.
White brings nearly three decades of industry experience to the position, having started her career in 1996 as a loan originator.
“As a proud member of the real estate community in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over 20 years, I’m honored to be representing First Home by helping to open and lead this new branch,” said White. “I believe that partnering with the right lender can make all the difference for a prospective buyer, and through open communication and individual connections, my team and I will work hard to earn the trust of homebuyers in…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
The founder and CEO of the digital closing platform Snapdocs says adopting a technology strategy that reduces costs can help mortgage lenders now and as the market bounces back.
Aaron King recently sat down with The Mortgage Note to talk about the value of digital closings. He said Snapdocs, headquartered in San Francisco, is a national company founded in 2012 on the observation that these closings require all of the parties involved in a real estate transaction to connect seamlessly.
“While the technologies existed, there was too much fragmentation between parties and the transactions themselves were too dynamic to apply these technologies until you worked on connecting all the parties. The vision of Snapdocs is we build…
