An article in The Citizen regarding vacant blight in Peachtree City mentions Safeguard Properties as an effective means of maintaining vacant properties.

PTC neighbors mow foreclosed lawns

Tue, 05/26/2009 – 5:33pm
By: John Munford

Peachtree City has not escaped the nationwide trend of home foreclosures.

While some of those homes are in the lower price range, some are in the very high price range too, as they are not confined to any area or neighborhood, said Senior Code Enforcement Officer Tami Babb.

Foreclosed homes have ranged from the $60,000 range to upwards of $600,000 or more, she said. One home in foreclosure was listed at $1.5 million in public newspaper notices, the main resource code enforcement uses to track foreclosures, Babb said.

“We’ve dealt with foreclosures before,” Babb said. “What’s different now is that it’s in every area.”

The foreclosed homes have not led to major issues so far, Babb said. But homes in foreclosure limbo, after they have been abandoned but before the banks resume ownership, have caused some trouble, she added.

To secure pool fences on abandoned properties, the city uses nylon straps to prevent trespassers from entering, Babb said. In some cases, neighbors are mowing the lawns of abandoned homes, Babb said.

One homeowner in particular who skipped town was particularly onerous and would have merited a citation with an appearance in city court had he remained here with the property unkempt, Babb said. But the owner moved out of state, so it may be impossible to hold him accountable, she added.

“Lots of people have left town and we can’t find them,” Babb said. “But they are still legally responsible.”

Once banks take possession of foreclosed homes, they generally do a good job of making sure the lawn is kept up and that the house doesn’t fall into disrepair, Babb said.

The city has not had to condemn any foreclosed homes due to structural defects or code violations, she added.

One private company, Safeguard, does a particularly good job of handling such issues including the regular lawn work and also fixing broken windows, Babb said.

Dealing with foreclosures is time-consuming, Babb said, adding that it has been made a bit easier since Fayette County deed records can be searched by computer to find the true owner of a given parcel.

Babb noted that the recently expired three-month moratorium on foreclosures was difficult because most of the city’s homes in the foreclosure process had already been abandoned … but the banks had been unable to take possession of them during that time.

The code enforcement department also has seen a drop in the number of calls from potential investors looking for a good deal on real estate, Babb added. Yet she remains optimistic that the future will improve.

“I really believe this is going to turn around,” Babb said.

Babb asks anyone with questions about particular homes to call code enforcement. Some neighbors are aware homes are in trouble before the notice is published in the newspaper, she added.

Sun News picked up the story on Safeguard Properties’ move to its new headquarters in Valley View, Ohio.

Valley View: Safeguard moves into new Hub Parkway facility

Posted by Mark Holan/Sun News — mholan@sunnews.com May 11, 2009 16:47PM

VALLEY VIEW — Monday marked a new era for Safeguard Properties, the largest privately held mortgage field services company in the country. Formerly headquartered in Brooklyn Heights, the company officially moved into a new, 63,000-square-foot facility on Hub Parkway.

In this era of rampant foreclosures, Safeguard Properties has grown exponentially. With a current staff of 700 employees, the company needed more office and parking space than its old space on Safeguard Drive off Lancaster Drive.

Despite having been in Brooklyn Heights since 1999, it was imperative that new office space was secured, according to Safeguard officials. The new facility can be expanded to 75,000 square feet to accommodate even more staff members.

“Safeguard has experienced consistent 10-15 percent year-over-year growth since our founding in 1990,” said Alan Jaffa, Safeguard’s chief operating officer. “Our growth in 2008 and projections for 2009 are even higher. We added 200 employees in 2008 and plan to add 125 more in 2009.”

Jaffa said Safeguard’s investment to purchase, expand and build out the new facility was approximately $6 million, plus about $2 million in additional IT infrastructure.

The new facility will house a full-service cafeteria and fitness center for employees.

