Atlanta Startup Drinks is scheduled for Wednesday August, 13 at Fado Irish Pub in Buckhead - details are here.
Atlanta Startup Drinks!
July 30, 2008
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Entrepreneurship, Events, General | Tagged: Atlanta, Startup, Startup Drinks | 
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Posted by David Jones
TwitterFlex update: Pricing and YSP display
July 29, 2008We have made some minor updates at the request of our testing users. TwitterFlex has always returned the rate that is closest to par and we made some minor label changes to make this information clearer. So give it a try - shoot over some pricing requests.
As always, your feedback is much needed. You’ll find our feedback site the perfect place to tell us that we’re fools or the best thing since sliced bread… check it out at http://feedback.lenderflex.com/pages/twitter_flex
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LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex | Tagged: Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, software, Twitter, TwitterFlex | 
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Posted by Jeff Gombala
A little self-promotion for TwitterFlex
July 29, 2008Todd Carpenter over at Lenderama posted a “Ghost Review” of TwitterFlex, written by yours truly. Check it out here. While you’re there, don’t forget to checkout the rest of Lenderama and subscribe to Todd’s RSS feed (I KNOW you already subscribe to the LenderFlex feed, right?).
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LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex | Tagged: Lenderama, TwitterFlex | 
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Posted by David Jones
Nationwide loan originator licensing and registration system
July 28, 2008
Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008
Senate passes H.R. 3221
This recently passed legislation is meant to assist at-risk homeowner as well as stabilize the mortgage market. Some of the key highlights are:
1) Modernization of FNMA, FHLMC and FHA
2) Increases in FHA loan limits
3) Increases the cap on mortgage loans Fannie and Freddie can purchase
4) A nationwide loan originator licensing and registration system
It’s this last change that I find the most intriguing as well as the most needed. It’s about time that originators be tracked, monitored and licensed. In almost all states its more difficult to obtain a Real Estate license then it is to become a loan officer/originator. Most Real Estate professionals must attend and pass state certified courses/exams as well as be licensed in the state they wish to conduct business.
To become a loan officer/originator it’s as simple as filling out an application with a broker and in some cases passing a police background check however this is NOT enough to deter someone from commiting fraud. What has always been missing is the accountability of loan offficers/originators in the mortgage industry. The fact the Real Estate Brokers are required to have education and training for simply selling homes and loan officers/originators who are managing borrower’s financials and negotiating the largest purchase most borrowers will make in their lifetime are NOT required to be educated, licensed or monitored by any government agency makes no sense at all.
Tracking loan officers will most certainly improve accountability and greatly reduce the amount of fraud being perpetrated by the few loan officers who don’t take this profession seriously and view it as a “hustle”. I certainly feel that having accountability for loan officers is long overdue.
No Comments » | General, LenderFlex, Lending, Thinking | Tagged: Lending, Mortgage, mortgage news | Permalink
Posted by Louis Dillard
Twitter is for monkeys
July 24, 2008So Twitter has gone and done it again. Something went wrong yesterday, everyone got the Whales but even more of a crapper is that followers/friends have disappeared from quite a few accounts. Leave your compliant here.
This “issue” did affect the TwitterFlex system. Basically for the system to work the @lenderflex Twitter account has to be following you so TwitterFlex can communicate via direct messages. In order to get back onto the TwitterFlex system you’ll need to sign up again at, twitterflex.com. Sign up here. A pain I know, but after a new sign up everything should be peachy.
The bigger issue that has come about is that we have discovered that Twitter simply is not capable of being a platform. And while TwitterFlex is just an expirement this discovery is still disappointing.
Where does TwitterFlex go from here? We are thinking towards a Jabber/XMPP interface. Shortly after our major release on July 28th we should have this new interface out the door.
So please stand by and stay tuned.
No Comments » | Entrepreneurship, General, LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex | Tagged: Jabber, Twitter, TwitterFlex | Permalink
Posted by Jeff Gombala
The Most Awsome Thing Ever
July 22, 2008OK, no - there is no particular reason for posting this, but when somebody comes up with something this freakin’ creepy, you just have to share it (yeah, that’s a Roomba):
No Comments » | General, Irrelevant, Thinking | Tagged: Freakin' Awsome | Permalink
Posted by David Jones
TwitterFlex - Get yer update on
July 18, 2008So we have a folks kicking the tires and are getting great feedback. If you haven’t signed up, what are you waiting for… it is free mortgage pricing. So get on it, sign up now!
Suggestions, you got em, we’ll implement them.
One of the suggestions we got made a lot of sense, so we implemented it and released it today. Instead of us flooding you with posts/responses that may confuse or may enrage your current followers we switched the system over to work based on Twitter’s direct messaging.
So you may ask, what do I have to do different. Well, not much. Instead of sending ‘@lenderflex p|full|pr|30Y|200K|80|GA|700|35‘ you’ll now send us a Direct message. So your message would look like ‘D lenderflex p|full|pr|30Y|200K|80|GA|700|35‘. All the existing commands still work. However in order for this to work you have to be sure you are following the lenderflex Twitter account. Essentially you’re befriending TwitterFlex. Don’t worry, if you forget to follow lenderflex the system will oh so politely remind you.
Some other things going on.
We now have another Twitter account in which you can follow our rate update. Just simply follow @lenderflexcares and you’ll be informed ASAP when pricing has updated. We’ll also accept support requests, etc. here as well.
