Page 268 – Safeguard Properties

REO Insider Article

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, was featured in a REO Insider article titled, Safeguard’s Robert Klein: Sights and smells key to selling REO.

Safeguard?s Robert Klein: Sights and smells key to selling REO

To close out Thursday?s SourceMedia loss mitigation conference, a panel addressed issues of loss mitigation in the REO process.

Robert Klein, founder and chairman of property preservation company Safeguard Properties, told the panel the stakes are much higher now when it comes to getting REO properties ready for sale.

Previously, REO properties were marketed as such. Since they sold for significantly less than other houses, that was all you could do, Klein said. But now, with the margin between traditional sales and REO sales more narrow, there is a greater emphasis placed on an REO property?s ability to compete with traditional sales. If you want to sell an REO property these days, you have to make it comparable to others on the market, Klein said. To do that, companies like Safeguard are stepping up their game.

?They?re doing white glove inspections on these homes, and I tell you what, it pays off,? Klein said. ?Every cobweb is going to cost you $5,000. If the potential buyer comes in, they?re going to come up with every excuse to lower the price.?

Any real estate agent ? REO or otherwise ? will tell you the way a house smells is important when you have a house listing. It?s the whole ?making a house smell like fresh baked cookies? concept. You have to make house hunters want to buy the property. Klein said it?s one of the easiest things to do, but not doing it can cost you.

?If it smells like an REO, it will sell like an REO,? he said.

Safeguard does somewhere in the neighborhood of 1m home inspections every month, Klein said. And while some of the names have changed ? ?trash outs? are now called ?maid service,? ?cash for keys? is ?relocation assistance? ? the guiding principles are still the same.

The changes can be simple, he said. ?What we want to create is something that a young couple can visualize taking the property and building a future in the home.?

To view the online article, please click here

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 approximately 800 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.

Detroit blight to be tracked by law

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, was featured in a Free Press article that discusses Detroit’s recently passed vacant property registration ordinance.

Detroit blight to be tracked by law
Owners of vacant homes must now register

Detroit is battling its ongoing problem of vacant homes and blight with a new law that holds property owners more accountable.

The Detroit City Council approved the Vacant Property Registration ordinance this month, joining hundreds of municipalities nationwide, including Grand Rapids, West Bloomfield and Dearborn, with similar policies.

The ordinance — sponsored by Councilman Kwame Kenyatta with support from Karla Henderson, the city’s Building Safety Engineering director — requires the owners of vacant properties, from individual owners to lenders, to register them with the city for a $25 per structure annual fee.

The registry is expected to allow city officials to better track property owners, to consistently levy fines and to hold owners accountable for their properties before and after they become blighted. The city already required rental homes to be registered.

“We do know that there are some good property owners,” Henderson said. “We’ll leave them alone and start going after the ones that aren’t.”

In March, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments reported that there were 6,448 new foreclosures in Detroit from August 2009 to February 2010, bringing the number of foreclosed properties in the city to 18,993 by February. That’s in addition to thousands of vacant homes that already dot the city.

The fines for failing to register a vacant property are expected to range from $250 to $500 per citation, per property. The fines for failing to maintain a vacant property according to city codes will range, depending on the size of the structure, from $500 to $3,000 per citation, per property.

Lenders and real estate agents who initially bristled at the extra work these ordinances could create are reluctantly accepting the trend.

Carol Trowell, president of the Detroit Association of Realtors, said banks and realtors are more proactive in maintaining properties, which helps the market.

Robert Klein, founder and board chair of the Cleveland-based Safeguard Properties, which maintains properties for lenders nationwide, including in Detroit, said there’s a legitimate need for cities to have ordinances such as this but said the lack of uniformity presents a hardship for the industry because requirements vary from city to city.

Safeguard maintains thousands of homes in Detroit, according to its Web site, but also has about a dozen listed on the city’s Web site targeting blight.

“There’s hundreds and thousands of properties that are vacant,” said Klein, speaking generally about vacant homes. “The vast majority are being properly maintained.”

To view the online article, please click here

Taking a Buckshot Approach to the Housing Crisis

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, contributed an article to Mortgage Servicing News titled, Taking a Buckshot Approach to the Housing Crisis.

