REO

Field Asset Services (FAS) successfully processed more than 100 million photos in one year via FASconnect, its online photo management system for proof of performance reporting. The system captures, documents, and securely shares photos of work performed in the field. Powered by Pruvan, FASconnect GPS certification and time and date-stamping capabilities to provide lenders and service providers a ""certified"" performance guarantee of work completed on REO properties.

REO Allegiance, a national property preservation and eviction field services firm based in New Jersey, has hired Brian Daily to serve as VP of business development. Daily joins REO Allegiance with over 25 years of executive level experience throughout the mortgage industry spanning origination, servicing, and default management, including 15 years with Bank of America.

Clear Capital reports home prices in the western part of the country are sliding again, down 4.3 percent over the first three months of this year. The company says the West region, taken on the whole, has now officially entered double-dip territory, with home values hitting lows not seen since 2001. Across the rest of the U.S., though, Clear Capital says negative forecasts have been ""overstated,"" as prices in the other three regions have managed to find a bottom in the midst of ongoing foreclosure pressures and the traditionally slow winter season.

Florida-based PREO operates an online marketplace aimed specifically at turning distressed properties into family homes. On Wednesday, the company announced the official launch of its new Web site, which PREO says can shrink the timeline for short sales to weeks instead of months.

Mortgage Contracting Services LLC (MCS), a nationwide provider of property preservation, inspections, and REO property maintenance, announced Wednesday the addition of Frank Elmore as chief information officer. Elmore is the first individual to hold this position at the company and, beyond overseeing MCS' technology department, is responsible for managing all information technology and computer system initiatives that support corporate operational goals.

The commercial mortgage research firm Trepp LLC says the delinquency rate for loans held in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) edged higher in March, but the agency says it's seeing clear signs that the market is starting to heal. Trepp reports that the percentage of CMBS loans 30-plus days delinquent, in foreclosure, or REO rose 3 basis points last month to 9.42 percent. It's the highest delinquency rate ever recorded by the company, but the smallest month-over-month increase in more than two years.

BrokerPriceOpinion.com, a provider of customized valuation solutions, has launched its new Professional Property Inspection report, which incorporates detailed home information from an automated valuation model (AVM). The report also includes verification of the physical condition of the property and full photo documentation, and meets the new federal interagency appraisal and valuation guidelines that went into effect April 1.

The nation's largest mortgage servicers foreclosed on 95,067 homes during the fourth quarter of 2010, a 49 percent drop from the number of completed foreclosures during the previous quarter, according to a new report from two regulatory agencies. Newly initiated foreclosures also decreased but by a much smaller ratio of 8 percent. Because new foreclosures outpaced completed foreclosures, the inventory of foreclosures in process increased to 1,290,253, representing 3.9 percent of all serviced loans among the largest national firms.

Massachusetts' foreclosure petitions, the first step in the foreclosure process in the state, declined 67 percent in February when compared to a year earlier, according to the Warren Group, a Boston-based provider of real estate data. Completed foreclosures also fell sharply, dropping 44 percent on a year-over-year basis. The Warren Group called the numbers a ""remarkable turnaround,"" demonstrating a new ""go-slow attitude"" among lenders.

Pro Teck Valuation Services announced the availability of customized appraisal reviews via AppraisalCheck, its suite of desk and field review products for the repurchase market. AppaisalCheck identifies appraisal fraud, errors, and misrepresentations. The company says it has seen a growing need for retro forensic reviews to determine whether there is any culpability on behalf of the originator.