When most people talk about mortgage websites, they mean the retail sites, E-Loan, HomeShark and so on. Few even know that business-to-business sites such as the IMX and Lenders Interactive Online Network even exist.

When you consider that more than 60% of mortgage originations are done by traditional mortgage brokers, it should come as no surprise that more and more savvy companies are going to the Web to offer themselves as facilitators of the transaction between those brokers and the lenders who make the loans.

Two such companies are First Mortgage Network and First American Real Estate Information Services. Central to what each of these companies brings to the equation is a link to the automated underwriting systems of the secondary market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

First American has just announced its FAST-AU pilot program to give brokers point-of-sale access to Freddie Mac?s Loan Prospector automated underwriting system via the Internet. Participating brokers will create an AU request file using origination software from First American subsidiary Contour Software Inc. The broker will send the loan application data via the Internet to FAST-AU and thence to Loan Prospector via Freddie Mac?s GoldWorks network for a decision.

Through its Openclose.com member-based system, FMN similarly provides point-of-sale connectivity to Fannie Mae?s Desktop Underwriter. In addition Openclose.com offers access to an electronic 1003 mortgage loan application and connection to mortgage insurers. Brokers without Internet access may use the system via fax. Lenders participating in Openclose.com have individual sections of the site to market their loan offerings, promotions and rates and provide AU services to their sponsored brokers. After receiving the AU decision, the broker may submit the loan to one of the participating lenders.

The mortgage profession has put pressure on the two GSEs to enable a single automated underwriting decision in order to lower the cost and complication of the mortgage application process. A strong point for FAST-AU and Openclose.com is that they enables participating brokers to get a secondary market purchase decision without first submitting information to an individual lender, so that no fees are incurred as the broker seeks to match up the borrower with the best deal.

While the streamlining offered by FAST-AU and Openclose are good news for consumers as well lenders, neither system fully enables mortgage brokers to shop on price for the borrower. The problem is that lenders don?t want to compete on price alone. In fact Openclose.com currently offers lenders some insulation against direct price comparison; though the site is designed to offer a cyberspace "meeting room" where lenders can conveniently review loan packages and lock loans submitted by brokers, it does not give brokers an opportunity to make side-by-side price comparisons between loans or to put loan packages out for lender bid as with IMX. However, since FMN CEO Seth Werner wants Openclose.com to become "the only place brokers need" to do business on the Internet, that may change.

IMX president Steve Fraser and others argue that mortgage industry efforts to avoid the commoditizing influence of the Internet will prove futile in the long run. As they evolve out of their early pilot versions, systems like FAST-U and Openclose.com can help lenders adjust to the fact that Internet-educated borrowers - whether or not they actually apply online - will expect to get their loans ever cheaper.