Taking a Buckshot Approach to the Housing Crisis

Even though the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery from the “Great Recession,” most industry experts predict that it will be some time before the mortgage industry can significantly reduce the portfolios of foreclosed properties.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that in the first quarter of 2010, almost 37% of new foreclosures came from fixed-rate prime loan mortgages held by the safest borrowers with the highest credit scores. An additional 21% of foreclosures in the quarter were on adjustable-rate mortgages made to creditworthy borrowers.

As long as the nation’s “jobless recovery” continues and unemployment rates hover around 10%, loan modification programs probably will continue to meet with limited success, and we will continue to see large inventories of defaulted and foreclosed properties.

No silver bullet will reduce servicers’ property portfolios, but the industry has been successful in taking a “silver buckshot” approach to minimize the impact.

Here are five areas in which the industry either has made or has the potential to make the greatest impact to protect the viability of properties and return them to family homeownership as quickly as possible.

No. 1: Holding the line on property preservation

Every football coach knows that to hold the line and keep from losing ground, you have to focus on the basics of blocking and tackling. The same goes for vacant properties. Especially as volumes increase, we can’t let our guard down. The better preserved a property is at foreclosure, the greater its chances are to sell faster and at a higher value.

Despite record volumes, field servicers have continued to improve operations, technologies, training and recruitment processes to keep up with demand and maintain quality standards.

Property preservation companies also are enlisting the help of neighbors, who have a vested interest to assure that a vacant property doesn’t affect their property values or risk the safety and security of their families. One program that has been successful in engaging neighbors has been Safeguard’s “Good Neighbor” initiative, in which door hangers with the company’s contact information are left at neighboring properties. Since implementing the program, the company has received an average of 1,200 calls per day in communities across the country to report everything from minor maintenance issues to significant safety concerns.

Alert neighbors have helped to prevent millions of dollars in property damage, avoid code violations, reduce vandalism and maintain the safety and security of properties and neighborhoods. We need to do everything we can to continue to support and encourage their vigilance.

No. 2: Strengthening communications between the industry and code enforcement

In the past, the industry’s goal was to stay off the radar screen of code enforcement officials. Today we know better. Code enforcement departments care more about preventing code violations than issuing citations. As an industry, we want to be on the radar screen of code enforcement officials, and the “MERS initiative” has been one of the most effective programs to make sure we are.

A creation of the Mortgage Bankers Association, this initiative gives code enforcement officials free access to the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, containing loan information on more than 65 million properties across the country. Hundreds of cities now utilize the MERS system in place of, or in tandem with, vacant property registration ordinances to locate a responsible contact when a property has a code violation.

Admittedly, the MERS Initiative isn’t a complete solution but it is a useful tool to connect code enforcement officials with servicers. Because of the successful contacts made through MERS, servicers have reduced or prevented countless code violations, security issues and maintenance problems, saving millions of dollars and keeping properties and neighborhoods safer and more secure.

Servicers that do not participate in MERS should be encouraged to do so. It is worth the subscription. Those that are on the system should be sure that their mortgage information is updated with a property preservation contact so that code enforcement officials can find the right person to address a problem more quickly.

No. 3: Making REOs stand out in the market

In today’s saturated real estate market, even traditional-sale homes are heavily discounted to help them sell more quickly. As a result, REO properties have a new level of competition.

The key to selling REO properties today is making the right investment to deliver the best “bang for the buck” that will help the property sell faster and maximize the return. Recognizing this, the industry has worked hard to make strategic investments in REO properties to maximize selling opportunities.

Even low value properties can stand out with only a modest investment. It doesn’t cost much to mow the lawn and clean up the yard, scrub the house from top to bottom, tighten what’s loose and replace burnt-out light bulbs. Yet these basic efforts can pay off in huge dividends when potential buyers don’t have to look past dirt and debris to imagine raising a family in the home.

Just as important as making the right investment and keeping the property clean and maintained have been efforts to establish more effective communications between the servicer, the property preservation company and the broker.

Once the property is listed, keeping all parties engaged and coordinated, continuing to monitor the property, as well as the market, and making sure that the property remains in top form is essential. Checks and balances between the broker and the property preservation contractors to identify and address issues quickly helps to assure that the property remains in the best possible condition and that the property is poised for a faster and higher value sale.

