Plantation, Fla.-Based Mortgage Firm Finds Fresh Referral Source.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Aug. 6 -- FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In an effort to boost its pool of mortgage applicants, mortgage.com has signed a deal with Intuit, which produces the TurboTax and Quicken software package.

In the agreement announced Wednesday, Intuit will refer loan candidates with less-than-stellar credit records to mortgage.com, based in Plantation.

Mortgage.com, formerly known as First Mortgage Network, specializes in a broad range of mortgage services, including subprime lending.

Earlier this year, the company began remaking itself as an Internet mortgage originator. The Web accounted for 20 percent of the $2 billion in mortgages the company issued last year.

Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, director of marketing at Intuit's QuickenMortgage, estimates that subprime loan candidates account for 15 to 20 percent of the 1 million or so mortgage-seekers who click through QuickenMortgage every month.

"We may offer subprime loans in the future, but right now our plate is pretty full," she said. "We have worked with mortgage.com in the past and this is an area they are focused on."

So, the riskier applicants who do not qualify for loans through QuickenMortgage site will be shuttled to mortgage.com.

For mortgage.com, the arrangement offers yet another source of customers for its lending services.

The Plantation firm already has agreements with the likes of Fleet Financial and First Union to provide mortgages to customers of those institutions.

Last week, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates picked mortgage.com and Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. to provide loans to its brokers.

In a statement, Jack Rodgers, who heads mortgage.com's consumer group, said the Intuit deal shows the company has the "technology and services that banks, lending institutions, and other organizations" need to offer Internet-based mortgage business.

Mortgage.com is a 5-year-old, privately owned firm that employs about 500 people in six offices nationally.

The firm is in the process of moving to new headquarters in Sunrise, and is also working on a $112 million initial public offering of stock.

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