Residential Briefs

MBA (7/15/2008 ) Palaparty, Vijay
Zaio Database Advances to Operational Stage
Zaio Corp., Scottsdale, Ariz., announced that its database technology advanced from developmental to operational stage. Zone appraisers in five counties completed site inspections and verified property data in their respective Zones, bringing 12 Zones to "live" status in California, Arizona and Washington. Lenders can now obtain real-time appraisals.
Zaio plans to roll out its platform on a national level. Earlier this year, Zaio announced Go Live 2008, a program developed to bring Zones to live status throughout the country. Phase I concentrated on five counties. Zaio is now expanding to a list of Phase II cities, as well as bringing remaining major city Zones to live status over the next several quarters.

ChargeSmart Offers Ability to Pay Mortgage via Credit Card
ChargeSmart LLC, San Francisco, a provider of online payment services to the financial and mortgage industries, launched a new Web-based payment service allowing consumers to pay their mortgage, auto loans, education loans and utility bills using a major credit card.

ChargeSmart customers submit payments directly to ChargeSmart and indicate the amount they wish to pay and the recipient. The ChargeSmart system accepts, processes and remits payments electronically through a network of more than 4,000 billers across the United States, a secure Internet-based payment system.

IMS Launches New Web Site
Integrated Mortgage Solutions, Houston, which provides collateral protection for the mortgage servicing industry, redesigned its logo, web site and marketing portfolio to better align with its new focus on loss mitigation.

The new web site enables visitors to navigate the company’s products and services listings. New marketing and sales collateral have been designed to enhance the company brand identity and overall message of delivering real-time loss mitigation services.

Hyland Software Acquires Liberty IMS
Hyland Software, Cleveland, Ohio, developer of the OnBase enterprise content management software suite, acquired Liberty Information Management Systems, Costa Mesa, Calif.

By acquiring Liberty IMS, Hyland will add more than 1,000 Liberty IMS client organizations to its base of 7,200 customers; extend its reseller channel base with a network of Liberty IMS channel partners; and broaden its presence in the western U.S. and central Canada by maintaining Liberty IMS’s offices in Costa Mesa and Ottawa, Ontario.

Interthinx Forms Alliance with iMS
Interthinx Inc., Agoura Hills, Calif., a provider of risk mitigation, mortgage fraud prevention and regulatory compliance tools for the mortgage industry, formed an alliance with iMortgage Services, Pittsburgh, Pa. iMS provides appraisal, automated valuation, broker price opinion and fraud, closing, title and warranty products to the mortgage industry. The alliance enables Interthinx to offer a suite of collateral risk products to its customers, adding to its current offerings of AVM’s, forensic review appraisals and other risk mitigation valuation tools.

Allstate Appraisal to Help Lenders Comply with Appraisal Guidelines
Allstate Appraisal, Chicago, will help mortgage lenders comply with the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct agreement among government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, OFHEO and the New York Attorney General's office.

Allstate Appraisal is a national provider of real estate appraisals, pre- and post-funding desk and field reviews, appraisal fraud investigations, investor kick-back consulting services, litigation support and BPO services.

Del Mar DataTrac Integrats with Loan-Score
Loan-Score Decisioning Systems, San Diego, a provider of pricing and automated underwriting technology, and Del Mar DataTrac, Irvine, Calif., a loan origination and processing system, completed a nine-point integration between Loan-Score’s automated underwriting system and DMD’s mortgage banking automation technology.

The integration is bi-directional and enables the two systems to automatically communicate, updating conditions and loan-level status in real-time using web services. Loan-Score’s web-based pricing engine and AUS serves as point-of-sale decisioning, while DataTrac remains as the core system of record and workflow management for fulfillment processes.