Mortgage Tech Summit – June 9th, 2011 – Denver, CO

Category: Technology

Posted on in Technology

Mortgage Tech Summit – June 9th, 2011 – Denver, CO

As a mortgage originator, I need technology that stays out of my way. I need technology that works. I need access to my content 24/7 from any device with security and privacy. I need data portability. I need convenience. I suspect many of my colleagues have made this observation already but there is a noticeable lack of “technology best practices” being curated by and for mortgage professionals right now. The information remains elusive and distant. Those originators that have learned how to collect, process, and synthesize ideas are winning a game where the other players are still grasping at the rules. When technology discussions do take place, they generally happen further up the food chain … i.e. MISMO initiatives to support proprietary data formats (Fannie Mae AUS standards). Unfortunately, this is the type of conversation that proliferates throughout the mortgage tech landscape. I understand I’m making a sweeping generalization. There are notable exceptions. However, one quick search on Google for […]

by jberman
Posted on in Technology

Visualize Your Network with InMaps – LinkedIn Labs

InMaps from LinkedIn Labs (via Lifehacker) is a really interesting data visualization tool. Upon sign up, the engine does it’s magic and then asks the user to determine the relevance of each color pool. I spent a few minutes on one and posted the example below. The most interesting aspect of this map was being able to click on various dots and revealing how people within my network are connected to each other. It’s the first time I’ve seen a visualization that makes a graphical representation of my 2nd degree network.

by jberman
Posted on in Technology

Introducing MortgageZen: The First Blended Rate Mortgage Calculator for the iPhone

I’m really excited to announce that MortgageZen 1.0 went live in the iTunes App Store today. To my knowledge, MortgageZen is the first blended rate calculator to be approved for the iTunes App Store. The idea for MortgageZen came from a desire to have a quick & simple way to calculate the weighted average interest rate of an existing 1st & 2nd mortgage. The ‘Blended Rate’ comes up frequently when discussing refinance options with customers. My old workflow required a calculator, pen, & paper. It’s not a difficult calculation but it’s cumbersome when you’re mobile and the tools to calculate the rate aren’t available. Maybe other originators want this too? Finding no existing solution, we built one. The plan is to extend the feature set of MortgageZen to fulfill other niche mortgage calculations, so that mortgage originators are able to deliver more timely & useful information, thereby increasing the value they provide to their customers. I’d love feedback, comments, suggestions. […]

by jberman
Posted on in Technology

RSS will help you be a smarter consumer.

A quick primer on RSS. RSS is a great way to keep up with websites that are constantly updating with new content. In this post, I’ll briefly explain the technology & the benefit to learning how to use it so that you may become more efficient consuming (and utilizing) the information you want with less effort. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. The easiest way to understand RSS is to think of it as a broadcast beacon. Many websites offer you the ability to pick up their broadcast, also known as a “feed”, by clicking an RSS icon or inputting the link address into a feed aggregator. For more information about all of this, I recommend reading this wikipedia post on RSS. The advantage to RSS is that you no longer have to visit a website to know it has updates. Instead, websites that offer RSS allow you to subscribe to the RSS feed and when new content […]

by jberman
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