Taking inspiration from the success of Zillow and Trulia’s ‘cool’ web site widgets, PriceFinder has recently released its own range of agent website tools for Australia. Widgets are an easy way to enhance your own website, increasing traffic and generating leads.

According to Kent Lardner, Chief Operating Officer of PriceFinder;
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Today’s Guest post is courtesy of Mozo.com.au

2009 was the year of the buzzword. ‘GFC’ compacted trillions of lost dollars into three innocuous letters. ‘Swine Flu’ sent perfectly healthy people into hyperchondriac panics. And ‘iSnack 2.0′ heralded the buzzword gone horribly wrong, imploding like some marketing supernova.

Another catch cry birthed in 2009 was Online Financial Comparison, ‘OFC’ to join in the buzzword game, though I think this one’s likely to enjoy a longer shelf life. This new online marketplace allows consumers to search for and compare financial products with unprecedented ease - signalling an end to the traditionally arduous task of researching financial products. And beyond allowing consumers to compare diverse and complex products, Online Financial Comparison platforms provide banks, credit unions and brokers with a valuable audience of active potential customers.
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Calculating your potential monthly repayments while you’re out viewing prospective properties just got a lot easier thanks to RAMS new mobile website.

The website, 13RAMS.mobi, optimised to use on any internet enabled mobile phone, lets users calculate what their indicative monthly home loan repayments would be when they’re out and about. The website also includes a call-back option where users can request a call back from a RAMS customer service representative simply by entering their phone number.

RAMS Head of Franchise, Clive Kirkpatrick said, “RAMS mobile website is incredibly easy to use and provides potential home buyers with useful information when they need it, regardless of where they are.
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Source: Press Release

As part of their commitment to provide the Australian Mortgage Broking industry with the best in business platforms, Stargate are currently undertaking the most significant platform redevelopment since the creation of the Symmetry program.

In announcing the system upgrade to its 2000 users, Stargate Group CEO, Brett Spencer said that “as the first major system-wide re-development since the creation of Symmetry in 2001 and with an investment of over $1.5 million dollars, this upgrade into the latest technologies will enable Stargate to continue to provide award winning software and serve our customers for the next 10 years.”

Along with the introduction of a range of new features, the greatest change to Symmetry relates to the technology platform that provides its underlying support. As a product that is built using Microsoft Technologies, Stargate are now adopting the, Microsoft Dynamics CRM^TM technology platform in a partnership with Microsoft for the Australian mortgage broking industry.
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By Kent Lardner for Lending Central

The Wall Street Journal did an analysis of the Zillow valuation model for 1,000 home sales in early 2007. It found that “the median difference between the Zillow estimate and the actual price was 7.8 percent.”

According to The Wall Street Journal test results, when it was wrong it was very wrong, off by 25 percent for one in 10 properties. This is certainly the case here in Australia too. You could be testing a model and find the first 9 properties return amazing results, all within a few percent of the sale price, then the next one could be 20% or more off target. It’s these few large errors that have such a significant impact on the forecast standard deviation (error estimate).
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My Property Partner launches today as a new social networking solution to assist property buyers struggling to buy alone.

As more and more buyers are left out of the property market due to the housing affordability crisis, many are considering the options of co-ownership but don’t have a partner, friend or family member to co-buy or co-invest with.

My Property Partner is an exciting new social networking community designed to help property buyers enter the market and cut the costs of real estate ownership.
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I’d like to say a huge thank you to our newest sponsors for this month. Without their support, we wouldn’t be in the position to bring you all the latest news and issues from around the industry.

In no particular order:

1. ValuePro
2. Wealth Today

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Customers of troubled mortgage broking platform provider Pisces Group face a nervous wait as its administrator starts investigating ways to keep its operations from collapse.

AustralianIT.com.au

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Hi Everyone,

Here at Lending Central we’ve always believed in allowing all of our readers the freedom of speech.  After all, that’s what the nature of the internet and indeed the basis of stimulating discussion is all about.

