Document Custodian for Single Family

The New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) is issuing a Request for Proposals to procure Document Custodian services for single-family mortgage loans across Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae lines of business. The selected vendor will be responsible for quality review, verification, management, safekeeping, and custodial control of mortgage loan documents, as well as facilitation of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issuance. The NJHMFA anticipates processing approximately 2,000 loans annually over a three-year contract term, with the potential for one additional two-year renewal period upon mutual written consent. The Document Custodian must handle monthly shipments of Ginnie Mae files for pooling and weekly shipments for trailing documents, along with 2-3 monthly Freddie Mac file shipments for securitization and weekly trailing documents. Qualified bidders must be well-established, approved providers with demonstrated experience in document custodian services, and must meet mandatory insurance requirements including General Liability ($1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate), Umbrella/Excess Liability ($5,000,000), Professional Liability ($5,000,000), and Cyber Liability ($5,000,000), along with submission of SOC 2 reports, disaster recovery plans, and business continuity plans. All application maintenance, support, and data storage must be conducted within the United States. Evaluation criteria are weighted as follows: Experience (35%), Management (25%), Responsiveness (5%), Cost (30%), and minority/women/small/veteran-owned business certifications (5%). Electronic sealed bids must be submitted through the NJHMFA's Bonfire procurement portal by 11:00 AM EDT on March 25, 2026, with a public opening and virtual meeting scheduled for the same date and time; questions regarding the RFP must be submitted by 2:00 PM EDT on March 10, 2026.

While this procurement does not contain set-aside requirements for minority, women, small, or veteran-owned businesses, the NJHMFA actively encourages participation from Small Business Enterprises (SBEs), Disabled Veteran-owned businesses, Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs), and Women Business Enterprises (WBEs) as both prime contractors and subcontractors, with such certifications receiving an additional 5 percentage points in bid evaluation. The current incumbent provider is US Bank, which currently maintains 4,690 Ginnie Mae loans, 3,407 Freddie Mac loans, and 2 Fannie Mae loans; file transfers from the incumbent to the selected provider are anticipated, with timing and bulk transfer logistics to be determined based on GSE requirements. Pricing for services must be submitted on a firm, fixed-price basis per loan for six core service categories: Collateral File Folders, Collateral File Research, Document Receipt/Exception Clearing, Collateral File Certification, Collateral File Storage, and Additional Services, with all costs included and not subject to increase during the contract period. A bid guarantee of 10 percent of the total bid price (not to exceed $20,000) is required at submission, along with performance and payment bonds equal to 100 percent of the contract amount upon execution of the Notice of Award. No specific contract award amount or budget range is identified in the available procurement documents, though pricing will be based on the vendor's proposed per-loan rates for the anticipated annual volume of 2,000 loans and existing portfolio of approximately 10,099 total loans under management.