No. 4: Support foreclosure prevention

Preventing a foreclosure from happening at all is the best way to whittle down portfolio volumes and avoid the inevitability of even higher post-foreclosure loan losses. This is why the short-sale market is so hot right now.

Even though field servicers aren’t directly involved in short sales, they can be helpful to the process. In Safeguard Properties’ system alone, for example, more than 40,000 presale properties are listed for sale. These are 40,000 properties in default, some vacant but mostly occupied, in which the owner is attempting to sell the property. If history is any indicator, if these homes don’t sell, many will eventually be abandoned by the homeowner. As vacant properties, they are likely to lose value faster, and cost the servicer more in maintenance and repair costs.

As a pre-emptive measure, field servicers can routinely report “presale for sale” information to its servicing clients. These are ripe opportunities for servicers to reach out to the homeowner to initiate a short sale as an alternative to abandonment, and a potentially long and costly property preservation process.

There are other steps we can take to help prevent foreclosures. We can continue to encourage frightened borrowers to reach out to their servicers and attempt workouts and loan modifications. In particular, we should support the efforts of foreclosure prevention programs and their networks of nonprofit housing and credit counselors who help keep borrowers in their homes.

Even if these programs meet with limited success, some success is better than none at all. We know that an occupied property is better protected than a vacant one. Everything we can do to support homeowner retention should be done for everyone’s benefit.

No. 5: Accelerating vacant properties to foreclosure

While everything should be done to try to keep borrowers in their homes, the fact is that many defaulted homes will be abandoned by their owners for a variety of reasons.

When these homes are first abandoned, most are in livable condition. Over time, however, any vacant property will begin to deteriorate, even those that receive regular inspections and maintenance. The reason is that vacant properties are susceptible to more expensive structural damage because they are not heated, cooled and ventilated the way occupied properties are. They also are more frequent targets for vandalism.

The longer a property sits vacant, the more expensive it is for servicers to inspect and maintain, and the more value it loses. Depending on individual state laws, the foreclosure process could range from a few months to more than a year.

The problem with foreclosure laws is that they do not differentiate between occupied and vacant properties. Certainly, there is value in an extended foreclosure process to protect homeowners and try to prevent them from losing their homes.

However, when properties are abandoned, there is no homeowner to protect. A lengthy foreclosure process involving a vacant property only puts the property and the neighborhood at greater risk. A prolonged foreclosure process also prevents a vacant property from being reoccupied more quickly.

As an industry, we must get the word out and urge state legislators to review their foreclosure processes. If states updated their foreclosure laws to differentiate between vacant and occupied properties and allowed vacant properties to accelerate to foreclosure, all sides would benefit.

Communities would be safer because fewer vacant properties would pose safety risks to neighborhoods, and the properties would be less of a burden on taxpayers. Property values would be maintained, and they would support a stronger tax base. Properties also would be more likely to attract homebuyers who would take better care of the properties and raise families there.

In the end, working together to promote responsible family homeownership and protecting our housing stock so that it contributes to a community’s vitality and tax base is how we will work ourselves out of today’s housing crisis.

Servicers, investors, code enforcement officials, property preservation companies, neighborhood organizations, legislators, nonprofits and community leaders have work with a spirit of determination and collaboration to address an unprecedented housing crisis.

It is a crisis that wasn’t created overnight, and it won’t be solved overnight. We have learned that finger pointing and assigning blame are a waste of time and energy. And we have learned that we are all better served when we focus our energies on developing solutions that benefit everyone.

Robert Klein is founder and chairman of the board of Safeguard Properties, Valley View, Ohio.

To view the online article, please click here

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.

American Banker News Article

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, was quoted in the American Banker article titled, Slow Pace of Repossessions Aggravates Problems in Housing.

Banks and mortgage servicers are not repossessing a massive backlog of distressed properties, which is likely to further depress home prices and prolong the housing crisis.

Millions of delinquent loans are in limbo because banks want to avoid taking losses and the government has given them plenty of options, from foreclosure moratoriums to loan modification programs.

But experts, including bankers, say the time has come to bite the bullet.

