OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- a la mode, inc., the nation's leading software and technology developer for real estate professionals, celebrated its 19th anniversary this month. Begun in 1985 with the simple idea that real estate appraisers could use new "personal computer" technolgy to more quickly and efficiently complete appraisal reports, today the company serves more than 50,000 appraisers, as well as thousands of real estate agents, mortgage professionals and home inspectors.   Read more...

Last week, Washington Mutual, still among the top three mortgage originators even after a precipitous fall from the top spot, said it had cut 2,400 jobs at the end of the second quarter and planned to lay off another 2,500 by year's end, all from its mortgage operations. The nation's largest thrift continues to perform well in all areas but mortgage, which dragged the megabank's earnings down in the second quarter.   Read more...

Occasionally we ask you to write us with your thoughts or experiences on an issue. Every now and then, a lot of you will write us in response to an article we've run even if we don't ask. It's then that we know the subject has hit a particular nerve.   Read more...

Real estate trade groups applauded last week when HUD revised its final rule for lender accountability for fraudulent appraisals. In 2003, HUD had proposed harsher regulatory language about, and stiffer penalties for, lenders who submit fraudulent appraisals with their FHA loan paperwork. (HUD said it was merely codifying what had been its practice all along.) Concern in the mortgage lobby led to a toned-down final rule in which lenders are answerable only for fraud about which they knew or should have known.   Read more...

Last week we talked about Windows XP and how it's an absolute must to move away from the older, slower operating systems, like Windows 98. You can also avoid headaches - literally and figuratively - with a larger monitor, many of you told us.   Read more...

Twenty years ago, a University of Oklahoma engineering student was working for his father, an appraiser, during the summer months and during every break. He and his friends started looking at computer programs for dad's business, finding what was available to be extremely expensive, and really not very good. The naïve college student thought, "give me a couple weeks and I can write a program that does it better."   Read more...

Are you still reading this e-newsletter on a Windows 95 or 98 machine? No need to rummage around for your installation CD, if you've forgotten: How long did it take for your computer to boot up this morning? If it took longer than about 10 seconds, you haven't yet upgraded to Windows XP. And you should.   Read more...

What size (diagonally, in inches) and resolution (in pixels) monitor do you use? Are you part of the growing trend of "dual monitoring" - using more than one at the same time? Do you wait till your monitor finally fizzles out to replace it, or do you upgrade when you upgrade other hardware and operating systems?   Read more...

Appraisers have been on the leading edge of technology and change in valuation at least since a la mode founder and CEO Dave Biggers and his friends started writing DOS programs to automatically populate appraisal forms 20 years ago. Compare the last time you saw a URAR filled out by hand to the last time you saw paperwork from one of your clients filled out by hand, and tell us who's better at adapting to technological change.   Read more...

One of the many things that sets a la mode apart is our Hands On Training (HOT) sessions, held here in our Oklahoma City headquarters. We have a training room built with HOT in mind: 28 workstations with Dell Pentium 1.7 GHz PCs with XP Professional face a whiteboard/projection screen. Coffee, soda, water, lunch and a take-home 101-page outline are provided. WinTOTAL users to a man and woman will tell you they're the most valuable two day investments they've ever made in their careers.   Read more...