Mortgage crisis? What mortgage crisis.

That may as well be the slogan for Mortech, a Lincoln-based provider of mortgage rate quote software.

Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgages that have demanded a government bailout, and a housing market that is depressed just about everywhere in the country, Mortech is not only surviving, it’s thriving.

Founder and owner Don Kracl said there are a couple of reasons.

For one, Kracl said Mortech did very little business with subprime lenders who issue risky mortgages to people with questionable credit and who largely have been responsible for the country’s mortgage troubles.

“The implosion of the subprime business has been a plus for us,” Kracl said. “The prime market is really our space.”

The prime market — more traditional, fixed-rate mortgages — is the other big reason for Mortech’s continued success.

Because of all the mortgage defaults and foreclosures, lending standards have tightened significantly over the past year, leading to new sets of requirements for lenders.

“The business has just become much more fluid and complex even though there are fewer (mortgage) products,” Kracl said

That has led to a demand for Mortech’s products, which allow lenders to plug dozens or even hundreds of variables into a computer and receive an accurate rate quote in seconds.

Kracl said Mortech’s annual growth rate over the past few years has been about 40 percent, a number the company is on track to hit again this year.

In the past year, he said his staff has grown from 15 to 25, and the company is putting the finishing touches on a renovation and expansion of its building in the Lincoln Trade Center that will give it room to grow to about 50 people.

Much of Mortech’s growth has been spurred by its deal with well-known online lender LendingTree.

As part of the deal, signed last October, Mortech provided LendingTree clients access to one of its software programs, called Marksman.

Initially, the deal only involved LendingTree customers that were already Mortech customers, but at the time Kracl said he was optimistic about growing the number of users.

Renee Harvey, Mortech’s marketing director, said the company has grown its Lending Tree customer base by more than 450 percent.

There’s a reason for that, said Allen Cravello, president of American Capital Corporation in El Segundo, Calif., a longtime Mortech customer and more recent client of Lending Tree.

“The increase in Mortech’s client base is directly related to its commitment of upholding its promises to new and old customers alike,” Cravello said. “Mortech isn’t just talking about what they can do, they’re actually doing it.”

Among the things the company has done recently is create a couple of new products for LendingTree and introduce a mobile version of its Marksman software.

Kracl said one of the reasons Mortech has been so successful with LendingTree is the nature of Internet lending.

Customers aren’t going into an office during business hours to get a mortgage quote. Instead they are going online late at night or on weekends, he said.

“It would be too expensive for you to have personnel available to respond to offer requests at 3 in the morning,” Kracl said.

Sylvia Yanes, LendingTree manager at AmericaHomeKey Inc. in Dallas, said the firm was searching for a solution to do some work and allow employees to concentrate on borrowers.

After becoming a Marksman customer, “we’ve had more time to focus on our customers and have seen increases in the number of deals we’re closing,” she said.

It’s not just customers that have been happy with Mortech’s products.

“Over the past years, Mortech has simplified the loan closing process for our network lenders who choose to use Mortech,” said Loudoun Emswiler, senior director of lender technology for LendingTree. “They have delivered a complete solution, all while consistently providing quality service.”

LendingTree has been so happy, in fact, that earlier this month it presented Mortech with an award that is given out only sparingly.

At the 10th annual LendingTree Partner Summit at the company’s corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., Chairman and CEO Doug Lebda presented Mortech with the Rick Stiegler Innovator of the Year award, named for the company’s founding chief technology officer and one of its first employees.  Stiegler died in 2004.

“The Innovator of the Year award is an important way for us to recognize a partner whose hard work and determination follow the same suit as Rick’s,” Lebda said. “Mortech jumped at the opportunity to create a new technology that helps our lender partners improve their business efficiency and accuracy…”

Kracl said the award, which  LendingTree doesn’t give out every year, was a complete surprise.

“I was speechless,” he said. “And everybody here will tell you that’s a rarity.”

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.