Real Estate Technology, Real Estate Investment
PRnewswire | July 12, 2023
Covius, a leading provider of technology-enabled solutions to the financial services industry, announced today that its Settlement Services division has introduced a new home equity decisioning solution that significantly accelerates the origination process and gives lenders early insight into property and/or borrower issues that could expedite or delay decisions.
The Covius Home Equity Solution will allow bank and credit union clients to offer a streamlined origination experience to their home equity customers. For example, title and tax reports that used to take 3 or more days are now delivered in hours on a majority of loans, enabling closings to occur in as fast as 5 days, as opposed to the industry average of 20-plus days.
The new solution also features Covius Loanscape, a separate point-of-sale component for lenders that provides critical property and consumer insights in fewer than 45 seconds. This report reveals title, valuation and credit information that enhances a lender's loan origination workflow, coupled with expedited decisioning and abbreviated closing timelines.
The Covius Home Equity Solution is fueled by Flueid's leading title data and decisioning platform, Flueid Decision, as an expansion of the companies' integration announced in February 2023.
Joe Chappell, Executive Vice President of Operations at Covius, said, "The demand for home equity products is extremely strong, but the competition for this business is intense. Our new solution[s] enable clients to differentiate themselves by delivering a modern, streamlined customer experience, beginning at point-of-sale and continuing throughout the underwriting and closing processes.
"In seconds, Covius Loanscape allows lenders to determine if the loan qualifies for an expedited clear-to-close. Sharing this information at the point of sale empowers lenders to set borrower expectations more accurately, better prioritize orders and improve overall pipeline performance. Likewise, lenders will know that a lead on a property will not meet criteria before ordering full credit, valuation or other third-party products, and having underwriters spend days on an application that will be declined. This is especially valuable with home equity origination, where many costs are absorbed by the lender."
About Covius
Covius is a trusted provider of services, insight and technology to leading financial companies. Covius' technology-enabled solutions deliver operational efficiencies, mitigate risk and empower compliant decisions and borrower interactions. Covius businesses are recognized leaders in loss mitigation, document and data solutions, title and settlement services, compliance and critical borrower communications, lien release tracking and preparation, HOA tracking, quality assurance, REO asset management and auction services, credit reporting and verification, capital markets due diligence and oversight, insurance policy analysis as well as rapid-development, customizable cloud-based business process solutions. The company was named a 2023 HousingWire Tech100 winner. For more information about the company and its services, visit www.covius.com.
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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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Real Estate Technology, Real Estate Investment
PRnewswire | June 26, 2023
NexPoint, a multibillion-dollar alternative investment platform, today announced the acquisition of four multi-tenant small bay properties in Central Florida. The acquisition consists of 13 buildings totaling 419,946 square feet of multi-tenant warehousing and industrial space. These types of facilities are typically smaller in size and are commonly referred to as "small bay properties." The properties were indirectly acquired by NexPoint Small Bay I DST, a Delaware statutory trust seeking to raise $59.5 million in equity from accredited investors via a private placement offering.
The properties, which are located in Orlando and Tampa, are comprised of:
Presidents Plaza, a 44,269 square-foot, two-building, multi-tenant complex in Tampa;
Brandywine Business Center, a 79,124 square-foot, two-building, multi-tenant complex in Tampa;
Corporex Plaza, a 100,265 square-foot, three-building, multi-tenant complex in Tampa; and
Orlando International Business Center, a 196,288 square-foot, six-building, multi-tenant complex in Orlando.
The addition of these small bay properties builds on NexPoint's existing portfolio of industrial multi-use commercial real estate in markets that are experiencing significant demand for this sub-sector, driven by low supply, high occupancy rates and flexible use cases for tenants that may need smaller units with logistical loading and receiving bays.
"We continue to witness increasing demand for prime industrial properties located in growing markets where companies and small businesses are looking for flexible space to better serve local customers," said Taylor Colbert, Director of Real Estate for NexPoint Real Estate Advisors. "We believe there are significant tailwinds to support further growth, and we are committed to scaling our footprint in this notable sector."
NexPoint currently owns 1.6 million net rentable square feet of industrial real estate across Texas and Florida and is partnering with a privately held and vertically integrated real estate owner and operator, Basis Industrial, to manage the newly acquired properties.
"We are thrilled with our expanding partnership with NexPoint and are looking forward to implementing our hands-on management approach to optimize the performance of this prime industrial portfolio," said Dan Weinstein, CEO of Basis Industrial. "These assets have strong fundamentals, and we are excited to add them to our growing portfolio of owned and managed assets." Basis uses its subsidiary management company, WMG Small Bay Management, LLC d/b/a/ BaySpace, to manage the company's industrial assets.
About NexPoint
NexPoint is a multibillion-dollar alternative investment firm comprised of a group of investment advisers and sponsors, a broker-dealer, and a suite of related investment vehicles. NexPoint provides differentiated access to alternatives through a range of investment solutions, including public and private real estate investment trusts, tax-advantaged real estate vehicles, merger arbitrage and event-driven strategies, other private real estate investments, closed-end funds, interval funds, and a business development company. NexPoint is based in Dallas, Texas and is part of a network of affiliates with expertise across the asset management and financial services spaces. For more information, visit nexpoint.com.
About Basis Industrial
Basis Industrial is a vertically integrated real estate owner and operator formed by industry veterans and sponsors Jay Massirman, Stephen Garchik and Daniel Weinstein. Basis currently owns over 2.5 million square feet of self-storage and industrial real estate and is scheduled to close on another one million square feet in 2023. Active markets for Basis include South Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Boston, Los Angeles and select urban markets nationwide. BaySpace is the property management arm of Basis. For more information, visit www.basisindustrial.com or www.bayspace.com.
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