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Special Reports
Wholesale Showcase: Watching
a Loan Channel
GHR's Loansoft Acquisition Assists End-to-End Deals
By Anthony Garritano
WAYNE, PA -- GHR Systems' corporate strategy to acquire loan origination provider
Loansoft has paid off for the technology vendor because Prescott Funding, an existing GHR customer, has signed
up to integrate the Loansoft product in conjunction with the GHR wholesale origination website tool to create an
end-to-end solution all under the GHR umbrella of applications.
The Prescott deal is in line with the GHR strategy to provide an end-to-end solution
to lenders when the opportunity to move in that direction comes up. "We have an existing customer that had
previously licensed our wholesale origination website product recently license our loan origination software product
to achieve an integrated point-of-sale and processing and closing platform," added Cyrus M. Brinn, chief executive
officer for GHR.
"One of the motivations for acquiring Loansoft in the first place was that
we kept hearing from our existing customers and the market in general that they were tired of trying to integrate
components from different vendors," Mr. Brinn said. "It always sounds good during the sales process when
different vendors say that they can work with this product or that product, but when you get down to it, it's always
more tricky then originally described or anticipated. In fact it can often be problematic."
Also, given that volume is anticipated to slip as the refinance boom wanes, more
and more lenders are now looking to create more internal efficiency. "Lenders are getting squeezed with volume
dropping so they need to save costs where they can," pointed out Mr. Brinn. "Having a true integrated
origination and closing platform can save a lender a lot of money and give them a significant competitive advantage
over their competition.
"As we go forward, we're seeing more and more lenders go in this direction,"
he continued. "It works out well for us because it plays to our strategy and real reason we made the Loansoft
acquisition in the first place."
Nonetheless, GHR has not expressed any plans to grandfather one product or the
other and go to market with one end-to-end solution at any time in the near future. "We offer the products
as standalone modules, but also as an integrated platform," Mr. Brinn stated. "This strategy gives the
lender the opportunity to choose whatever configuration is appropriate for them.
"A lender may need a wholesale origination website but may have already invested
in a loan origination product and be unwilling to scrap it at present," he continued. "Somewhere down
the road they may be ready to upgrade and we as a company will be ready to offer the processing and closing component
on an integrated basis at that point."
The GHR entelligence suite of products includes a software offering to automate
several steps within the loan origination process, including laptop, website and call center systems, plus a comprehensive
data services network. To complete its offerings, GHR recently acquired Loansoft Inc., which features LS Studio
as a browser-based point-of-sale application.
The company also develops Broker-OneSource, a mortgage origination Web-based marketplace
that links wholesale lenders with mortgage brokers. BOS recently signed Saxon Mortgage to its roster of participating
lenders, which is continually expanding. At present, 18 lenders participate and over 2,000 mortgage brokers use
the site.
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