GHR forms alliance with ValuAmerica

GHR SYSTEMS INC., WAYNE, PENNSYLVAnia, has announced a new strategic alliance with ValuAmerica, Pittsburgh, a mortgage settlement services, technology and management consulting firm. The new business relationship adds comprehensive real-estate settlement services (e.g., appraisals, title insurance,

"In 2002, our lender-clients originated 694,000 loans using GHR's origination technology and transaction platform," said Cy Brinn, president of GHR Systems Inc. "In doing so, these lenders eliminated hundreds of dollars of origination cost per transaction. To obtain additional cost savings, our clients have asked us to provide automation of the processing, service ordering and closing functions, which we are doing through this strategic alliance with ValuAmerica. The alliance gives GHR's lenders the ability to utilize a one-stop shopping capability for the procurement of all the settlement services needed to process and close a loan. Adding integrated settlement services to our transaction network will enable our lenders to gain more efficiencies and further reduce costs," Brinn said.

"Additionally, the pending RESPA [Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act] changes will make it imperative that lenders offer bundled settlement services for one, guaranteed fee. By combining GHR's advanced workflow capabilities with ValuAmerica's vendor management and settlement services solution, lenders will get unprecedented operational efficiencies and cost reductions," Brinn said.

GHR's clients will gain access to the online settlement services through GHR's origination solutions (wholesale, retail, consumer-direct, call center). Clients will be able to establish their specific workflow rules to automatically trigger the ordering of specific services when specific loan application conditions are detected. Because ValuAmerica works with lenders to set up and manage captive settlement services companies, GHR expects its clients to realize substantial economic gains by creating their own settlement services operations in this manner.