Crains Article Home Watchdog Still Seeing Growth
Alan Jaffa, CEO of Safeguard Properties, was featured in an article in Crains Cleveland?Business titled, Home Watchdog Still Seeing Growth.
Home watchdog still seeing growth
Foreclosures slow, but Safeguard anticipates second wave coming
Safeguard Properties is showing no signs of slowing.
A plateau in the number of foreclosures hasn’t impeded the 20-year-old company, which conducts property inspections and performs maintenance on foreclosed homes. It has grown to 800 employees, up 22% from 655 in 2008. In 2009, it had revenues of $602.3 million, up nearly 47% from $410.8 million in 2008.
And in the last few weeks it has named a new CEO, Alan Jaffa, who had been chief operating officer since 2002.
?It feels like 24 months just flew by,? Mr. Jaffa said of the flurry of business Safeguard began to see as the number of foreclosures boomed.??
?
To handle the deluge, Safeguard has grown its infrastructure by rewriting its main core system and increasing its server space and has added layers of management to inject different levels of responsibility into the company, Mr. Jaffa said. It also moved into a new building a year ago, giving employees ?more room to breathe? and a better working environment.
Besides plenty of parking and enough room for employees to have their own desks ? at the old place, people were packed three to a cubicle ? there is a cafeteria, an exercise room, an outdoor patio and a basketball court.
?They love it,? Mr. Jaffa said.
Mr. Jaffa, who is son-in-law of former CEO and Safeguard founder Robert Klein, said Safeguard long has been interested in minimizing the negative impact of vacant properties in the neighborhoods where they are located. The company puts doorknob hangers on neighbors’ doors with its phone number, asking people to call if there is a problem with a house Safeguard is watching.
While the number of foreclosures has plateaued over the past four to six months, Mr. Jaffa said, he also expects to see another wave as banks realize that they are unable to modify the terms of some mortgages in a way that will allow people to stay in their homes. The company performs 1 million home inspections monthly, and Mr. Jaffa said there isn’t a ZIP code in the country where Safeguard hasn’t performed its services.
?You’re going to see a little pop in the numbers,? he said. ?A lot of foreclosures have been held up. The time has come to put them to an end. They have to proceed.?
?About Safeguard
Safeguard Properties is the largest privately held field services company in the country. Located in Cleveland, Ohio and founded in 1990 by Robert Klein, Safeguard has grown from a regional preservation company with a few employees and a handful of contractors performing services in the Midwest, to a national company with over 700 employees. Safeguard is supported by a nationwide network of subcontractors able to perform any requested superintendence, preservation, and maintenance functions, as well as numerous ancillary services in the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.
?
?
