REO

The auditorium at one of the Monday morning sessions of the Five Star Default Servicing Conference and Expo gasped when Ron Nation, founder and CEO of JVI Solutions, LLC presented two very different looking images of an REO. ""Do your best to avoid the drive-by appraisal,"" said Nation, referring to the pictures. Panelists stressed that accurately and reliably determining an asset's value can not only turn into more business, but can preserve neighborhoods.

While many REO offices are having a difficult time gathering listings, some brokerages are finding ways to continue to succeed in the current market. Experts in the field shared their secrets for rising to the top with other agents and brokers at the Five Star Conference in Dallas, Texas, on Monday. They say staffing is an important issue for anyone running an REO office, as is finding innovative ways to add value for clients and working to make the exchange between asset managers and their selling agents run smoothly.

Though the average time for a short sale has dropped from 256 days in the first quarter of the year to 245 days in the second quarter of 2011, the process could be made shorter with better training, said Chris Plummer, managing director of Dallas-based Wingspan Real Estate Network (WREN), an affiliate of special servicer Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, based in Carrollton, Texas. WREN is partnering with the Five Star Institute, a Dallas-based mortgage industry group, to encourage the widespread participation by real estate agents in the Five Star Short Sale Certification Training Program, which features Fannie Mae Short Sale Assistance Desk (SSAD) training.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquency rates among four out of five major investor groups decreased in the second quarter of 2011, with only the 30-day delinquency rate for loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities increasing, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The rate for loans held by FDIC-insured banks and thrifts that were at least 90 days delinquent decreased 0.25 percent between the first and second quarters, while delinquencies for life company portfolios and the GSEs both declined, but by smaller ratios.

Safeguard Properties recently announced two key promotions within its management team. Kathy Cogan has been promoted to the new position of assistant vice president of account management, reporting directly to Safeguard CEO Alan Jaffa. Bryan Moledor has been promoted to director of REO account management in the expanded account management and customer service department within the REO service line.

In addition to refinancing assistance for mortgage holders, President Barack Obama's proposed American Jobs Act includes a handful of elements that relate to the distressed real estate market, all part of what the administration has labeled Project Rebuild. The new $15 billion program is based on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and will attempt to connect Americans looking for work in distressed communities with jobs needed to repair and repurpose residential and commercial properties.

The Federal Reserve has published a new rendition of its market-gauging Beige Book, which indicates economic activity across the country is expanding at only a modest pace. Residential real estate markets were described as ""weak"" overall, however, a few districts did report slight improvements. Markets in the New York district are seeing an increasing share of foreign buyers paying cash. Florida contacts report a rise in sales activity but a decline in bank-owned homes.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) has released a new product that combines the objective precision of AVMs with the detailed review of BPOs. Because AVMs do not often take property condition into account, many default servicers rely on BPOs. However, BPOs allow for a greater amount of subjectivity and can result in inconsistencies. LPS developed the Distressed Asset Review to combine the best characteristics of each method.

The warm weather homebuying season has kept prices moving up, but Clear Capital says the rate of appreciation is already slowing and weak consumer confidence points to a stormy rest of the year. The company's latest report shows that home prices rose 4 percent over the four-month period ending in August when compared to the previous three months. But Clear Capital notes the recent gains have not been enough to recoup longer-term declines, with national home prices still more than 6 percent below last year's levels.

For the first time in over a year neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac are showing any downward movement in their seriously delinquent mortgage rates. Fannie's percentage of single-family loans at least three payments past due remained unchanged between the months of June and July at 4.08 percent. Freddie's increased one basis point to 3.51 percent. The Federal Housing Finance Agency says foreclosure prevention actions completed on loans held by the two mortgage financiers have declined for four consecutive quarters.