“This new facility is an investment in our clients, our employees and our community,” Jaffa said. “All three have been integral to Safeguard’s success, and this facility is our way to demonstrate our gratitude and our commitment today and for many years to come.”

Founded by Robert Klein in 1990 (who remains as CEO), Safeguard conducts more than one million property inspections and maintenance orders on defaulted and foreclosed properties nationally for mortgage service companies, banks, financial institutions and major investors on a monthly basis.

Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, was quoted in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about vacant properties in high-risk areas.

Vacant foreclosed homes spawn blight, crime

Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Next door to Jeffrey Cash’s tidy East Oakland bungalow sits a boarded-up foreclosed house that has been vacant for months, attracting locals who shoot dice in the driveway, smoke crack on the porch and dump debris in the yard, he said.

“I call the cops on a regular basis, but it is an ongoing battle,” he said. “It’s a part-time job making sure it doesn’t become more of an eyesore than it already is.”

Last week, someone hurled a brick through Cash’s front window – he thinks in retaliation for his frequent contacts with the police.

His situation is emblematic of a larger problem. The droves of vacant foreclosures nationwide and locally, many of them clustered in low-income areas, act as magnets for crime and create neighborhood blight, according to residents and civic leaders. While cities try to fight back, in many cases the sheer volume is so overwhelming that their efforts are scattershot at best.

“Just about every foreclosed property on my beat has some kind of problem,” said Derek Smitheram, a police officer in East Oakland, which he said has thousands of vacant homes.

On Thursday, a single hour with Smitheram’s partner – both are what Oakland calls “problem-solving officers” – dramatized the extent of foreclosure blight.

Officer Mark Castillo pulled up to a vacant foreclosure near International Boulevard that was surrounded by mounds of garbage. After checking on the house, he went to the backyard and grasped the boards nailed in front of the garage door. The door readily opened, and he recoiled from the stench of urine and filth. Inside, an elderly man huddled on a makeshift bed surrounded by fast-food wrappers, matches and old clothes.

“I know I can’t be here,” the man, Alfonso Granera, 71, told Castillo. He agreed to meet the officer in a couple of hours for a ride to a shelter.

“These places quickly become a breeding ground for all kinds of crime,” Castillo said, pointing out the crawl spaces under the house, which he said criminals use for illegal stashes. “Drug crews run a corner, they use vacant properties to hide drugs and weapons.”

Needle, used condom
At a boarded-up foreclosure a few blocks away, Castillo found a hypodermic needle and used condom in the backyard.

“We board this place up at least once a month,” he said. “After a week or two, we get calls from the neighbors; we come out, and it’s been broken into again. We have done more of these than we can count – we clean them up and secure them, then people break in again and trash them. It could even be the same day.”

A study by the nonprofit research Center for Responsible Lending found that a foreclosure lowers the value of nearby homes by an average of about $6,000. The study projects that 2.4 million homes will be taken back by lenders this year, having a spillover effect on another 73 million homes.

At foreclosed properties, “we’ve encountered trespassers, squatters and activities such as drug use and prostitution,” Smitheram said. “There is a lot of gang graffiti and vandalism – stripping the properties of anything of value. Some become a dumping ground for litter. Some are used as a burglary clearinghouse – thieves will burglarize other homes in the neighborhood and store the stolen goods in the vacant foreclosure.”

Cities deal with the vacant foreclosures as best they can.

Many turn to anti-blight ordinances to try to force the banks that own the foreclosures to take care of them – mow the lawns, board up windows and doors – or face stiff fines if they don’t. A California bill enacted in September (SB1137) allows municipalities to charge lenders $1,000 a day for failing to maintain foreclosed properties; some cities already have similar anti-blight provisions in place.

Taking aggressive approach
Some municipalities aggressively try to nip problems in the bud.

Starting April 1, San Jose assigned three code enforcement officers “to focus on proactively identifying vacant, neglected properties and taking actions to make them safe, secure and sanitary,” said Jamie Matthews, division manager for code enforcement in San Jose. Redevelopment funds cover the costs because most San Jose foreclosures are concentrated in areas included in the city’s Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, he said.

