Connecticut Affordable Housing Group Chooses Interlinq's MortgageWare.(mortgage lender chooses software)(Brief Article)

While giant mega-lenders that manage millions of home loans control the lion's share of outstanding mortgages, smaller niche lenders continue to play a vital role in the market. And technology is helping them keep pace with much larger firms.

The Connecticut Housing Investment Fund, a certified community development financial institution, is an example of a niche lender that not only originates loans, it also services loans for its own portfolio and on behalf of other clients.

Cynthia Russell, executive director of CHIF, said Interlinq's software provides the flexibility to manage the unique loan products that the nonprofit agency manages. In many cases, those loans include affordable housing and property rehabilitation features that require special reporting capability. For instance, the CHIF services loans for the state of Connecticut's largest downpayment assistance program.

She said CHIF needed software that offered flexibility to manage its special loan programs, and Interlinq's system offered that opportunity.

"They have really brought us to a level of professionalism that we didn't have," she said.

CHIF has a staff of eight servicing a 13,500-loan portfolio, giving the organization a loans per full-time employee ratio that would make many large servicers envious.

CHIF generates month-end reports for about 20 different investors, requiring multiple types of reports per investor in many cases.