Situs strikes deal to buy MountainView Financial Solutions

Situs agreed Friday to buy mortgage servicing rights valuation and brokerage firm MountainView Financial Solutions in a deal set to close this month.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In addition to its MSR valuation and brokerage capabilities, MountainView's work with "hard to value securities," whole loans and risk management analytics made the company an attractive acquisition for Situs, Steve Powel, CEO of Situs, said in a press release.

"As a part of the Situs family, MountainView will be able to leverage Situs' existing tools, resources, data and partnerships to further develop our combined analytics framework, enhance our models and extend our offerings into new asset classes and to more clients," said Powel.

Its core business has been focused on commercial real estate services, but recently it has shown more interest in housing.

"Together with our 2017 acquisition of the Collingwood Group, the MountainView transaction expands our set of capabilities and positions Situs as the trusted advisor of choice within the continually evolving housing finance market, and puts Situs at the nexus of real estate and fintech," Powel said.

Prominent former executives from several government housing agencies are or have been members of Collingwood's team, including Brian Montgomery, the former Federal Housing Administration commissioner. The Trump administration has nominated Montgomery to return as head of the FHA.

Before its acquisition by Stone Point Capital in 2015, Situs was owned by companies that had ties to Lewis Ranieri, a veteran real estate investor known for his pioneering work in the mortgage-backed securities market, and Wilbur Ross, a veteran real estate investor who is now the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.