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Special Reports
Home Equity Lending
Lender Uses Doc Preparation Vendor to Expand
By Anthony Garritano
Yale Mortgage Corp., a hard equity lender for residential and commercial mortgages
here, turned to automation to increase the efficiency of its backroom operations and expand its geographic reach.
Yale's method of residential and commercial real estate financing provides solutions
to borrowers outside of traditional lending parameters, including those facing foreclosure. Founded in 1992, Yale's
primary market is a subprime borrower with significant equity in his home whose borrowing needs are not being met
by traditional financial institutions.
Yale Mortgage bases approvals entirely on the equity in a property. The company
is licensed in eight states, employs 110 mortgage professionals and services more than $300 million in loans.
Due to its growth over the past five years and expansion plans into three new
states, Yale selected Guardian Mortgage Solutions to provide document preparation, title and escrow, closing and
post closing services to increase its back office capacity. Specifically, Yale started lending in Arizona in April
of this year and will also expand into Colorado and Nevada in 2006.
"It was difficult forming relationships with attorneys and title companies
out of the area that we were indigenous to," explained Mike Riveron, chief operating officer at Yale. "So,
we started looking at alternatives to see how we could fund and close loans outside of Florida. We needed to track
not only the documentation and title, but also the trailing documents because we use bank lines that have deadlines.
"Guardian has a one-stop shop to create the documents on the front-end, build
the relationship with the bank lines and they're solid financially. I got the title tracking through them and I
can track everything even after funding when it comes to the trailing documents," he reported.
"Also, everything is Web based and accessible over the Internet. So, we were
able to efficiently review and track every part of the process online. The speed and efficiency that Guardian has
brought to us has allowed us to expand into new markets that would take us twice as long to build relationships
on our own. This gives Yale the ability to be sure that we're properly represented as we enter new states,"
pointed out Mr. Riveron.
In addition, the implementation was very hands on and seamless, according to Mr.
Riveron. "The transition was smooth. The key benefit to working with Guardian is the knowledgeable staff.
It's a tailor-made system. They will sit with you and map out the transaction to your processes," he said.
Going forward Yale is looking to more effectively tie its front-end Web portal
to its overall operation. "Submissions come in through the Web and we have to license software to get all
of that information into our loan origination system," noted Mr. Riveron. "The technology we're looking
for to take us to the next level is the ability to have our Web operation go seamlessly into our loan origination
system. We have relationships today that we're looking to leverage to get us there."
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