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How American Mitigation Law Group leverages LongJump to help clients navigate the mortgage crisis

In this fragile economy, homeownership is no longer the reliable nest egg it once was. Many owners struggling with mortgages are trying to modify their loans to better reflect the value of their homes and ensure their ability to make payments. But when they try to renegotiate loans themselves, they are often overcome by complex laws, changing regulations, risk, and frustration. American Mitigation Law Group (AMLG) takes on negotiations with lenders on the homeowner’s behalf, and they use custom applications built on the LongJump platform to streamline the process.

“Everyone has their own chaos,” says Nick Haselwander, Systems and Marketing Officer at AMLG. “But the LongJump platform is so easily adaptable and rich in functionality, we are able to quickly meet very dynamic challenges that affect our clients and our business.”

AMLG was an enterprise borne from an impending mortgage crisis. Just over two years old, the company already has 30 sales and operations staff and a cadre of loan modification consultants, providing mortgage adjustment and loss mitigation services to clients in 30 states and the District of Columbia states. Yet every new law, regulation, or fluctuation in the housing or credit markets is another moment where AMLG has to take a corporate gut-check on its processes and data.

The Need for Better, More Flexible Tools

At first, the company was not looking for an application platform solution. They started with basic lead management needs and turned to looking at web-based CRMs. It became very clear early, however, that simple lead management wasn’t going to be enough with the complexity and data management requirements of their business.

They selected LongJump which had the on-demand CRM capabilities they were looking for (lead management, sales force automation, email marketing, drip campaigning), but they also unearthed a lot of potential in the platform’s ability to create custom backend objects and applications.

“We needed to maximize every lead and LongJump’s CRM tools enabled to automate follow up and lead tracking,” says Haselwander. “But we also use LongJump to view our entire client engagement effectiveness from a management perspective. And even though our billing and accounting are in QuickBooks, we use LongJump to track and analyze the details of those transactions.”

“Because many of the client engagements average four months or longer, we needed a sophisticated backend system of record for managing that data and workflow while also providing a lot of client case history,” adds Haselwander. “There is tremendous flexibility inherent in the system that allows us to code to our processes. To introduce new processes, we make a decision of how our process should work and then use LongJump to realize it. We haven’t run into many things that the platform can’t do.”

Many of these processes are actualized by just one programmer on staff. That programmer is Vince Toney. “LongJump is really adaptable for changing situations,” says Toney. “The combination of custom page web tabs, Java classes, data policies, and the LongJump API makes it easy for us to meet our unique requirements.”

Implementation was not difficult in the beginning when AMLG first rolled out LongJump in August 2008. Haselwander, who does not have a development background, was able to model the business data objects easily by adding fields and relationships and building data policies. Haselwander estimates LongJump saved his team at least six months if they had to build something usable themselves.

When custom coding was required in the early days, AMLG turned to LongJump partner Solution Partners for assistance. “Don Gootee and his team were pivotal in getting the system integrated into the business quickly, until we finally got to a stage where we needed a full time programmer in Vince,” adds Haselwander. “Solution Partners positioned us for our next phase of growth.”

Haselwander also relied on the expertise of the LongJump support team and was impressed by the level of service. “I have never encountered any support team that quick or that easy to work with,” says Haselwander. “In fact, I can’t think of any other product I’ve used that offers the responsive support that LongJump’s team does.”

Adapting for the Next Challenge

With the ever-changing rules during the mortgage crisis, the business could no longer predict to plan everything they would need. Many of AMLG’s processes never had an opportunity to mature before they would have to be redefined. Major elements of their business changed three or four times in just a year.

“Even though we saw the crisis coming, which is why we were in the market, everything was still happening so fast,” remarks Haselwander. “Because the industry changed and rules were being added, managing processes was difficult. We would refine a process to a point that it was effective, and then have to scrap it because of new requirements. There were no software tools we could acquire that would instill any best practices. The one thing we could rely on was LongJump enabling us to make changes quickly and transition the team effectively as we continued to refine and redefine new processes.”

Today, they’ve streamlined much of the process with LongJump being the centerpiece technology. Client engagements go through several stages of internal audits, mitigation and law review teams, and sales management. All data is collaborated using LongJump, data policies keep everyone on task, and AMLG can analyze the data to make further adjustments in strategy. “We really believe we have a fair business model now with our clients by our ability to segment engagements and charge in stages rather than in advance,” adds Haselwander.

He also sees light at the end of the tunnel after the mortgage crisis is over: “Hopefully we’re not doing this exact type of business 10 years from now. We’re already looking at applying our practice to other areas. With LongJump, we know we have a platform that can adapt to those next challenges.”

About American Mitigation Law Group

With over 18 years combined experience in the mortgage and real estate industry, AMLG is dedicated to providing solutions to homeowners experiencing trouble with their mortgage. The company has helped thousands of homeowners achieve and maintain homeownership with solutions that reduce mortgage debt by negotiating with lenders and creditors. AMLG is headquartered in Del Mar, California operating in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

Website: www.amlgloanmodification.com