REO

Michaelson, Connor & Boul recently announced that Brandon Bejarano has joined the company as sales and marketing director. Bejarano will focus on growing the company's nationwide real estate services business. The firm specializes in large- and small-scale property management, facility and property maintenance services, and real estate asset management services for government, commercial, and privately owned 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.

DepotPoint, Inc., a provider of Web-based default management, short sale, and REO workflow solutions, recently partnered with Code Violation Services, Inc., a provider of code violation disclosure reports and vacant property registration services. With this partnership, users of TrackPoint, DepotPoint's technology platform for managing default transactions, can now perform code violation checks on their REO properties.

DRI Management Systems, Inc., a provider of default process management software, added new functionality with several new modules to version 1.4 of its flagship technology. Officially relabeled DRI Office, the platform was previously known by its development code name, Rincon. According to DRI, the new version was created to relieve mortgage servicers' workloads and improve results with capacity planning, workflow tracking, services ordering, and enhanced communication capabilities.

Green River Capital, an REO asset management and loss mitigation provider for mortgage servicers, investment firms, and banking institutions, recently announced several company achievements for 2010, including the addition of seven new clients, the expansion of its preferred agent network, and completion of its SAS 70 Type II certification.

New Vista Asset Management announced Tuesday that it has purchased the REO asset management business unit of REDC Default Solutions, LLC. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The asset management unit, previously operated within REDC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Irvine, California-based Auction.com, LLC(formerly Real Estate Disposition, LLC), offers outsourced residential asset management services for banks and other financial institutions.

Proctor Financial, Inc., a Michigan-based provider of lender-placed hazard insurance for borrower and bank-owned properties as well as related services, has received the ISO 9001:2008 certification. According to a statement from the company, its objective in seeking the certification was to monitor, control, and continually improve the quality of its lender-placed insurance processes pursuant to the ISO 9001:2008 standards.

Industry data released Monday showed that the number of homebuyers who signed contracts in January for the purchase of previously owned homes declined from both the previous month and year-ago levels. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says its January index of pending home sales is down 2.8 percent from the December reading, which was revised downward from a previously reported gain to reflect the start of a two-month decline in pending sales. NAR's January reading is 1.5 percent below the pending sales measurement recorded 12 months earlier.

For the first time in six months, home sales in the 54 U.S. markets surveyed by RE/MAX are greater than one year ago, the company said in its newly released January housing report. RE/MAX says the year-over-year sales difference has improved for three consecutive months now with several cities experiencing double digit growth to lead the trend. Home prices, however, were 4.6 percent lower than in January 2010.

Default Resource, a provider of REO management, valuation, and loss mitigation services, has entered into a strategic partnership with Mortgage Specialists International (MSI) that allows Default Resource to add property preservation and hazard insurance claims to its list of services. MSI is a national property preservation, field services, and hazard claims provider that offers customized services while maintaining compliance with HUD or other investor and agency regulations.