JACKSONVILLE, Ark.-There's no way Arkansas FCU could have closed 25% more first mortgage loans amidst the subprime crisis without the help of a web-based pricing engine, according to Jeff Vint, AVP of mortgage lending here.
The engine makes easy work of calculating ever-changing loan-to-value (LTV) adjustments, Vint said. The CU closed $60-million in first mortgages as of November 30, up from $47-million in 2007, he said.
"When the subprime market started to implode, all the investors started to go crazy with their adjustments, and it hasn't let up," explained Don Kracl, president of Lincoln, Neb.-based Mortech, a mortgage software vendor that has provided the Marksman Pricing Engine to the $662-million since 2005.
"Marksman makes all the adjustments for you and tells you what you need to charge for the loan," said Vint. That's better than the previous method Arkansas FCU used, which was to manually calculate adjustments, he added.
Marksman "instantaneously" feeds real-time pricing and rate data into the CU's online loan origination system, allowing loan officers to determine best prices across investors and products-and allowing members to shop for best rates at the CU's online application site, said Vint.
Marksman also sends real-time rate alerts to loan officers to help them "convert prospects and close the loan," said Doug Foral, VP-sales, Mortech.
A typical Marksman pricing scenario displays breakdowns of base rates, profit and adjustments. "Everyone's prices are different, and now you have to add all these Freddie and Fannie adjustments as well," added Vint.
Marksman "pays for itself in labor by automating all the adjustments," he continued.
Mortech charges by the month based on the number of software users, according to Foral.
"Everything" is built into the loan price-including FICO scores, appraisal, state, profit percentage and loan type and amount-which helps Vint compensate for risk: he simply slightly increases prices on higher LTVs, he said.
That means Arkansas CU can control risk while closing some higher-LTV, lower-FICO loans, thereby "evening the playing field" among the competition, Vint.
"Marksman keeps me from throwing darts to price loans," he said. Arkansas has held most of its loans for nearly three years and currently has a 0.3% delinquency rate, Vint said.
"Because we don't sell to Fannie and Freddie, that has definitely helped us," said Vint "We don't take the hits for pricing from them."
It helps that Arkansas is not in California, too, he continued. "On a scale of one to 10, if California is a 10, we're not even a one in the mortgage fallout. We just didn't have a price run up here."
Arkansas FCU holds $115-million in first mortgages, said Vint.
The Marksman suite includes the Pricing Engine; a Product Engine for loan product searches; a Prospect Management module built on a Customer Relationship Management architecture; and the Leadmark lead management system. Loan officers can also use Marksman Mobile to access all Marksman modules via a mobile device.
MORE@CUJOURNAL.COM
Read more about mortgage technology at cujournal.com and search the following bolded terms in the archive:
How Mortgage Servicing Helps Mid-Size CU Be Top 10 Lender
Frustrating Hassles Associated With Bringing Technology To Bear On A Certain Type of Mortgage
For info on this story:
www.afcu.org
www.mortech-inc.com
