Mortgage Builder Software will be holding a Blood Drive through the American Red Cross on September 29, 2000. The hours of the drive are from 9:00 am through 3:00 pm and will take place at our building in Southfield, MI. This drive is being held for Wendy Inman’s father-in-law, Kenny Inman. Wendy has been in the mortgage industry for over 18 years and has been a customer of Mortgage Builder in the past. Kenny suffers from a form of leukemia and is requiring up to 2-3 pints of blood every other week. This drive will help him receive the necessary blood he needs. We hope that our customers will see the need for this blood and help Kenny and other people in our community. Please contact Liz Resovsky at 248-208-3223 to make an appointment to help save a life!
Mortgage Builder Software
Midwest MortgageMakers Magazine – Summer 2000
Each issue, Midwest MortgageMakers Magazine profiles a provider of mortgage technology. This time, we interview Keven Smith, president of Mortgage Builder Software, a company based in Southfield, Mich. The company produces a software package designed as a complete mortgage-lending solution.
Midwest MortgageMakers Magazine: When did you found Mortgage Builder Software?
Keven Smith: The company was founded in 1977 as Glenn Computer Corporation. Glenn Computer designs front-end and servicing software for the mortgage industry. In January of 1999, We created Mortgage Builder Software, specializing in loan-origination software systems. As a subsidiary of Glenn Computer, Mortgage Builder Software has been able to take advantage of emerging mortgage services technologies.
MortgageMakers: What inspired you to enter this business?
Smith: I’ve always wanted to work in the software-development business. From my experience, the mortgage industry provides an ideal opportunity to practically apply software to solve real-world problems. Having the experience of developing software early in my career enabled me to understand what my customers really want from a mortgage software company.
MortgageMakers: Starting a business is always risky. What steps had you taken to minimize this risk?
Smith: Glenn Computer has been in business for more than 20 years. We kept aware of the mortgage industry’s needs by listening to our customers’ requests and supporting them when they needed modifications. Before writing our new software, Mortgage Builder, we researched the tools and technology available and selected the best principles and components to meet the needs of the industry. We also studied our competition closely to determine what they were doing successfully and what they were not doing well. The combination of these allowed us to minimize our risk.
MortgageMakers: How many employees work with the company?
Smith: We currently have nine full-time employees at Mortgage Builder Software. We also consult and develop with employees of our parent company, Glenn Computer Corporation.
MortgageMakers: Can you briefly describe the services and products you offer to the mortgage industry?
Smith: Mortgage Builder is a Windows-based software package that is designed to be a complete mortgage lending solution. The system contains everything from laptop origination, processing, closing, underwriting, post-closing and all major interfaces for both wholesale and retail production. Interfaces include Fannie Mae’s Desktop Originator and Desktop Underwriter, FannieMae's Mornet Cash Delivery System, Freddie Mac’s Midanet Delivery System and Ginnie Mae’s Ginnie Net Loan Delivery System. Mortgage Builder provides users a post-relational three-dimensional database that allows up to a thousand users to operate on a variety of computer platforms including Windows NT, UNIX and Linux. Another service we provide is developing, hosting and integration of customer Web sites.
MortgageMakers: What are some of the reasons for your company’s continued success?
Smith: Being a smaller-sized company enables us to have a personal relationship with all of our customers, whereas with our larger counterparts this often is not feasible. Mortgage Builder also reacts more quickly to emerging technologies, industry changes and customer requests. We ensure that our software is reliable and stable, in addition to striving for exceptional customer support, which results in higher customer satisfaction and more referrals.
MortgageMakers: What is the greatest reward of running your own business?
Smith: Knowing that we created a software solution that has helped other business owners gain success as well.
Employees and family members of Mortgage Builder Software spent a Saturday in July helping out at the Cornerstone Habitat for Humanity House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We wanted to do something for the community that was related in some way to the mortgage industry. We felt this was a great opportunity.
Most of the work we provided was hanging drywall, mud sanding and site cleanup. It was hard work, but actually a lot of fun. Where else can you practice your home improvement skills on someone else’s house? We were able to meet the homeowners (pictured 2nd and 3rd from the left), as they are required to put in 400 hours of labor each during the project. They were very thankful for our group effort, which made the day even more rewarding.
Afterwards, all of us went to Kevin and Andrea Gusler’s house to have our second annual company picnic and Jarts competition.
If you are interested in working at a Habitat House, you can access their web site at www.habitat.org for information on Habitat for Humanity projects available in your area.
Mortgage Builder is proud to annouce the roll out of our Email/Fax/Print module which gives our users the ability to email any document that can be printed in our system.
This new functionality will enable you to email closing packages to your title companies, lock confirms or approval letters to correspondents, pipeline reports to branch managers, or even a 1003 application to a borrower for signatures! You simply hit a button and the system prints the selected documents to a file on your server. You can then attach this file to your email and the end user will only need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, in order to view and print the documents sent. Think of all the time and money this will save your company!
Future enhancements to this module will enable you to view your documents before printing them using the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This will be helpful when you wish to view a 1008 or Analysis Worksheet, for example, all on one page.
In addition, you will have the capability to fax directly from our system any document that can be printed. When the Fax button is selected, the system will prompt you to enter the fax number you wish to send to as well as any comments you wish to add on the cover letter.
For the final piece to this module, we plan to give you the ability to print to any printer within your network, or to a printer attached to your PC. When you select the optional printer button, you can view a list of all printers available and select which one you choose. This can be useful when you wish to print a document directly to an off sight branch.
Tom Davis is a senior programmer at Mortgage Builder Software Inc. He started here in June of 1993 and plays a major role in the support of the old Glenn Computer Lending system.
With over 17 years of programming experience, Tom has played a strong role in the development of Mortgage Builder. He designed and programmed the print engine that generates every document, form and report in the system. He is currently leading the development of our Freddie Mac Loan Prospector Interface.
Tom attended Macomb Community College majoring in Computer Science. One of Tom’s favorite pastimes is being a gadget junkie. He loves to dabble in computer hardware and is constantly rebuilding and upgrading his home PC. Some of his additional hobbies are computer shows, war game conventions, amateur astronomy and science fiction. Tom currently resides in the Warren area.
Mortgage Builder Software would like to welcome two new customers to our software.
FSB Funding, Inc.