Pittsburg marshals staff from several departments to monitor foreclosures, said Marc Grisham, city manager.

“I go out and drive the streets every day,” he said. “Everybody is charged with the task. We tag the vacant property. We do everything to track down who’s currently in control of it. If the banks are unresponsive to our first contact, police officers call them; that usually gets their attention.”

Pittsburg uses “vigorous” fines and liens to recoup its costs. “We just got a check from the county for a couple of hundred thousand dollars for liens,” Grisham said.

Daily fine in Oakland
John Russo, Oakland city attorney, said the city is gearing up to use California’s new foreclosure-blight law to force lenders to maintain their properties.

The $1,000-a-day fine “is a powerful tool for some tough and fair negotiations with banks,” he said. “The most important thing is to have banks understand that it’s not OK to treat foreclosed properties just like numbers on their ledgers; these are actual homes in the fabric of our neighborhoods. If banks have several properties on a block that they’re holding, waiting for the market to turn, maybe they need to hire security guards. That is their responsibility; it is their property.”

Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, which works for lenders to secure and care for foreclosed homes nationwide, said 85 to 90 percent of foreclosures are safe and sound. His firm conducted 1 million foreclosure inspections last month, including 75,000 in California.

“Most properties are well maintained,” said Klein, who chairs the Mortgage Bankers Association Vacant Property Registration Committee. Blighted homes “are the exception, not the rule.”

Klein said Safeguard contractors take extra steps in areas of high vandalism, such as doing weekly inspections.

“But we’re limited in what we can do,” he said. “We can’t put cages around the properties.”

Actually, in Oakland, the public works department sometimes has erected tall chain-link fences around troublesome foreclosures.

“This is what we like them to look like,” Castillo said, showing off a boarded-up foreclosure protected by such a fence. “We’re trying to eliminate that nexus of criminal activity and blight in the neighborhood.”

But a well-secured foreclosure is a rarity in his East Oakland beat area, Castillo said. Instead, the properties “are a huge addition to our workload.

“It’s the broken-window theory,” he said. “If you allow visible blight to enter your neighborhood, it sends a message to the criminal element that they can do whatever they want.”

What to do about foreclosures next door
Police and city officials want neighbors to act as their eyes and ears to help monitor foreclosure problems.

— Report any suspicious activities to the local police department.

— If a property is blighted – broken windows, overgrown lawn – call your city’s code enforcement division or public works department.

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Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, was quoted in an article on mortgagebankers.org regarding the challenges faced by servicers and municipalities when dealing with vacant REO properties.

REO Properties a Sticking Point for Servicers, Municipalities

Wisniowski, Charles

TAMPA, Fla. — Lenders and mortgage servicing firms must ensure that every real estate owned property that comes into their inventory is preserved and protected or risk a hostile and costly confrontation with local government officials, property preservation experts said here at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Mortgage Servicing Conference and Expo.

As high default rates and increasing numbers of vacant properties expand the industry’s REO inventory, servicers find themselves increasingly in the cross-hairs of disgruntled and cash-strapped local governments, said Cary Sternberg, senior vice president of REO with American Home Mortgage, Irving, Tex.

“There has been a huge increase in the amount of activity initiated by local governments in an effort to try to stem urban blight,” Sternberg said. “In many locations throughout the country, the tax base is dropping and the amount of revenue being raised by localities to take care of city services is also dropping. They need to look for ways to keep their cities going. It’s a difficult problem to deal with and servicers like us are dealing with cities and municipalities all over.”

Unfortunately for the industry, municipal officials don’t always understand legal complexities involved in supervising REO properties, nor do they grasp convoluted constraints under which servicers operate. Often, Sternberg said, they don’t care but they do understand that they want vacant property problem solved.