“The question is when do the big servicers that have adopted a policy of deferral flip the switch?” said Sean Dobson, chairman and chief executive of Amherst Securities Group.

Jack Schakett ,a credit loss mitigation executive at Bank of America Corp., pulled no punches answering that question.

“Clearly we’ve reached that point where it’s time to stop pursuing modifications and get on with the foreclosure process,” Schakett said. “We are in the period right now where we have many customers who do not qualify for modifications and they will be going through a dignified exit from the home.”

To allow such “dignified exits,” more banks have been sidestepping the foreclosure process and encouraging borrowers to do short sales or deeds-in-lieu.

In a short sale, a borrower sells the property at its current value even if the sale brings in less than the amount owed on the mortgage. For a deed in lieu, a borrower voluntarily gives up ownership of property.

Losses on both these “preforeclosure actions” can be less than on a foreclosure.

Citigroup Inc.’s mortgage unit has jumped on the bandwagon.

“We are reaching out proactively to all delinquent borrowers to do a short sale, with incentives to move them faster,” said Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage.

“We’ve been mindful of the price deterioration at the MSA [metropolitan statistical area] level in anticipation of the tail risk of prices going down further,” Das said. “We are pricing at where the market might go.”

Recent data provides some evidence that servicers are picking up the pace of foreclosures, however slowly.

Bank repossessions hit a record high in May for the second month in a row, with a total of 93,777 properties repossessed by lenders, up 44% from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac., an Irvine, Calif., company that monitors foreclosure filings. All 50 states posted year-over-year increases in REO activity.

Still, 12.7% of all mortgages were delinquent at the end of April, while the percentage of loans in foreclosure still remained fairly low, at 3.18% nationwide, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS).

Some states, including Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California, have a huge disparity between the percentage of noncurrent loans and those in foreclosure. For example, in California 10.8% of loans are noncurrent, but only 3.2% are in the process of foreclosure.

Lenders looking to clear inventory are facing some stiff headwinds.

The expiration of the homebuyer tax credit, restrictive underwriting guidelines, high unemployment and a tough economy have reduced the demand for homes. Fewer potential homebuyers will be able to absorb the glut of homes.

“I think it will be a slow-drip process, a prolonged cycle of clearing these distressed homes,” CitiMortgage’s Das said.

Many banks adopted a “delay and pray” strategy last year when federal, state and local governments put a halt to foreclosures and required that borrowers be evaluated (and re-evaluated) for modifications, lenghthening the normal foreclosure timetables. (Several states issued foreclosure moratoriums in late 2008 in an effort to pressure servicers to find more solutions to keep borrowers in their homes. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enacted a foreclosure moratorium in November 2008 to give servicers time to adopt new modification procedures.)

None of the programs solved the problem. With high unemployment, a large percentage of borrowers who receive modifications are redefaulting, adding to the shadow inventory of distressed properties.

There are 3.5 million homes for sale today, and LPS estimated another 2.9 million homes have been repossessed or are in the foreclosure process. Around 4.5 million borrowers are at least 30 days’ delinquent on their mortgage. Once a loan is delinquent by two months, it’s extremely unlikely the borrower will catch up on the payments.

Standard & Poor’s has estimated it will take three years for the current shadow inventory of homes to clear the market ? and certain metropolitan areas will take much longer.

Georgette Prigal, the founder of Pheulpin Capital Group, a Garden City, N.Y., buyer and seller of distressed bank assets, said many banks have been stymied by their own optimism.

“They think we’re looking at a two- to three-year downward cycle and then we’ll see a big rebound in housing prices,” Prigal said. “They’d rather bleed a $50,000 loss here and a $60,000 loss there instead of realizing a full loss on a sale. But at this rate it’s going to take eight or nine years to clear the backlog.”

Cary Sternberg, the chief executive of Excellen REO, a unit of Fort Mill, S.C.-based Titanium Holdings Inc. that unloads repossessed properties, said most of the uptick in REO volume is coming from the government-sponsored enterprises ? not banks.

“There’s not a lot of volume yet but a noticeable increase is coming from the GSEs,” Sternberg said. “We’re not at the bottom. I think we’re still looking at three to five years before we get to a normalized market.”

