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64 a property preservation professional, launched Agios World Wide in August 2016. "Learning to balance all the aspects of the business myself, along with my personal life, has been the biggest challenge," Heretakis said. "[It involves] being available 24/7 and becoming a 'jack of all trades' to handle all aspects of my business at any given point of time, without missing a beat. I love being able to control the direction of my company, so the long hours are more enjoyable and I tend not to think of it as work at all." Agios, a real estate enterprise technology solutions provider, gives clients a better opportunity to focus on the green in an industry full of red tape. "Compliance is the largest disruptor in the mortgage industry, more than it has been in decades," said Heretakis. "Not only is the compliance burden not going to go away, it's going to get more complex and costly." Investing in the right technologies to manage vendor compliance requirements is one of the most important decisions a mortgage company can make. With a simplified yet powerful platform, Agios World Wide offers cloud-based SaaS solutions that increase efficiencies, mitigate risk, and address the numerous compliance needs in the mortgage industry. "We can take any traditional vendor management, compliance management, and on-boarding process that usually takes days or weeks, and reduce it down to hours, if not minutes, while at the same time raising your compliance standards," said Heretakis, who as a mother, fitness enthusiast, and regular church volunteer knows a few things about time management. AllyConnect, Agios World Wide's flagship solution, takes care of those needs with automation, tracking, and 65 other due diligence processes and functions. In the heightened regulatory environment since the housing downturn, financial institutions thirst for a tool that reduces liabilities while expanding opportunity. Automation and integration lead to elevation of a mortgage company's business and its compliance controls. "I feel that taking care of others around me gives me a sense of accomplishment, and the rewards are immeasurable," said Heretakis, who also devotes her time to church and other charities. "I've applied this life lesson to Agios, where I feel we will be most successful by helping others succeed." INNOVATING INNOVATIONS Who's better to lead the state of North Carolina into the digital mortgage age than a North Carolina Banking Commission appointee, Six Sigma devotee, real estate broker, and experienced default servicing and origination attorney? Matt Hunoval is also one of the primary architects of the North Carolina Department of Secretary of State eClosing Pilot Program. "e goal of this pilot was to take what the CFPB did with its eClosing pilot and move it one step further to have a commercially viable, end-to-end digital mortgage solution come from this collaborative effort," said Hunoval, who founded eClosings, LLC, in the same month, August 2016. As of the start of the pilot, 72 of North Carolina's 100 counties were eRecording, representing nearly 90 percent of the population, and six more counties were scheduled to join the e-ranks within the next 12 months. e Hunoval Law Firm estimated that, factoring in travel times, an eClosing can take one-sixth of the time of a traditional mortgage closing. "e complexity is not in the digital process itself," Hunoval said. "It's getting all of these players together and rowing in the same direction. It's really the last industry of any size that's driven by paper, the last holdout. It's critically imperative as a state, the No. 2 banking state behind New York, to get out ahead of the curve as this multi trillion-dollar industry transforms itself." Recognizing the complexity of the innovative new digital process led to Hunoval's own innovation—eClosings, LLC, an organization that aims to ease the tech transition for small-to-mid-market originators that may lack the internal resources for a true, end-to-end digital mortgage platform. "Frankly, my biggest concern is being adequately capitalized to build a company or set of companies to take advantage of all of the opportunities that will arise," said Hunoval, who cites Compaq's meteoric rise from startup to Fortune 500 company as inspiration. "We're all going to the dark side of the moon, a place where no one has been before, but as with any disruptive technology, there will be unbelievable opportunities for those in the right position and who understand what is happening." DIGGING INTO THE DATA With the sheer amount of data available to mortgage professionals, digging in deep is vital— and can even mean more money on the bottom line. at's just the mindset Jodi Gaines had when she created Claims Recovery Financial Services, LLC (CRFS), a company that reclaims more than $2.2 billion annually for its investor and insurer clients—all thanks to a thorough understanding of data needs and requirements. "We can tell our clients to the penny where their losses are coming from and opportunities to reduce them, which include process improvements, regulatory compliance, and best practices," said Gaines, CRFS CEO and Founder, who also chairs the MBA FHA Claims Working Group. "Fully leveraging the data we provide will help improve originations, servicing, acquisitions, and default." It's little wonder why CRFS is a leading provider for post-foreclosure recovery needs when you look at Gaines' career path. She worked her way up from an entry level claims clerk at Anchor Mortgage Services to her current leadership position, which also includes president of Reditus Investors Services, LLC, an affiliate focused on the forensic analysis of losses and risk. "When we opened our first office I would do things such as cleaning or shoveling snow to keep costs down," said Gaines about the early sacrifices to get the startup off the ground. "I had my husband pick up our office supplies and my son take out the garbage. I even went so far as to borrow office furniture." Since 2002, CRFS has grown from one to more than 400 people strong and routinely files approximately 15,000 claims per month.

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