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88 FLORIDA Rushmore Closes FirstBank Acquisition Rushmore Loan Management Services LLC recently announced that it has closed on its acquisition of the Florida-based correspon- dent platform from FirstBank. e platform has been rebranded as Rushmore Correspon- dent Lending Services, a division of Rushmore Loan Management Services LLC. Rushmore also announced today that it has hired Patrick Reese as EVP, Capital Markets. He will lead Rushmore's capital markets team, including the correspondent lending business. Reese joins from Franklin American and has 25 years of residential mortgage experience, including 20 years in capital markets and 18 years in correspondent lending. "We are very excited about completing this transaction and launching a correspondent lending channel as part of our growing plat- form," said Terry Smith, CEO of Rushmore. "By adding this highly complementary busi- ness, we expect to be able to take advantage of opportunities to grow the correspondent lending channel and our existing servicing and loan management businesses." "We also are thrilled about bringing on Patrick to lead our capital markets business at this exciting time for the company," Smith added. "He brings extremely valuable industry experience and strong relationships with agen- cies and the broker-dealer community. His leadership and expertise will be instrumental in helping us drive growth opportunities, and it will help us offer outstanding pricing services to correspondent clients." "I am really excited about joining Rush- more and having the opportunity to lead a component of the business that has so much potential for growth now that it is part of the broader Rushmore platform," Reese said. "I also am looking forward to working with Bill Scammell and his outstanding team as we pur- sue our objective to deliver the best products and services in the correspondence lending industry." Rushmore Correspondent Lending Ser- vices officially launched on August 2 and now has the ability to accept new business while continuing to process and service the existing pipeline of loans. As part of the acquisition, Bill Scammell, who led the correspondent lending business at FirstBank, is joining Rush- more as SVP, Correspondent Lending. "As always, serving our clients remains our top priority," Scammell said. "We expect this to be a seamless transition to the Rushmore platform and look forward to the new op- portunities we have to improve the ways we work with our clients and meet their needs. All of our Account Executives have transferred to Rushmore as part of the acquisition and remain available to our clients to answer any questions and provide service and support." OKLAHOMA Using Tech to Manage Risks Gateway First Bank, one of the 10 largest banks by assets in Oklahoma now uses Black Knight's Ernst Fee Service. Black Knight said that this enterprise solution provides lenders and settlement agents with accurate recording fees and taxes to assist a lender with its TRID compliance efforts. Gateway First Bank will use the fee and monitoring service to help mitigate risk associ- ated with fee cures and enhance the consumer experience. "We needed a trusted provider that could automate our fee and closing cost data to help us more accurately disclose fees to customers," said Whitney Barth, VP, Product Develop- ment Management for Gateway First Bank. "Fees frequently change during the loan pro- cess, and Black Knight's Ernst Fee Service lets us provide our customers with accurate fees based on the closing date and automatically update those fees within our loan origination system." Ernst Fee Service is used by lenders to minimize costly fee cures by providing ac- curate recording fees, transfer taxes, property tax, title, settlement, and inspection data. is enterprisewide solution provides all relevant third-party vendor fees that are required on the loan estimate and closing disclosure. According to Black Knight, Gateway will further customize its use of Ernst Fee Service to manage its own proprietary fee data, while exposing fees and fee changes in a more automated way. "We are pleased to support Gateway First Bank with advanced capabilities that will help improve the accuracy of disclosures and better prevent fee cures," said Rich Gagliano, Presi- dent, Black Knight Origination Technologies. "Black Knight's passion for accuracy carries through everything we do, and our fee service is no exception. We're committed to providing our clients with the most accurate closing costs so that they can provide the best customer experience." Ernst Fee Service's patented monitoring service will also automatically recalculate loan values, alert the lender and update the loan origination system if there has been a fee increase due to a changed circumstance that allows for a revised loan estimate. TEXAS The Impact of Opportunity Zones e city of Austin is making efforts to put housing in its opportunity zones. Opportu- nity zones were originally intended to be spur growth in economically disadvantaged areas, but according to Austin's Planning Commis- sion, the incentives are driving commercial development to the detriment of the city's housing supply, Austin Monitor reports. e commission recently considered an initiative to amend the city code so that any opportunity zone property with General Commercial Services (CS) zoning could add a vertical mixed-use designation if desired. According to the commission, added entitlements, including elimination of floor area ratio limits to reduced parking require- ments, may prove enticing enough to encour- age housing. According to Commissioner Carmen Llanes-Pulido, though the current opportunity zones are not helping with af- fordable housing in gentrifying areas, would vertical mixed-use zoning ultimately make the problem worse? Florida Minority Certified Business MIAMI-DADE & BROWARD COUNTIES 786-499-6994 www.REOPitStop.com Luis@ContinentalRealtors.com RESNET ID: 106089 | Equator ID: 272261 Luis F. Guzman Broker/Owner Tarrant County, Texas, was among the 10 largest populated counties where a median- priced home in Q3 2019 was not considered affordable, as reported by ATTOM Data Solutions' "Most and Least Affordable Counties" report. KNOW THIS