“[Municipalities] are absolutely very well-meaning and they are very concerned about their areas,” Sternberg said. “We try to understand that, but they are also singularly focused on their own areas and a lot of time they don’t realize the impact [of their actions] on servicers.”

In addition to ignorance of servicers’ duties and responsibilities, Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, said a lack of communication between servicers and municipalities can prompt frustrated local officials to strike back, via onerous legal actions such as fines or mandate servicers to make often expensive repairs to bring the property up to code.

“These citations requiring the lender, the title holder, the investor, to repair the property is the big stick that code enforcement officials carry. They know they have a big stick in their hand and they know they have the power to do that,” Klein said. “Their concerns are to maintain the property so it doesn’t deteriorate in the community and so it does not become a base for illegal activity. They want to protect the neighborhood and they will use that big stick and [they will] issue those $70-$80-$90,000 fines when there is a lack of communication.”

By contrast, when open dialogue exists between servicers and local government officials, “most of the issues go away,” Klein said.

Marc Hinkle, vice president of loan servicing with PHH Mortgage, Mount Laurel, N.J., agreed, noting that it’s incumbent on servicers to keep abreast of all local codes and ordinances, as well as new laws passed by local governments. He suggested inspecting the property immediately, documenting its condition, and conduct periodic follow-up inspections to ensure it remains in good condition.

Mike McKeever, managing director at Goldbeck, McCafferty & McKeever, Philadelphia, said it’s in servicers’ best interest to go the extra mile to communicate both with local government and with the current or former home occupants. He suggested servicers post a notice on the property as soon as falls under the servicers’ domain. This serves to both cut down on the “surprise factor” by residents that generate the most complaints but it also gives code enforcement officials a point of contact.

“Code enforcement officers need to know who to get in touch with,” said McKeever.

McKeever warned that pain for servicers managing REO properties will likely get worse before it gets better this year, as the growing trend of enforced foreclosure moratoria leads to property disposition delays. In turn, servicers could face additional costs and more complaints by localities as properties deteriorate.

Sternberg noted that servicers must realize that once they assume an REO property into their inventory “the buck doesn’t stop there.”

“It really doesn’t make any difference that the code violation on this property occurred when the previous mortgagor owned the property and it had been that way for three years and the city is just now getting around to saying-okay we’ve got a lender on the hook so now we’re going to slap a $1,000 a day fine on them until they get it fixed,” Sternberg said. “I can tell you it’s not going to do any good to go back and argue that ‘we didn’t create the problem.’ You have got to get that thing fixed at the earliest possible time in order to mitigate the circumstance and to mitigate your own loss.”

The good news, Sternberg said, is that servicers who communicate with local officials and who express an interest in solving the problem for them will find those officials cooperative.

National Mortgage News picked up the Safeguard Properties press release about their move to a new office facility in Valley View, Ohio.

Mortgage Orb picked up the story of Safeguard Properties’ move to their new location in Valley View, OH.

Safeguard Moves HQ To Accommodate Growth

By MortgageOrb.com on Friday 08 May 2009

Safeguard Properties has completed its move into its new headquarters in Valley View, Ohio, doubling the company’s office space and increasing staffing capacity.

The new facility, with approximately 63,000 square feet of finished space for the company’s current 700 employees, has expansion capacity to 75,000 square feet to accommodate nearly a doubling in staff. Safeguard’s previous facility in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, which the company occupied since 1999, had 33,000 square feet.

“Safeguard has experienced consistent 10 to 15 percent year-over-year growth since its founding in 1990,” says Alan Jaffa, Safeguard’s chief operating officer. “Our growth in 2008 and projections for 2009 are even higher. We added 200 employees in 2008 and plan to add 125 more in 2009.”

Jaffa says Safeguard’s investment to purchase, expand and build out the new facility was approximately $6 million, plus approximately $2 million invested in additional IT infrastructure.

Safeguard Properties was mentioned in an article in Managing REO magazine about the many tasks involved in maintaining vacant properties.