Loans held in private-label mortgage securities ? those without federal guarantees ? made up 28% of the 5.3 million seriously delinquent loans that are 90 days or more past due, according to Freddie Mac. Fannie Mae and Freddie hold a combined 27%, followed by banks and thrifts with 16%.

Holders of residential mortgages only have a few choices.

They can sell their distressed loans, but at 30 cents on the dollar, few have chosen that route except for the worst portfolios.

Repossessing a property is expensive, because then the servicer must pay property taxes and maintenance expenses. Homeowner association dues, grass-cutting and winterizing can run an average of $6,000 a month while a property sits on the market waiting to be sold, Sternberg said.

That has left loan modifications as the preferred course of action for most servicers.

While many industry executives applaud the government’s effort for staving off what could have been a more severe housing depression, they acknowledge that without widespread principal reductions, most borrowers who have received loan modifications will still end up losing their homes.

Chris Gamaitoni,, an analyst at Compass Point Research and Trading, said banks are not taking into account the effects of redefaults, which are “going to slowly have to accrue through the banking system, weighing on long-term profitability.”

The four largest banks ? Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo ? are expected to record chargeoffs of $196 billion this year and next, more than the $166 billion of loan losses taken in 2008 and 2009, said Craig Emrick, a senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo did not comment for this story.

Gamaitoni said he thinks 15 states have a high risk of falling into a double-dip housing recession. Three states ? Florida, South Carolina and Georgia ? are under the most severe stress because of high rental vacancy rates as well.

“The bubble was just too big, and it will take years to work through the extensions of credit,” Gamaitoni said.

Kyle Lundstedt, managing director at Lender Processing Services’ applied analytics group, said servicers are still overwhelmed by the volume of delinquencies and repeated changes to government programs.

“Because we had moratoriums, it was easy for people to think all the problems were resolved,” he said. “As REO ramps up again, we’re going to go back to a traditional scenario where areas with large volumes of REO will be very soft with depreciation; and other areas that don’t have excess inventory will start seeing appreciation again. Geography will become a critical driver again.”

Government intervention also has created costly glitches.

For example, the foreclosure moratoriums precluded servicers from taking back vacant properties, which could have been pushed on to the market sooner.

Freddie Mac has estimated that nationally 36% of seriously delinquent properties are vacant; Florida has the highest share of distressed vacancies, 56%.

“By the time the moratorium is over, a vacant property is worth half the price because of vandalism and neighborhood blight,” said Robert Klein, the founder and CEO of Safeguard Properties, a Cleveland firm that lenders hire to manage foreclosed properties.

Not everyone sees a further drop in home prices as necessarily a bad thing.

“Modification plans are not curing the problem,” said Dobson.

As more distressed properties get put on the market at lower prices, they will set comparable sales for other properties.

“This was an asset bubble,” Dobson said. “The loans have to be resized to what the properties are worth now because the value was never there.”

To view the article as it appears in American Banker, please click here

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.

On the Right Track

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of Safeguard Properties, was quoted in an American Banker article titled On the Right Track.

On the Right Track

An initiative designed to keep better track of vacant properties, and in turn, alleviate the mortgage industry from code violations, is making headway.

Since the program was established in January 2009 by the Mortgage Bankers Association, in partnership with Mers, the mortgage industry’s electronic system for tracking loan servicing rights, nearly 550 cities and government organizations around the country have signed up to participate.

The MBA Vacant Property Registration Mers Initiative enables cities to access the Mers database for free and see who the titleholder and servicer of the property is as well as the property preservation company and the point of contact.

This information has helped foster better communication between city code enforcement officials and servicers, said Robert Klein, head of the MBA’s vacant property registration committee and chairman of the Cleveland field service provider Safeguard Properties Inc.

Klein gave an update on the program during a keynote address last week at the annual Mers users conference. Mers is owned by Merscorp of Reston, Va.

The committee was established to address concerns over the patchwork of city ordinances that sprouted in response to the growing volume of vacant properties across the country. Frustrated with the difficulty in contacting parties responsible for abandoned properties, and the resulting blight and safety issues they caused, nearly 450 municipalities have enacted ordinances, each containing different regulations and fee structures. Companies like Merscorp were forced to act as fines for violations in some cities escalated to as high as $1,000 a day.

