Home Lending Source Profiled

When you are investing significant capital and concerted effort into building a mortgage banking company, you do your homework.

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Southfield, MI, February 11th, 2011 – When you are investing significant capital and concerted effort into building a mortgage banking company, you do your homework. Home Lending Source of Middleburg Heights, Ohio, did exactly that before selecting Mortgage Builder’s loan origination software (LOS) system to enable them to provide a top-flight experience for their customers. The Cleveland area-based lender was formed from an existing mortgage company and an investment group that included several people with extensive experience in building companies. Among them was operations and business process engineering specialist Zubin Nagpal, a principal owner, who immediately saw that the company needed reengineering to compete effectively with the big-box players in the mortgage business. Since the origination effort centers on the LOS, a new lending software system was among the first decisions to make. Here’s how they did it:

Nagpal had largely decided he wanted an end-to-end system rather than buying one integrated from various components, preferring the single platform concept and the data integrity it brings to a business. He did demos of 15 competing LOS systems in his first 40 days on the job, and spoke to dozens of third party providers for their impressions of the leading LOS firms. Nagpal narrowed the field down to five companies that were deemed the best and brought in a team of users to help him make the next cut. The team, consisting of a branch manager, the head of underwriting and a closer, saw demos of the five and reduced the group of contenders to three. Adding additional operations people to the team, they went on-site at several client companies and interviewed actual users of the three LOS systems to eliminate one more. Next came the acid test: they invited the two finalist companies into their offices to show the systems to loan officers and the department staffs.

“We picked Mortgage Builder,” Nagpal says. “It was the integrated system we were looking for and had a superior reputation among our fellow Lenders One alliance members. Most importantly, Mortgage Builder gave us the technology sophistication we needed to grow and compete with the biggest lenders without making a prohibitively large investment to buy an enterprise-level system.”

Home Lending Source chose Mortgage Builder’s Application Service Provider (ASP) delivery model, but plans to switch to hosting the software on their own servers in the near future. “This was another part of Mortgage Builder’s appeal,” Nagpal explains. “Their offering allows us to start off with their taking care of the hosting and maintenance and then switch to an in-house model later, when we are ready to take it on. Mortgage Builder lets us go from one option to the other seamlessly, with no impact to the LOS’ features or capabilities.”

Training and implementation timeframes were also an important consideration for Home Lending Source as they chose their LOS. Mortgage Builder’s reputation among its clients gave its platform the edge there, too. “Our head of operations set an aggressive implementation schedule of 75 days and, with Mortgage Builder’s help, we were successful in achieving it,” he relates. “Their trainers have been fantastic, and we’ve had great response from Customer Support, just as their other clients told us during the due diligence phase.”

Home Lending Source is committed to capital investment and expanding the company’s retail presence into the Carolinas, the Southwest, the west coast, and the Midwest. He sees their LOS selection as a significant part of that effort as the company seeks top producers and branches to join the firm as it grows.

“High producers are often visionaries, and they know they must align themselves with mortgage banks that invest in technology and keep up with the changing environment,” Nagpal says. “Many companies aren’t investing to position themselves to grow, and that means opportunity for those of us that are committed. Mortgage Builder is an important part of our strategy for growth.”

Mortgage Builder vice president of sales Bill Mitchell understands this approach. “Mortgage Builder is privately held, so instead of having to meet constant shareholder demands for cash dividends, we’re able to invest in our technology and in our people to constantly improve,” he notes. “This is one reason we’re well thought of by Lenders One members like Home Lending Source. Other companies have investors to keep happy,” Mitchell says. “We’re focusing on pleasing our customers, instead. We are excited to be working with Home Lending Source and look forward to a long, fruitful relationship.”

Visit Progress In Lending at www.progressinlending.com.