Banton Technologies Announces National Home Evaluation Coverage; Company's ValueWizard 3.0 Assesses All Regions of the United States.

Business Editors

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 2003

Banton Technologies, a collateral assessment firm specializing in real estate technology and residential appraisal solutions, today announced the national release of its ValueWizard 3.0 home evaluations assessment tool for complete United States coverage.

Since its creation, ValueWizard 3.0 has been an effective valuation tool and a more accurate property evaluation model than its competitors in the Southeast, often doubling the rate of usable valuations when compared to other systems.

"As the industry moves ever closer toward a streamlined mortgage process, there is a tremendous demand, in every state, for more accurate tools to evaluate property values," said Dr. Stan Banton, MAI, chairman and founder of Banton Technologies. "Offering accurate evaluation tools on a national basis, in a cost-effective manner provides financial institutions with a unique and better solution to their property evaluation methods. With our renowned evaluation tools now available throughout all the nation's regions, Banton is positioned to be the leading provider of home evaluations for all mortgage professionals."

Some AVM providers rely heavily on county and city tax information and indexes to determine a predicted value for a residential property. Others build their AVMs using a regression analysis forecasting method in which the value of the dependent variable (the property being appraised) is predicted as a function of two or more variables (other nearby properties and their characteristics). Because multiple regression analysis typically involves several independent variables, computing the regression equation coefficients can be difficult and may miss some important characteristic variables.

While Banton's ValueWizard 3.0 uses these variables in its model, it relies most on residential real property information, such as recent sales comparables. ValueWizard 3.0 is an "expert system" AVM. It incorporates knowledge-based systems in which expert human knowledge and experience (an appraiser in a box) has been converted to rules for the AVM to use. Banton's AVM evaluates different situations, always working to perform as appraisers would perform, were they valuing the property.

In 2002, Banton provided valuations for approximately 80 percent of the orders received for Southeast properties and delivered usable valuations for 60 percent of all such orders. Banton Technologies' current clients include some of the largest financial institutions in the Southeast including AmSouth, Bank of America, Hibernia, National Commerce, Regions Bank, SouthTrust, and TrustMark.

About Banton Technologies

Founded in 1997 by Dr. Stan Banton, PhD, MAI, Banton Technologies is a collateral assessment firm specializing in real estate technology and residential appraisal solutions. Through a combination of an enhanced Automated Valuation Model (AVM), ValueWizard, personal interaction and integrated mapping software technology, Banton Technologies achieves much higher accuracy than most standard AVMs. Banton's technology was recently recognized as one of ten finalists in the 2002 Inman News Innovator Awards. Banton has also been designated as one of the top technology companies to watch in 2003 by Mortgage Technology magazine.

The company utilizes a Property Review Report to collect basic tax-related data on the subject property in conjunction with a robust AVM, ValueWizard, which employs geo-statistical formulae to return a highly accurate property value. Banton Technologies currently uses multiple sources of data to provide valuation capability in over 1,000 counties throughout the USA, making it one of the most comprehensive AVMs nationally. For additional information about Banton Technologies, please visit the company's Web site www.banton.com.