Remembering all of these codes can become quite a pain. As we get more and more feedback we’ll start to optimize them into something easier to remember. We went ahead and changed the way the loan amount is read… no longer are you required to enter just 3 characters for your loan amount. The system is getting smarter in that you can now send things like; $375,000 or 375K or 1500k or $50,000.
So if you’ve got some ideas we’d love to hear ‘em.
No Comments » | LenderFlex, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex | Tagged: LenderFlex, Product Pricing & Eligibility, software, Twitter, TwitterFlex | Permalink
Posted by Jeff Gombala
TwitterFlex is Live!
July 17, 2008
We talked about TwitterFlex yesterday, but we didn’t really “formally” announce it, so here it is:
TwitterFlex is Live!
So what is TwitterFlex?
TwitterFlex is a fast, simple and free way to get pre-qualification pricing for a borrower using Twitter. (If you’re not familiar with Twitter, you can learn more and sign up for free here.) Sometimes you just need to get a quick price quote for your borrower. With TwitterFlex there’s no need to log into LenderFlex (or other pricing engine), your LOS or call an AE.
Why is this cool?
Imagine if you are showing a potential buyer a home, they are hung up on the cost and the potential monthly payment. Whip out your mobile phone (Crackberry or IPhone if you’re one of the cool kids) and send a tweet to @LenderFlex. Then dazzle and amaze your borrower when you given them up to the minute monthly payment and rate information.
For the mortgage broker. Imagine you’re getting an inbound phone call and they ask the question that all potential borrowers ask. What is today’s best rate… well, now you can tell them, instantly, quickly and most importantly for free.
Most of all, this is cool because you’ll figure out the best way to use it.
How does it work?
You just send a simple request with a few loan parameters to @LenderFlex using Twitter. TwitterFlex will run the request against the LenderFlex PPE engine and return the best rate that is closest to par.
Pricing Request:
Pricing Response:
The system is pretty smart, as well. If you get confused, just send @LenderFlex help and it will respond.
TwitterFlex is simple to use and best of all, it’s free! You can sign up at the TwitterFlex home page and learn more at the TwitterFlex FAQ page.
So what are you waiting for?
No Comments » | General, LenderFlex, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex, mortgage brokers | Tagged: LenderFlex, Pricing, Product Pricing and Eligibility, software, TwitterFlex | Permalink
Posted by David Jones
POX over WCF = API Goodness
July 17, 2008
So what is POX and what is WCF and what does it got to do with me?
I am not going to go into a deep dive of each, there is plenty of material on the web that covers that. Just search Wikipedia or Google.
What I am going to tell you is that the combo of the two made it a whole hell of a lot simpler to integrate with us. During our “distraction”, as Dave calls it, I got even more distracted and decided that our API needed an overhaul as well. Being a glutton for punishment, I thought it wise to take on a technology I had never seen before. I find that I work best while stressed and behind the 8-ball.
We have a lot of cool ideas, (see TwitterFlex), about how we can mash-up mortgage rates with other cool technologies. But those are just our ideas. We want to see what you can come up with. So over the next couple of days we’ll be launching a developer portion of our site in which you’ll get to learn about our API, sign up for developer accounts and more importantly share your ideas with the community.
So if you’ve ever said to yourself, “Man, if only I could get mortgage quotes I could do _____.” Then you’ll love this.
No Comments » | API, Entrepreneurship, General, LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, TwitterFlex | Tagged: API, LenderFlex, Mashup, Mortgage Pricing, Mortgage Rates, Product Development, Product Pricing and Eligibility, software, TwitterFlex | Permalink
Posted by Jeff Gombala
TwitterFlex
July 16, 2008
I’ve been pretty vocal about the fact that I’m not a huge fan of Twitter. I’ve looked at it more as social noise than anything else. Perhaps this is the anti-social aspect of my personality manifesting itself?
Anyway, at the urging of quite a few of you, we’ve had everyone at LenderFlex taking a look at Twitter. I’m still not sold on it as a marketing tool, but I’ve only been on it for a few days now.
I still think some things about Twitter sucks. As an obsessed food “hobbyist” (I would never call myself chef and “foodie” = pretentious), I believe, with a few exceptions, that you should never have a tool in the kitchen that does only one thing. Out of the box Twitter does one thing (and I still not sure I get the point of that one thing). But at least they have an API.
So we started pounding on what Twitter could do that would make it “useful” in the context of LenderFlex. Well, we’ve got an API for LenderFlex too, and even though we’re blasting for a new product release on July 28, we thought “what the hell, let’s allow people to request & receive loan product pricing via Twitter”.
Enter TwitterFlex (we may as well keep out tongues firmly in cheek). It’s pretty much what you’d expect. Send a string of loan criteria to us via Twitter, and we’ll Twitter back pre-qual pricing. Taking into account the limitations of the Twitter channel and considering that it was concepted and built in about 5 days, I think it’s pretty slick.
Could it be better? Absolutely.
Will we make it better? Maybe. (as with most of our concepts, we’ve got hundreds of ideas about what to do with it)
Can we monetize it? Possibly.
Will loan originators find it useful, much less use it? Don’t know.
But if anything can prove to me that Twitter has a potential value, this might be it.
If you’re a mortgage or real estate professional, Sign Up and try it (it’s free!). Let us know what you think - good, bad, indifferent.
No Comments » | Entrepreneurship, General, LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing & Eligibility, Thinking, Transparency, TwitterFlex, mortgage brokers | Tagged: LenderFlex, Product Development, Product Pricing and Eligibility, software, Twitter, TwitterFlex | Permalink
Posted by David Jones