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.

USFN Article

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Feature appeared in the USFN Report (spring 2010 ed.)

Reducing the Effects of the Housing Crisis:
What?s Working and What Isn?t?
by Robert Klein, CEO
Safeguard Properties
USFN Associate Member

In the past few years, there has been no shortage of ideas on how to stem the
losses resulting from the worst housing crisis the United States has seen since the Great
Depression. From vacant property registration ordinances and foreclosure moratoriums to
loan modifications and other initiatives, government at all levels seems set on legislating
itself and its constituents out of the housing troubles. As a new year and a new decade get
underway, it is helpful to take a closer look at some of these initiatives, to see what is
working, and where energies may need to be refocused.

Vacant Property Registration Ordinances
Cities and states across the country ? frustrated by their inability to find a
responsible party upon whom to serve notices of code violation affecting vacant
properties ? enacted, or began considering, vacant property registration (VPR)
ordinances.

As admirable as the goals of VPR ordinances are, the enforcement challenges are
significant. On the industry side, complying with thousands of different ordinances
around the country is daunting. Similarly, on the code enforcement side, the costs and
administration requirements to enforce these ordinances further burden departments
already short of resources. Further, because the vast majority of servicers who already are
visible and responsive to code enforcement officers are the most likely to comply with
the ordinances, and those responsible for the most troublesome properties continue to be
elusive, the likelihood is that enforcing VPR ordinances actually creates very little
additional benefit.

Last spring, in this publication, I (along with co-author Lawrence Garfinkel of
Bendett & McHugh, PC) described an initiative between the Mortgage Bankers
Association (MBA) and the Mortgage Electronic Records System (MERS). The MBA
convened a VPR committee to look at the proliferation of these ordinances and
recommend a solution.

The industry proposed the ?MERS Initiative,? a solution that is free to
municipalities, and that utilizes a proven and widely regarded system. The MERS
database contains information on more than 65 million properties across the country. By
adding one more piece of information to the property file ? a property preservation
contact for code enforcement ? and making that database available to cities and states
free of charge, government agencies have access to a ready-made VPR system.

After a year-long pilot program, the system was rolled out in 2009. To date,
nearly 400 cities have signed on. Some cities utilize the system in tandem with existing
VPR ordinances. Others have chosen to use the MERS system alone.

The ?hit rate? for code enforcement officers in identifying a contact to address
property issues has been between 50-60 percent. Enforcement officials have commented
that the MERS system may not solve all of their code violation problems, but it is an
important tool in preventing vacant properties from becoming nuisances in their
communities.

At the U.S. Conference of Mayors, held in January 2010 in Washington, D.C.,
demonstrations of the MERS system were offered. The majority of mayors viewing the
demonstration asked for follow-up with their code enforcement departments.
The MERS initiative is a great example of what works. A collaborative effort with
low implementation costs, available free to cities, and utilizing an existing system, it
provides mutual benefits for municipalities and the mortgage servicing industry ? with
no additional administrative requirements on either side.

Homeowner Protection Initiatives
In 2009, the continuing increase in the rates of defaults and foreclosures across
the country prompted the federal government, and many states, to pass legislation to help
keep homeowners in their homes. The most significant were the Obama administration?s
foreclosure moratorium and mortgage relief program, designed to keep more Americans
in their homes and modify millions of loans to more affordable levels. Many states also
have enacted or are considering foreclosure moratoriums.

Even without moratoriums, many states? foreclosure proceedings can take a year
or longer, giving lenders and borrowers time to explore loss mitigation options that help
borrowers keep their homes. Certainly, the industry applauds efforts to keep people in
their homes, including borrowers who are behind in their mortgage payments. It is well
accepted that an occupied property generally maintains its value better than a vacant
property.

Whether these programs will succeed in the long run is the subject of much debate
in the media, in government circles, and across the mortgage industry. Setting the longterm
debate aside, the real concern for the industry in the short term is that ?one-size-fitsall?
solutions don?t work in all circumstances. Some of these solutions actually create
worse problems than the ones they are designed to resolve.

