Managing for long-term success

Myers celebrates 10-year anniversarymortgagepress.comMyers Internet, online mortgage technology, Web site construction Myers Internet Inc. is now 10 years old. Myers was founded by online mortgage pioneers Warren Myer and Lovina Worick. Worick originated the first online mortgage using Internet newsgroups in August 1992, and Myer set up the first mortgage Web site in April 1994. Warren Myer, an Indian immigrant, came to the United States in 1984 with less than $500. After obtaining his Masters of Science in computer science from the University of Delaware and his MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, Myer worked in engineering and sales positions for leading computer companies. He started his mortgage brokerage company after being laid off in 1992. Worick and Myer worked together in the mortgage business in 1992. They joined forces again to start the first mortgage Web site-hosting company in 1995. Today, Myers Internet is the dominant provider of Web sites to mortgage originators, hosting more than 5,000 mortgage sites with an estimated 40 percent market share. "With the onset of the Internet, we watched brokers' margins shrink and knew that brokers would have to either increase production or decrease the time spent on each loan. This is where the Web came into the picture," said Worick. "We have been working on our next generation technology to dramatically improve mortgage and real estate Web sites," said Myer. "In November 2004, we released Webbuilder 2.0 to the real estate industry, and our sales doubled immediately. In June 2005, we will be releasing Webbuilder 3.0 to the mortgage industry. We believe that Webbuilder 3.0 will help us increase our market share from 40 percent to 60 percent in the next two years." Also on the list of recent product enhancements is the interest-only rate search option added to its multi-lender platform (MLP). MLP provides customized rate quotes, which include monthly payments, closing costs and annual percentage rates, to consumers utilizing a database of wholesale rates from nationwide lenders. Originators may mark up wholesale rates by adding their fee and closing costs. Consumers answer a few simple questions and are able to obtain rates quickly. This upgrade will be offered free of charge to MLP clients. "As part of our 10-year anniversary celebration, we will be providing Webbuilder 3.0 to our clients as a free upgrade," said Worick. "Webbuilder 3.0 was created to allow our clients to make instantaneous updates to their sites. Most of our high-end products already allow for this; now our Web sites will too." For more information, visit www.myers.com.