September 2015

Take 5

Cam Melchiorre, HLP president and

chief executive officer, discusses how

HLP is addressing new challenges in

the housing industry.

Page 2

New Offerings for Home Buyers

With credit continuing to be tight, HLP

expanded its products in 2015 to help

new home buyers.

Page 3

Security Takes Center Stage

HLP recently completed a series of

internal audits on its technology plat-

form to ensure that all of the informa-

tion we maintain is safe and secure.

Page 3

HLP Rebranding Emphasizes Growth in New Products,

Ability to Adapt, Meet Changing NeedsLike any organization that has outgrown its beginnings, HLP is undergoing a rebranding.

Just as the housing industry has changed during the past few years, we have grown

and adapted to meet the needs of the new housing marketplace. We want HLP, our new

brand, to reflect that change.

Hope LoanPort began in 2009 as the technology solution for servicers and counseling

agencies seeking to help people avoid foreclosure. It solved a critical problem—we’ve

been the only place where homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure could share data

and documents among housing counselors, mortgage servicers and investors.

But in the past six years, we’ve become much more than just a loan portal. Our technol-

ogy platform has expanded, enabling us to offer a variety of new products. We’re also

attracting new users from different parts of the housing universe—mortgage lenders,

state housing finance agencies, bankruptcy attorneys and others.

“HLP is a clear, concise brand that is already well known among the housing industry,

government regulators and other key audiences,” said Cam Melchiorre, HLP’s chief ex-

ecutive officer. “We have a long-range plan to develop a national brand to reflect the

unique services we provide, and we think the timing is right to make the transition from

Hope LoanPort to HLP.”

To connect better with prospects and customers, we now have a new website,

www.hlp.org. The new site is more user-friendly and has more comprehensive infor-

mation about HLP. It also includes a number of links where people can find out more

about the products and services that they need.

Our mission, values and people will remain the same, but we have a new tagline—

“Neutral, Collaborative, Transparent.” The new tagline better describes our organization

and how we can help our constituents.

…continued on page 3

Why rebrand the organization?When we started just six short years ago, we had a simple

concept: Our portal would be the technology solution for

servicers and counselors to send and receive documents to

help homeowners avoid foreclosure. But, like any other start-

up, we’ve grown up. We now offer many more products

than we did in 2009 and serve a wide variety of stakeholders

in the housing industry. Our clients now include mortgage

lenders, attorneys and state housing finance agencies.

Will your platform continue to handle loan modifications?

Absolutely. We’ll continue to help people who want to avoid

foreclosure, and HLP helps them get a decision from ser-

vicers faster than any other technology provider. But that’s

one reason for the rebranding—we are no longer simply

a portal for loan modifications. We’ve built a unique tech-

nology platform and we want to use it to help solve new

problems, too.

Does the brand change reflect changes in the housing market?

Yes. We are adapting HLP’s services to meet the needs

of a new era. We know millions of people want to buy a

home and face obstacles, especially if they’ve been turned

down for a loan. We’ve been working to develop products

to meet these needs. For example, working with mortgage

lenders and others, we’ll soon launch a new service that

will help people qualify for a mortgage loan after they’ve

been declined. We want to maximize the use of our tech-

nology platform to help people achieve homeownership

while also helping the mortgage industry grow.

How is HLP expanding its services to new groups?

We are reaching out to specific groups that can receive im-

mediate benefits from HLP. Here are two recent examples:

We are working with several state housing agencies to ex-

plore how our technology solutions can improve service

to homeowners and make the agencies more productive.

These states may be able to use HLP’s technology platform

in a variety of homeowner origination and assistance pro-

grams, including down payment assistance, loan servicing

and foreclosure mediation. Earlier this year we met with

hundreds of bankruptcy attorneys, letting them know that

HLP can get faster decisions for their clients. We exhibited

at two national conferences for bankruptcy attorneys and

are working with states to offer bankruptcy mediation ser-

vice, which would expedite the bankruptcy process. More

than 600 attorneys are now enrolled in HLP.

Where can I go to learn more about HLP?The rebranding also includes a new website, hlp.org. It is

more comprehensive and enables visitors to link to more

of our services.

Cam Melchiorre has been HLP’s chief executive officer

and president since 2011. He has worked in the mortgage

industry for more than 25 years, holding a variety of

executive positions.

• Neutral. We are positioned to listen to all parties and build solutions that

support homeowner success, while addressing the unique needs of all stake-

holders.

• Collaborative HLP is a community of users and we facilitate many different

organizations working together to serve the needs of homeowners.

• Transparent. All components of an HLP case—data, documents, messages

and statuses—can be viewed by any other party to that specific transaction

and we also provide a permanent audit trail.

Finally, as we roll out the new brand, look for an increased emphasis on marketing.

As we develop and announce new products in the coming months, we will be using

social media, traditional marketing collateral and other means to make our brand

more visible.

Security Takes Center Stage

HLP recently completed a series of

operational and internal audits on its

technology platform to ensure that all of

the information we maintain is safe and

secure. These regular internal audits are

a part of an overall corporate security

plan. By continually conducting internal

audits, we complement the services

provided by HOSTING, a Denver-based

company that provides HLP a complete

range of managed security and compli-

ance services for our platform.

HLP is committed to providing a secure

technology platform that is also available

to its customers 24/7. HOSTING provides

HLP with a suite of secure, compliant

cloud solutions that safeguards their

confidential client data while meeting

compliance regulations as prescribed by

the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security

Standards (PCI DSS).

HUD Newsletter Cites HLP

HLP is in the running to help homeown-

ers in Philadelphia while reducing costs

for counseling agencies there.

According to a recent issue of “The

Bridge,” the monthly newsletter published

by HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling,

HLP is under consideration by a Philadel-

phia area housing collaborative as the

technology solution. The group wants to

streamline data entry for housing counsel-

ors by replacing two systems. Moving to

HLP may help achieve that goal, accord-

ing to the newsletter.

With credit continuing to be tight, HLP

expanded its products in 2015 to help

new home buyers.

Early in 2015, we introduced our

Applicant Preparation Service, which

enables mortgage companies and

nonprofit credit counseling agencies to

collaborate to achieve this goal. Mort-

gage companies initiate the process by

referring applicants to HLP that don’t

qualify for a mortgage. These people

are assigned to a nonprofit housing

counseling agency, which provides

them with prepurchase financial coun-

seling and education needed to qualify

for a mortgage loan.

Prospective homeowners with a flawed

financial history benefit from this ser-

vice, as well as people who have been

unemployed or underemployed, carry

too much student loan debt, have been

divorced or had a recent bankruptcy.

HLP has also been working on a new

platform that will connect potential

new home buyers to the mortgage

industry. Look for more information on

this project in our October issue.

…continued from page 1

New Offerings for Home Buyers

Coming Next MonthHLP has been busy over the past few months adding new partnerships to expand

our product offerings. In October, look for details of these new partnerships and how

they will help add value to members of the HLP network.

mark.cole@hlp.org | 410.942.6464 x1021 | 100 International Drive | 23rd Floor | Baltimore, Maryland 21202