Moratoriums are a perfect example. When you have a homeowner living in a
house and asking for help with his mortgage, it makes sense to help him stay in his home.
It is better for the homeowner, the mortgage company, the neighborhood, and the
community for that house to remain occupied. What is the value of a moratorium, though,
when the homeowner abandons the property? In these cases, all a moratorium does is let
the property sit vacant for a longer period of time. And the longer a property is vacant,
the more it deteriorates, even a property that is regularly inspected and maintained by a
professional field servicer.

As a field service company, Safeguard sees first-hand that most abandoned
properties are in decent condition when they are initially secured. Over time, however,
the condition of the property declines, even a property that receives regular inspections
and maintenance. Vacant properties are more likely to be broken into or vandalized. They
are not heated and air-conditioned, so extreme temperatures can cause severe damage,
even to properties that are winterized and ventilated. The longer a property sits vacant,
the more likely it is to lose value and become a nuisance for neighboring properties.

Foreclosure Fast-Tracking
Moratoriums and extended foreclosure proceedings are examples of initiatives
that aren?t right for all circumstances. Instead, what states could be looking to do is to
handle occupied and vacant properties differently. Certainly, if a defaulted property is
occupied, the borrower and lender should be given some time to work out a better
arrangement to keep the homeowner in his home. But once a property is determined to be
vacant, states could provide a major service to their citizens if they changed their laws to
put those properties on a fast-track to foreclosure. The benefits are significant all around.

Neighborhoods benefit because property values are maintained, and the property
is in good enough condition to attract a homebuyer who wants to raise a family there. The
mortgage companies benefit because the property sells for a higher price and property
preservation costs are lower. Municipalities benefit because when property values are
higher, so are tax assessment values, not just for the vacant property, but for the
neighboring properties as well.

Throughout the industry, the notion of fast-tracking is drawing more attention and
discussion. Collaboration among all segments of the industry impacted by the mortgage
crisis is essential to make foreclosure fast-tracking of vacant properties a nationwide
priority.

To view the electronic version of the article, please click here

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.

Safeguard Properties Launches New Web Site

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Safeguard Properties Launches New Web Site

?Safeguard Properties announced the launch of its new marketing Web site www.safeguardproperties.com.??

The new site was developed based on feedback and input from Safeguard?s key audiences ? clients, vendors, employees and industry partners, said Safeguard Chief Operating Officer Alan Jaffa.??

?We wanted more than a new look and feel,? Jaffa said.? ?We wanted to add and improve features to create a more valuable experience for everyone from first-time visitors to those who count on us as an industry resource.?????

Jaffa noted that the most popular and frequently accessed sections of the site include Safeguard?s All Client Alerts, updates on Vacant Property Registration Ordinances, news and industry links.????

Among the new and improved features:??????

?
???????? Easier and more streamlined access to services, news, events and industry information that clients, vendors, employees, media, municipalities and other industry users access most often.?????

?
???????? Industry ?spotlights? highlighting five important events or items, which will be updated monthly.???

?
???????? An ?Ask the CEO? section to submit questions on any subject related to the mortgage field serving industry.??

?
???????? Expanded information about Safeguard?s services.???

?
???????? An enhanced ?contact us? section where individuals can submit vendor applications, request pricing quotes for services and provide feedback.

To view the online article, please click here?

?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.

Safeguard Properties Launches New Web Site

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Safeguard Properties Launches New Web Site

Safeguard Properties has announced the launch of its new marketing Web site, www.safeguardproperties.com.

The new site was developed based on feedback and input from Safeguard’s key audiences – clients, vendors, employees and industry partners, according to the company?s chief operating officer, Alan Jaffa.

“We wanted more than a new look and feel,” Jaffa says. ?We wanted to add and improve features to create a more valuable experience for everyone from first-time visitors to those who count on us as an industry resource.?

Jaffa notes that the most popular and frequently accessed sections of the site include Safeguard?s “All Client Alerts,” updates on vacant property registration ordinances, news and industry links.

The newly enhanced site features more streamlined access to services, news, events and industry information, Safeguard says, as well as monthly “industry spotlights,” which highlight five important events or items.

Other new features include an “Ask the CEO” section, where visitors can submit questions on any subject related to the mortgage field serving industry; expanded information about Safeguard?s services; and an enhanced ?Contact Us? section, where individuals can submit vendor applications, request pricing quotes for services and provide feedback.

