Real Estate Technology, Real Estate Investment
PRnewswire | June 29, 2023
Reggora, an appraisal management software company that is modernizing residential real estate valuation for mortgage lenders, announced today the launch of its appraisal review solution, Reggora Appraisal Review. This innovative software is set to transform the appraisal analysis process for mortgage lenders by significantly reducing repurchase risk and ensuring every appraisal meets the correct quality standards.
Reggora Appraisal Review leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to automate and streamline the appraisal review workflow. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, the software swiftly analyzes appraisal reports, identifies key data points, inconsistencies, and potential red flags.
For example, the solution uses advanced AI technology to detect bias in reports far more accurately than lexicon-based tools — so underwriters remain confident in the objectivity of their appraisals, without wasting time reviewing false positives. For instance, consider a report that mentions a property located in the city of "Race Point Beach." While the term "Race" would trigger a keyword-based bias detection tool, Reggora's AI-powered algorithm can discern the context and understand that it is simply the name of the city. By analyzing the report's language, tone, and content comprehensively, AI ensures that lenders can swiftly identify genuine instances of bias, avoiding unnecessary scrutiny and enabling them to focus their review efforts on reports that truly require attention.
With this groundbreaking solution, manual appraisal review becomes far more efficient. Reggora Appraisal Review significantly reduces human error, enhances efficiency, and ensures accuracy. By thoughtfully automating the review process, mortgage professionals can expedite their review cycles, reducing turnaround times and accelerating the loan origination process.
One of the critical features of Reggora Appraisal Review is its ability to reduce repurchase risk. By customizing rule sets and quality control checks, mortgage lenders can align their appraisal review processes with industry regulations, investor guidelines, and internal policies. This comprehensive compliance and risk mitigation capability empowers mortgage professionals to mitigate costly repurchase demands, protecting their financial stability and reputation.
Seamless integration with existing loan origination systems further enhances operational productivity. The user-friendly interface allows users to effortlessly navigate through appraisal reports, highlight critical information, and annotate directly on the documents. Comprehensive audit trails ensure transparency and facilitate collaboration between stakeholders.
"Reggora Appraisal Review represents a significant step forward in the mortgage industry," said Brian Zitin, CEO of Reggora. "We are committed to empowering mortgage professionals with cutting-edge technology that drives efficiency, reduces risk, and ultimately allows them to originate loans much faster."
This all-new review solution accompanies Reggora's existing suite of integrations with leading third-party review tools.
Reggora Appraisal Review caters to the unique needs of diverse stakeholders, providing customizable features that can be tailored to individual business requirements. Whether a small regional lender or a large national lender, this software offers a flexible and scalable solution.
About Reggora
Reggora is driving appraisal innovation with a modern, two-sided platform for mortgage lenders and appraisal vendors. Through advanced and configurable workflows, Reggora streamlines the entire appraisal process for everyone involved, while improving the overall borrower experience. Lenders and appraisers benefit from payment processing, automatic appraisal ordering, rule-based reviews, appraisal delivery, status updates, and more, creating unprecedented operational efficiency.
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Real Estate Technology
Globenewswire | August 14, 2023
Tango, a leading provider of cloud-based real estate and facilities management software, today announced it has acquired WatchWire, an industry leader in data and analytics that helps companies reduce emissions and energy expenses while simplifying sustainability and carbon reporting. The transaction further extends Tango’s position as a global leader in the real estate and facilities management space, enabling companies to meet their energy management and sustainability goals. WatchWire’s leadership team will join Tango to continue developing and progressing these key capabilities. Financial terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
“Faced with a rapidly changing macro and regulatory environment, active sustainability and energy management has become essential to long-term organizational success,” said Pranav Tyagi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tango. “Tango has a longstanding reputation for solving the complex, location-based compliance and reporting needs of our customers, as well as helping companies effectively manage and control occupancy costs. With the addition of WatchWire, we will provide customers information that arms them to understand their environmental impact and deliver on energy and sustainability management initiatives.”
Founded in 2000 and based in New York City, WatchWire provides the deepest and most comprehensive integrated energy management and sustainability platform in the industry, enabling companies to automate the collection and validation of sustainability and energy related data. Its solutions then operationalize the data for reporting, compliance and identifying additional opportunities to meet environmental, energy and climate targets. The combined business will serve over 500 customers in more than 140 countries from its primary offices in Dallas and New York.
A strong relationship between owners and the users of real estate is critical to ensuring accurate, active tracking and reporting on energy and sustainability. Tango brings considerable experience to the establishment and management of that relationship through its work in transaction management, lease management and facilities maintenance, and will help bridge the communication gap between owners and operators to address their joint energy and sustainability management requirements and deliver on decarbonization objectives.
“We are excited to be joining the preeminent real estate and facilities management solution in the industry,” said Andy Anderson, CEO of WatchWire. “Combining the vast amount of validated energy data available in the WatchWire platform with Tango’s real estate and facilities management capabilities will enable companies to support the accurate tracking and reporting that customers require, and operationalize insights about how to lower costs and improve sustainability. WatchWire customers will also benefit from the end-to-end real estate and facilities solution that Tango offers.”
“Since our initial investment in Tango, we have been focused on adding a sustainability and energy reporting capability, as these offerings will help Tango extend its leadership position in the real estate management software market,” said Jon Nuger, a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners, which made a growth investment in Tango in 2021. “We are excited to partner with Pranav and the management team as they harness Tango’s and WatchWire’s combined capabilities to empower organizations to improve energy efficiency, enhance sustainability and reduce cost.”