However, some of the last “controversial” topics and our lack of hard-line moderation has resulted in some questionable commentary by our readers.  It is with regret that we now have to announce the following regulations will be enforced and comments will begin to be moderated.

1. Profanities - All comments that have any profane comments will be moderated and edited to be toned down for our readers so as to limit the offensive nature of them.
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5. As an important note, points 2 and 3 (and to some extent, point 4) belong on something like YouTube, NOT on a professional industry news source.  Over 30% of our readers are NOT from within the industry and for general public to see bickering and arguing instead of support and interesting ideas does nothing for the reputation of the commenter, or our industry as a whole.  Please keep this in mind when you do comment.
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Thank you in advance for ensuring that you do adhere to the requirements set forth above.  If you have any questions, please let us know and drop me an email using the contact form at the top of menu.

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Wealth Today has cemented its position in the market place by launching a web site (www.Wealth2dayAcademy.com.au) dedicated to their broker-focused Academy.

With video testimonials, a comprehensive breakdown of the Academy’s components and an insight into how the training can impact upon brokers’ service offerings, its quite apparent that this Academy is the future for brokers who want to grow their business and escape the limitations of the industry as it is today.

The web site launch follows the company’s announcement last month of a joint-venture relationship with AAMC training group. The partnership enables Wealth Today to provide finance brokers across Australia tailored Diploma of Financial Services training. In addition, brokers completing the Academy are given very specific training on how to help their clients own their home faster, and also how to integrate their new services into their business and develop it into multiple additional revenue stream.
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Almost nine million Australians are worried about identity theft and cyber crime, a survey reveals.

The Unisys survey of 1,201 respondents aged over 18 was conducted nationally by Newspoll between March 13-15.

It found almost half of Australians were concerned about having their credit card details stolen.

“More Australians are now very or extremely concerned about financial fraud, one of the most common identity-related crimes, compared to December last year,” a Unisys statement said.

“Now an estimated 8.9 million Australians are very or extremely concerned about other people obtaining and/or using their credit card and debit card details, an estimated increase of more than one million people compared to last December.”
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The Stargate Group has announced a new partnership with leading electronic lodgement provider NextGen.Net to enable the provision of the ApplyOnline electronic lodgement platform to over 3000 existing Symmetry users.

The new partnership further strengthens Stargate’s position as the number one supplier of CRM solutions to the Australian Mortgage market and provides its users with electronic lodgement capabilities for 17 lenders.

In announcing the new partnership, Stargate Group CEO, Brett Spencer said “NextGen are a very logical fit for us in that they too are the leaders in their field of expertise.  Bringing together two companies that are the premier providers of Mortgage Business Software and E-Lodgement Platforms creates a position of strength for both companies that other suppliers can’t compete with.  This new partnership will only strengthen our position in the Australian mortgage marketplace and increase our market share over other suppliers”
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Choice Aggregation Services (Choice) members will be better equipped to understand and manage the performance of current and future trail payments through the introduction of an innovative new tool called Podium Perform@.

Launched in late April, the Choice system enables brokers to accurately calculate future trail income as well as forecast the impact of increased loan volumes on their income for up to five years.

Podium Perform@ has been integrated into the aggregator’s market-leading software platform Podium, and according to Choice CEO Brendan O’Donnell it will be invaluable in helping Choice members manage their cash flow and better plan their business strategy.
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Telstra Corp has won a contract to provide telecommunication services for Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd that could be worth as much as $1 billion over the next 10 years.

The nation’s biggest telecommunications provider won the 10-year contract from the country’s biggest lender to provide fully managed telecommunications services to CBA branches, EFTPOS network and automatic teller machines, the both companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
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A majority of respondents believe the economic downturn will increase the risk of identity theft and financial fraud, a study finds.

About 63 per cent of respondents in a Unisys Security Index survey said identity theft and related crime would increase because of the declining economy.

“The latest Unisys Security Index shows an increase in concerns about the security of online activities such as shopping and banking as well as growing concern about financial fraud,” Unisys Asia Pacific vice-president Andrew Barkla said.
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