SOURCE: Safeguard Properties?

To view?the online article, please click here

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.

Safeguard Properties Good Neighbor Door Hanger Initiative

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Foreclosure Neighbors Giving Safeguard a Call

Safeguard Properties receives 1,200 phone calls per day from its Good Neighbor Door Hanger Initiative, started in Q109.

At the beginning of 2009, Safeguard began leaving door hangers on properties next to vacant and secured foreclosures. The door hanger provided an 800 number for the neighbor to call if they see any questionable activity or a maintenance issue. The call center is open 24/7.

Safeguard partnered with cities and local governments to secure abandoned homes post-foreclosure and to quell the spread of blight. The company utilized the door hanger initiative nationwide for more than a year.

The majority of callers want to know updates on the home, while some are reporting suspicious activity at the property. According to Safeguard, the initiative helps the company address issues that, if left alone, would result in vandalism or citations from code enforcement officials.

?The correlation between vacant properties and criminal activity has been well documented in communities nationwide,? according to Safeguard. ?As foreclosures and vacancies mount, the nation has seen a material increase in the number of copper pipe thefts, arsons and related crimes at these vacant properties. This ripple effect drastically reduces the servicer?s collateral in their assets and wreaks havoc on the communities where the properties exist.?

To view the online article, please click here

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.

Mortgage Servicing News Article

Posted on September 13, 2018October 4, 2018 by Safeguard

Alan Jaffa was featured in a Mortgage Servicing News article titled, Intense Inspections Make a Difference.

Intense Inspections Make A Difference

Record high volumes of distressed properties are not diverting one field servicer’s eye for more intense inspections and quality fieldwork.

“We’re still very busy, the volume is still big,” says Alan Jaffa, the newly appointed CEO of Safeguard Properties, Valley View, Ohio, one of the country’s largest privately held mortgage field services, which this month celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Current economic factors, including unemployment, are bound to generate more foreclosures, he says, which will continue to be at a record high. Even more challenging is ensuring these properties are properly inspected and maintained.

“A big thing we’re going to start to see in the industry is the need to really know who the property occupants are, so inspections are going to become a very critical piece of the process,” says Jaffa.

If until now the challenge has been to accrue data on occupied vs. vacant distressed properties, now it is turning into an imperative to not just determine that someone still lives in a property, but also to know the identity of that person.

“Who is living in these properties is becoming a greater function for the field service companies,” Jaffa told this publication. And it does not necessarily mean asking to see tenant identification cards or other documentation, he adds. It means “a more intense inspection” and making sure the inspector contacts the person living in a house, making sure that when a property is listed as vacant it actually is vacant, and if it is occupied, who lives there. Among others, a reported “parrot incident” describing how a field services company locked a property and removed a pet parrot belonging to a Bank of America borrower made headlines and alerted the industry of risks associated with irresponsible home inspections. So now vendor management departments within field service companies closely oversee those hired to work in the field knocking on doors, recruit and give credentials to these workers.

Jaffa, who is credited for helping grow Safeguard’s revenue in excess of 500% and staff to 800 employees since he assumed the role of COO in 2002, has a lot on his plate. In 2010 Safeguard will continue to hire and will soon roll out initiatives that have been in the pipelines for years. The goal is to ensure work quality is not challenged by volume.

“It is difficult times,” Jaffa says, and that demands extreme caution when discovering vacant properties and inspecting occupied properties, training vendor partners to understand the sensitivity of the situation “is something that is very big on us right now.” So systems are updated with feedback from service users. For example, most recently users praised as “a great tool” the Safeguard “All Client Alert” industry news update, suggested changes to the website technology and data tools. Users conveyed interest on information about code enforcement practices, property lists and other data.

The website gets tens of thousands of hits from businesses and even individuals. Now it is a matter of catering to the company brand and what is expected from it. Following that path, however, the company updated its marketing website enhancing new features based on feedback key industry users. It now includes more streamlined access to services, news, events and industry information, five monthly industry spotlights, the “Ask the CEO” section with answers on mortgage field services industry issues, and a user contact section.

To view the online article, please click here

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.