The Dirt on Cleaning House

By Jennifer Harmon

From walls to floors and cabinets to countertops, asset managers have to cover a lot of ground in order to make sure an REO property is clean and ready to sell.

It is a wise move for asset managers to give their real estate agents, brokers and service providers a guide to use when getting real estate-owned assets spic-and-span, according to CJ Gehlke, president and founder of REO Nationwide in Newport Beach, Calif.

Let’s get down to specifics. Inside the home, Ms. Gehlke recommends to take a close look at the kitchen. Remove the refrigerator if it is inoperable and not repairable. If it is in working condition, remove the kick plate at the bottom front of the refrigerator and remove and clean the defrost pan. Defrost the fridge, remove and clean all shelves, racks and drawers. After cleaning, reassemble the refrigerator, and turn it on, setting the control at the warmest setting.

For drawers in the kitchen, empty and clean all stains and food particles by washing them with mild soap and warm water. Remove any worn paper lining. Wipe out drawers. It is important to clean the interior of the dishwasher and remove any food particles. Clean the soap holder, racks and trays. Clean the exterior by wiping with mild soap and warm water.

Next, move down the hallway of home to the washer and dryer. REO Nationwide says it’s important to clean the interior thoroughly and include any filters. Remove all mineral and dried soap deposits from the top of the washer.

“For the furnace, remove and thoroughly clean or replace filter in the bottom of furnace. Clean all windows inside and out. Don’t forget the screens. Vacuum Venetian blinds to remove dust and spots,” says Ms. Gehlke. “Wipe the window sills to remove dust, spots or stains. The walls and ceilings take up a great deal of time. Brush out all corners to remove any dust. Clean the ceiling surrounding all vents.”

There’s more work to be done. Inside the bathroom, make sure to sanitize all tile and shower doors to remove lime deposits and mildew. Scrub the tub as well as the shower and sinks. “It is important to clean thoroughly any woodwork, including doors, door frames and baseboards.”

Also, sweep and mop hardwood floors, title and linoleum. Don’t forget to take care of the carpet. Remove stains and shampoo when this is requested. Empty and tidy up shelves, drawers and closets thoroughly. Remove, dust and replace the light fixtures. All fixtures should have an operable 60-watt bulb in each socket, says Ms. Gehlke. “If the house has a fireplace, go over it thoroughly to include the ash compartment. Sweep, clean and remove all trash and debris from the back porch.”

Don’t forget the garages and carports. Get rid of all trash and debris, and sweep clean these areas of the property. Remove the oil and grease from floor of carport/garage and driveways. Vacuum any vents in the property and haul off items from the storage sheds and make sure to sweep this area clean. And of course, remove all items of personal property.

If the amount of personal property exceeds a certain threshold (industry standards are $500), the personal property goes through an eviction process in accordance to state and local requirements. When it comes with dealing with the outside of the home, Cheryl Lang, president of the Houston-based Integrated Mortgage Solutions, says in the summer, contractors mow the lawn every two weeks and trim the bushes during April to October.

She says part of property preservation means ensuring that all hazardous materials have been removed from the property. This may include removing swing sets, tires, paint, boarding up in-ground pools or removing aboveground pools and draining ponds.

“The process of preserving property has been greatly improved by the use of digital imaging,” describes Ms. Lang. “Because contractors may miss something or deem a property vacant when it is occupied, most vendors today require pictures to verify contractor’s work. It is estimated that roughly 20% of contractor mistakes are caught using digital photos.”

Some vendors today even provide phones with camera capabilities to contractors, so they may collect and share real-time photos in order to expedite the property preservation process. As more and more REO homes need to be monitored and preserved, technology ultimately allows more details to be presented on every property.

Photoinspection.com, a Buffalo, New York based company, provides property inspection services for the insurance and mortgage industries. The company, which was established in 1999, has focused on developing a robust and functional technology platform from the very beginning. The company has built a national network of inspectors, which was not an easy thing to do for a small company that was surviving on a bootstrap financing, says Ted Onyeji, president.

