Denver-based Allonhill, an independent third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, recently appointed Mike Margolf managing director of government services. Margolf, who previously served as the firm's director of due diligence, now oversees day-to-day operations of Allonhill's public sector offerings and manages relationships with government clients.

IndiSoft, a Maryland technology development firm that focuses on systems for the default services industry, was awarded the U.S. Government Services Administration (GSA) IT 70 Schedule contract, allowing the company to provide default management technology to government agencies. IndiSoft's mortgage technology is now available on GSA Advantage, the government's electronic ordering system.

The Short Sale Association of America (SSAA) recently launched a pre-notice of default (pre-NOD) map for real estate professionals looking for distressed property leads. Users can find and order pre-NOD leads by ZIP code and number of days late on mortgage payments using an interactive heat map. The new heat map provides lead counts for each state, county, and ZIP code, which are live-streamed from the credit bureaus. The map is also color-coded to illustrate high to low rates of default.

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF), which administers the Homeowner's HOPE Hotline (1-888-995-HOPE) to provide free, financial education and confidential foreclosure prevention counseling, has named Bruce Gottschall to its board of directors. Gottschall is one of the original founders of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago. Under his leadership, NHS of Chicago partnered with the city to establish the Home Ownership Preservation Initiative to prevent foreclosures.

With North Carolina facing a budget deficit of $2.7 billion, the State Employees' Credit Union (SECU) is fine-tuning its Mortgage Assistance Program to better assist state government employees facing potential job cuts. Developed in January 2009 with the objective of helping members stay in their homes, the institution's mortgage program so far has assisted 7,000 North Carolina families.

With 305,000 California borrowers receiving notices of default and more than 170,000 families losing their homes to foreclosure in 2010, Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) are again pushing for legislation that would help prevent what they deem as ""wrongful foreclosures."" Their California Homeowner Protection Act would require that borrowers be given a decision on a loan modification before the foreclosure process can begin.

According to the Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data and research, Massachusetts foreclosure activity posted double digit decreases in both starts and completed foreclosures in January. Foreclosure petitions and deeds dropped in every county in the state. The agency says, though, that it's likely the reduction is caused by lenders slowing their processes rather than improved financial stability among homeowners.

With the national unemployment rate still staggering, there's good news for job seekers in Depew, New York. AMS Servicing, LLC, a national specialty servicer for residential and small balance commercial mortgages headquartered in Buffalo, announced this week it has immediate openings for full- and part-time positions to provide support to internal and external customers regarding the short sale of residential properties.

RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, launched a new foreclosure search widget in February for real estate agents and brokers. The widget allows users to INSERT IGNORE a fully functional nationwide foreclosure property search on their Web sites, which delivers real-time foreclosure data from RealtyTrac.

Gerner Mayersohn May, PLLC (GMM), a provider of legal counsel to clients throughout Florida with a focus on the mortgage banking, default services, and collections marketplaces, named Bernard J. LoVerde Jr. as director, chief marketing officer, and chief strategy officer. LoVerde will focus on enhancing the firm's market share, strategic relationships, and alliances with respect to all of GMM's practice groups as well as its traditional mortgage banking and settlement services practice groups and operations.