Gerner & Kearns, Co., L.P.A., a Cincinnati-headquartered creditor's rights law firm representing the mortgage banking industry, recently appointed Sarah A. Okrzynski as senior associate and managing attorney of the firm's default services practice group. With experience in both foreclosure and bankruptcy law, Okrzynski has worked litigation in multiple federal and state jurisdictions.

National Creditors Connection, Inc., a provider of field contact, loss mitigation, and onsite inspection services, has developed a nationwide property inspection/occupancy verification service to provide servicers with a snapshot of property condition and occupancy of a loan in foreclosure. The company says this service accommodates industry standard requirements set forth by the GSEs and will help servicers determine the best resolution for troubled loans.

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) has named Tom Schilling EVP and CFO. He replaces Francis Chan, who now serves the company as a consultant. With more than 20 years' experience as a CFO and COO at such publicly traded companies as USA Mobility, Cincinnati Bell's Broadwing, and MCI, Schilling is responsible for managing LPS's finances and select internal operations.

Google Analytics and comScore report that LoopNet, Inc., a San Francisco-based operator of one of the largest commercial real estate marketplace sites on the Web, hit an all-time high in visitor traffic in the third quarter of 2010 with more than 6.2 million unique visitors. comScore Media Metrics, which provides comparative site traffic numbers, says LoopNet also reached a new high in terms of traffic relative to other commercial real estate sites, generating 9.4 times the traffic of its nearest competitor for the first nine months of 2010.

VantageScore Solutions, an independently managed business created by the three major credit reporting agencies, has unveiled its new credit score model, VantageScore 2.0. The update was brought about by the significant change in consumer credit repayment behavior, said company officials, who added that all credit models should be updated regularly to ensure they remain accurate.

a la mode, a developer of desktop, mobile, and Web tools for appraisers, agents, inspectors, and lending professionals, has created two separate divisions inside the company to better serve its varied customer base. The Real Estate Solutions division will serve the company's clients working as real estate agents and brokers, appraisers, and inspectors. The new Mortgage Solutions division will focus on serving mortgage lenders, loan officers, compliance officers, mortgage brokers, servicers, appraisal management companies, and REO/asset managers.

Total Mortgage Services, LLC, a mortgage lender and broker, recently hired Michael Dimech as the company's new head of operations. With more than 15 years of operation management and underwriting experience within the mortgage industry, Dimech will focus on efficiency modeling, operational scalability, and team building and play an important role in the company's risk management efforts.

Kirchmeyer & Associates and its sister company, Real Info, recently partnered with Valligent to release a new collateral valuation product for appraising vacant residential land. The new solution, ParcelView, is intended to replace or enhance a lender's valuation tools for residential land collateral assessment and is expected to save lenders up to 50 percent compared to traditional land appraisals.

Kenton County, Kentucky, which has the third highest volume of foreclosures in the state, has enacted a general order impacting the filing of all foreclosure complaints in its courts. Recent foreclosure paperwork errors at several major servicers nationwide prompted the move. Kenton County's order will have a wide ranging impact on mortgage servicing clients, including timelines relating to the filing of first legal action in Kenton County, with many other counties throughout the Commonwealth expected to follow suit.

Foreclosures started by lenders in Massachusetts during September declined from August by 23 percent and dropped 6.7 percent from a year earlier, according to a new report by the Boston-based research firm the Warren Group. Lenders filed 2,358 petitions to foreclose in September, the first step in the foreclosure process. Meanwhile, the number of completed foreclosures increased for the ninth straight month in Massachusetts.