Recently Fannie Mae has released test versions of new iterations of the URAR (1004), 2055, 1073, 1075, 1004B and 1004D. WinTOTAL users with support memberships will have the new forms Thursday evening — for free — as part of an Instant Customer Update.

Coming in a special update we'll release later this month, you'll find a revolutionary new print engine that we actually developed for the new WinTOTAL 5.0. Rather than hold it for release with WinTOTAL 5.0 — which anyone with a support contract will get for free — the productivity enhancement and time savings this new engine offers was important enough that we wanted to get it to you as soon as possible.

A couple weeks ago we mentioned the coming of a new WinTOTAL PDF creator, not to be confused with PDF Publisher we had several years ago. This imbedded PDF creator is part of the new print engine, and a favorite of our beta testers. The speed increase in creating PDF files is staggering. Plus, this means you won't need to buy more copies of Adobe® in the future, and new appraisers won't need to drop the $200 to get it somewhere else.

One of our beta appraisers did a side by side test between Adobe® and WinTOTAL's PDF creator. He used an 18 page report — full 1004, three maps and three picture pages. WinTOTAL printed the PDF in less than half the time of Adobe®. But the PDF creator is only part of the deal. Look for "WinTOTAL 5.0" interface improvements and new time-saving and productivity-enhancing options. The new interface is designed to give you greater flexibility in the way you print. From the new Print screen you'll be able to:

• Rearrange forms in your report
• On a per form basis, set which forms go to which of your printers
• On a per form basis, decide whether a form should be in the Table of Contents page and in your report's page numbering
• Configure what type of file number to print on every page
• Save printer and layout schemes so you don't have to constantly configure the way you want your report to print
• Watermark the photos in your report at print time

Keep reading this e-newsletter to be in the "early know" for upcoming WinTOTAL 5.0 news.

A buzzword in mortgage lending lately is "bundling," often called "bundled services." Companies that make their money from mortgage originators who order ancillary products and services necessary for mortgage production have seemingly all decided that everything they do needs to have a package price now.

Old Republic Title announced last week it "will leverage the technologies and vendor management capabilities that we have had for years [and] will place them in the hands of our agents and provide them with access to a broad array of services including flood reporting, credit reporting services, appraisal services, automated valuation models, bankruptcy reporting, home warranty, 1031 exchange services, relocation services and site management services."

Earlier this year, Stewart Mortgage Information (SMI) debuted "Build Your Own Bundle" for mortgage lenders, including services such as electronic closing, credit reporting, flood zone determination, "full appraisal and AVM solutions," title, disbursement and recordation services and post-closing services, the company said.

TransUnion, the credit repository, has a "settlement solutions" arm that offers credit, valuation, title searches and insurance, flood determinations, document preparation and delivery, and closing and recording, among other things.

ABN AMRO, one of the top ten mortgage originators also doing business under names like LaSalle Mortgage, Standard Federal, and Mortgage.com pioneered the idea from the lender side. It began guaranteeing its borrowers a single fee for their mortgages and developing a division of the company — OneFee Services — to bring all the services the borrower needs to pay for, including appraisal, under one company roof.

A mortgage lender vying for borrower business has a great case for guaranteeing an amount early on the borrower will have to pay at closing, as anyone who has bought a house or refinanced can guess. How they accomplish it, and whether it means appraiser-vendors will have to start guaranteeing their fees up front, is a different and even more complex issue.

And title companies like Old Republic and Stewart — and the biggies, First American and Fidelity, which have spent the last several years diversifying into (that is to mostly say, acquiring) other "mortgage information" businesses, have their own reasons for wanting to include valuations, be they human or otherwise, as parts of their "bundle." It's often easier to get stuff in one place than to shop around — this is as true of mortgage lenders as Wal-Mart consumers or users of eBay.

But it points to a misconception of the role of the appraiser that we've been fighting for years. There are a lot of responsible, intelligent mortgage lenders and brokers that regard appraisal as a "settlement service," like title, escrow, recordation, closing, flood, etc. — things that need to happen to "settle" a loan once a borrower has qualified, agreed to loan and repayment terms, and an underwriter has agreed to underwrite. From the perspective of the broker or loan officer, often the number the appraiser comes up with is part of the to-do list they check off on the way to the commission check. They need to order title, get a flood determination, make sure the funds are in escrow, and the appraisal has to come in at a number appropriate to the loan-to-value. Pick up dry cleaning on way home.

But appraisals can't be "bundled" with settlement services. Absurd rules do allow parties with a (commission) stake in the closing of a loan to order the appraisal and choose the appraiser, but the appraiser works for the underwriter of the loan, and the appraisal is necessary long before "settlement" to make a responsible underwriting decision.

We announced last week that we completed expansion of our Oklahoma City headquarters to accommodate a new data center and customer service department.