a la mode has announced that Axios Valuation Solutions has now fully integrated their appraisal management operations with a la mode's Mercury Network Vendor Management Platform (VMP). Mercury Network allows lenders and appraisal management companies (AMCs) to manage their entire appraisal workflow. It's been used by more than 200,000 mortgage professionals since 2002 to completely automate the full "round trip" of tens of millions of appraisals.Read more

Yes, we as taxpayers did lose hundreds of billions of dollars recently due to the mortgage crisis. This is the second time that this has happened during my career as a mortgage professional.Read more

Solidifi U.S., a leader in “full fee” appraisal services, has announced the Solidifi CoverageMAX and Solidifi CoveragePLUS insurance programs to provide mortgage lenders and their investors unprecedented assurances of appraisal quality and value accuracy. The new programs are designed to specifically address weaknesses in previous appraisal insurance coverage concepts that have been tried without significant success in protecting lenders and those who buy their loans.Read more

Byte Software, a complete mortgage software solution providing banks, credit unions, mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers loan origination software from beginningRead more

NAMB Enterprises, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), has partnered with Olde City Lending Solutions to offer mortgage broker appraisal ordering service for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans under the guidelines recently issued by FHA. Olde City Lending Solutions and NAMB have been working diligently to put the new system into production. NAMB is eager about this promising partnership that will undoubtedly save consumers millions of dollars on their home appraisals.Read more

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has announced that the enactment of Mortgagee Letter 2009-28, Appraiser Independence, will be delayed until Feb. 15, 2010. ML 09-28 (originally planned for a Jan. 1, 2010 implementation) has two parts: A prohibition of mortgage brokers and commission-based lender staff from the appraisal process, and appraiser selection in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Connection. The effective date for both sections of this guidance will now take effect for all case numbers assigned on or after Feb. 15, 2010.Read more

Amidst all of the discussion of the mortgage crisis and the implementation of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), there has been lots of finger pointing, concerning who was at fault for the meltdown and what should and should not be done to fix the problem(s). Unless you have been in seclusion for the past year, you have heard of the attempts of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to keep appraisers separated from loan originators.Read more

Within the past year, we in the financial industry have witnessed catastrophic economic changes like never before seen in modern times. The change, while seeming to erupt from a typical soft market, exploded into a multifaceted economic tsunami of biblical proportions. It resulted in a complete economic collapse of the underpinning of our financial system and affected every part of our lives.Read more