Harris Williams acted as exclusive financial advisor to Tango and Berkshire Partners on the acquisition of WatchWire. GrowthPoint Technology Partners, a San Francisco-based technology investment bank, acted as exclusive financial advisor to WatchWire.
About Tango
With hundreds of customers across more than 140 countries, Tango is the leader in Store Lifecycle Management and Integrated Workplace Management System software, delivering a single solution spanning real estate, design & construction, lease administration & accounting, facilities, desk booking, visitor and space management.
About WatchWire
WatchWire is a sustainability and energy management software-as-a-service provider. Across the globe, WatchWire helps commercial and corporate real estate portfolios, Fortune 500 industrial/manufacturing and big-box retail companies and government, healthcare, and educational facilities reduce emissions and expenses while simplifying sustainability and carbon reporting.
About Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners is a 100% employee-owned, multi-sector specialist investor in private and public equity. The firm’s private equity team invests in well-positioned, growing companies across technology & communications, consumer, healthcare, and services & industrials. Since inception, Berkshire Partners has made more than 150 private equity investments and has a strong history of collaborating with management teams to grow the companies in which it invests. The firm's public equity group, Stockbridge, founded in 2007, manages a concentrated portfolio seeking attractive long-term investments. The firm’s Stockbridge and Private Equity teams frequently collaborate and leverage their collective industry expertise across sectors.
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Real Estate Technology, Mortgage and Lending
PRnewswire | July 21, 2023
FirstClose, Inc., a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced today that its home equity origination platform—FirstClose Equity— is now integrated with Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology®, part of ICE, a global data, technology and market infrastructure company that designs, builds and operates digital networks to connect people to opportunity.
Through the new integration, Encompass users can seamlessly originate home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and home equity loans (HELs) within their LOS and complete the application through closing process in as few as 10 days versus the industry average of 45 to 60 days. Encompass will continue to be the system of record because all data is secured through the LOS and stored there. Each call to action initiates a data map and an audit trail to Encompass.
FirstClose's one-of-a-kind home equity solution reduces operational touchpoints to elevate the overall customer experience for borrowers. The solution also enables lenders to automate data collection, verification, and continue to order settlement services through FirstClose's existing order management module.
"Home equity lending has become a go-to option for millions of homeowners and is expected to be a significant growth opportunity for the foreseeable future," said Tedd Smith, Chief Executive Officer at FirstClose. "Our integration with ICE Mortgage's platform will give Encompass users a simple, efficient way to either enter this market or to differentiate themselves by significantly improving the customer experience that they are offering."
The end-to-end platform was built modularly so lenders can implement one, two or all modules based on the approach that's right for their organization.
Point of Sale (POS): A private-label borrower-facing point-of-sale solution with a unique borrower experience – single sign on, workflow, and customized branding including domain that gives consumers instant online feedback on their home valuation, available home equity, loan options and delivers credit decisions in minutes. (Borrower eligibility is determined by the credit score and CLTV.)
Borrower Portal: A borrower portal that lets consumers provide consents, upload needed documents, interact with originators, select loan terms, and draw amounts. In parallel, the portal's backend is iframed into Encompass, so loan originators never leave their LOS and are rewarded with a consistent process and streamlined functionality including title decisioning via the lenders' business rules and a credit decision that leverages EPPS and Encompass' Dynamic Data Management (DDM) to deliver findings in minutes.
Order Management: Automated workflows, including triggers enable the ordering of settlement services such as flood, title, valuation and more.
Closing: An option to support hybrid closings and recordings that are compliant with state regulations and lender guidelines.
"Our best-of-breed technology dramatically accelerates decision-making and connects lenders to a broad network of preferred providers with one contract, one bill and one support team," said Craig Austin, Executive Vice President at FirstClose. "Lenders currently originating home equity products can onboard in as fast as 30 days; while new entrants can onboard in as fast as 60 days enabling lenders to pivot and capitalize on the current market which is a bright spot for our industry."
About FirstClose
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, FirstClose, Inc. provides fintech solutions to HELOC and mortgage lenders nationwide. The company's mission is to increase profitability and reduce cost for mortgage lenders. FirstClose makes this possible through offering systems and relationships that enable lenders to assist the lender's borrowers more effectively, reduce closing costs, and ultimately shorten closing times.
About ICE Mortgage Technology
ICE Mortgage Technology® is part of ICE, a global data, technology and market infrastructure company that designs, builds and operates digital networks to connect people to opportunity. Backed by ICE's global resources, we offer a truly differentiated digital platform that provides straight-through processing for a more comprehensive end-to-end workflow than any other provider in the market. We reach almost every mortgage in the U.S. by combining the native automation of Encompass® with the e-collaboration and e-recording capabilities of Simplifile®, along with the national electronic registry for nearly 90% of the U.S. mortgage market in MERS®. Ultimately, our technology enables people across the industry to focus on personal connections when they need it most, and support borrowers for a better journey of homeownership.
About Intercontinental Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds and operates digital networks to connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes that offer our customers access to mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and operational efficiencies. We operate exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, and clearing houses that help people invest, raise capital and manage risk across multiple asset classes. Our comprehensive fixed income data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers capitalize on opportunities and operate more efficiently. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming and digitizing the U.S. residential mortgage process, from consumer engagement through loan registration. Together, we transform, streamline and automate industries to connect our customers to opportunity.
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