The latest trend in online real estate is for the bank to come to the agent via the desktop.

If you don't want to take part of the origination fee, and prefer to leave the business of banking to the specialists, there are plenty of players who want to help you do just that and make it easy for you to choose their services. Now thanks to transaction management/loan transaction platforms, you can qualify and get approval for your buyer instantly.

Imagine being able to meet with a buyer and knowing with reasonable certainty in five minutes what s/he can spend. Imagine being able to confidently walk out the door with a buyer who is holding a downloaded approval directly from the lender and start showing homes that the buyer can contract today.

Until recently, real estate agents did most of the referring when it came to lenders, but the online mortgage industry changed all that. Online lenders such as E-LOAN and Lending Tree went straight to the consumer, also bypassing but politely acknowledging the agent with tools such as online tracking systems. Two things happened. Agents were reluctant to recommend online lenders because their customers could get lost in cyberspace, and direct lenders wanted other ways to compete besides low prices. Consumers were visiting the Internet, all right, but they weren't closing as many loans as Realtors would like to have seen.

Enter the real estate transaction management/loan platform. Conceived about 1998, and brought to fruition in 2000 by Homeadvisor Technologies, Inc, the Mortgage Direct loan platform is offered to consumers on Homeadvisor.com but it is also brought direct to participating brokers on Realty Desktop, Homeadvisor's contact, client and office management platform. Homeadvisor advertises that MortgageDirect will save a consumer $2000 per loan while reducing closing from more than a month to just 10 days, and perhaps even sooner with the adoption of online signatures.

Mortgage Direct is the first true implementation or real-time, risk-based pricing, in which many of the steps required to approve and finance a mortgage, including credit checks, appraisals, underwriting decisions, pricing and rate locking are automated. Making sure that these services deliver their promise are the behind the scenes equity and strategic partners of Homeadvisor's, firms such as Freddie Mac, Chase Manhattan Corp., GMAC-Residential Funding Corp., Bank of America, and Norwest Mortgage, among many others.

Although the target date for a launch is late winter of 2001, the N.A.R. and Homestore aren't far behind with a transaction management/loan transaction platform of their own. The companies have not yet announced costing strategies, but it is certain that the platform will be totally Realtor-centric. The platform is being developed with equity and strategic partners such as Fannie Mae, GMAC Real Estate and GMAC Mortgage, WyldFyre, RE FormsNet, VeriSign, Prudential and RE/MAX, among many others and promises to restore the Realtor to the center of the transaction.

With the advent of instant online approval, available through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, there is little reason for a Realtor not to qualify a buyer as soon as they meet. It can all be done via laptop at the Realtor's office, or at a showing. Like being your own mortgage loan originator, taking advantage of instant online approval through one of these new online loan platforms is irresistible, unless you have a good reason otherwise. Even if you have a local lender of your own, you can encourage the lender to submit his or her name to your broker to incorporate into the desktop management system. You can have your cake and eat it, too. Have your favorite lender, and convenience and cost-savings of the Internet for your buyer, too.

Published: July 5, 2000

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.