A network that includes several thousand appraisers located across the country has become the backbone of the company, he describes. Inspectors are monitored on their first 10 jobs to make sure they comply with industry standards. “We’ve noticed a lot of inspection companies are beginning to add inspectors across the country, especially in the areas of Florida and Michigan because of the glut of houses out there.”

The biggest goal is to make sure the vacant property is not an eyesore.

Safeguard Properties, a privately held field services company located in Valley View, Ohio, makes sure the grass is cut, that there are no broken windows and if there is a gas or water leak inside the home, the company addresses those types of problems immediately.

Safeguard also offers maid services. Contractors are to follow the maid services checklist included in the work order and leave it at the property signed by the person who completed the services. This is a requirement when completing the initial services order. “You have no idea what we find in some of these properties. We will wash the counters down, clean the fridge, put in air fresheners so it doesn’t smell like an REO,” says Mr. Klein.

Bleach and household cleaners are used to rid a property of a smell, along with a powder scent put down on the carpet before vacuuming. Contractors bring a hot water supply with them to perform the cleaning. If carpet is in deplorable condition, the contractor will notify Safeguard to have it removed. “The lender wants to sell the REO as soon as possible to a homeowner who will live in the property. You want to make it as attractive as possible. You have to make it look and smell good. We try to do the best we can. We do as much as we can so the neighbors don’t have a rundown home with 50 tires in the front yard,” he adds.

Properties are becoming more seriously damaged as well. Some homeowners in foreclosure are so frustrated they will do serious damage to the property. They take out appliances, put holes in the walls and holes in the floor, he says. “There is no rhyme or reason. They are taking their frustration out on the system or the process. We are seeing that more and more.”

By the time the mortgage company gets a hold of one of these properties, it is sometimes problematic. Safeguard hire various contractors they have built relationships with to do repairs such as re-roof a home. In today’s market the industry is seeing an increase in the amount of repairs being done to vacant REOs.

“The goal of the mortgage company is to sell this property as quickly as possible. Every day they hold on to it is costing them money, in addition to the foreclosure process. It’s a bigger financial loss. We want to make the house inviting and attractive to the possible homeowner.”

An article in Managing REO quoted Robert Klein, CEO of Safeguard Properties, regarding the ongoing issues with Chinese drywall in new home construction across the U.S.

Chinese Drywall: Hot Button Issue

An amendment introduced by Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., was added to the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which calls for the secretary of HUD to consult with the secretary of the Treasury and conduct a study on the effect of contaminated Chinese-made drywall on residential mortgage loan foreclosures.

According to Safeguard Properties, a privately held field services company in Cleveland, Reps. Wexler and Diaz-Balart have requested that at least $2 million in emergency funding from the House Appropriations Committee be provided to the federal agencies in order to ensure they have the resources to complete the crucial testing.

The study will look at the presence in residential properties with drywall that was imported from China between 2004 and 2007. It requires these agencies to study the availability of property insurance for homes where Chinese drywall is present.

In a letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reps. Wexler and Diaz-Balart urged the agencies to act quickly in testing and determining the health and safety risks posed by Chinese drywall. The letter emphasizes the possibility that the effects of Chinese drywall could worsen with the summer heat and the need for swift action. They also encourage the agencies to coordinate with the Florida Department of Health, which has already conducted some preliminary testing.

“Chinese drywall continues to be a hot-button issue throughout the Southeast,” said Robert Klein, founder and chief executive officer of Safeguard Properties. “Recent legislative activity seeks to investigate and address concerns pertaining to this issue.”

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to hold its first hearing on the issue of tainted drywall, tied to extensive corrosion in hundreds of homes in Florida and elsewhere, and blamed by many homeowners for health problems, according to the company.

The potential scope of the Chinese drywall problem could be huge. A recent Herald-Tribune analysis of shipping records found that more than 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall entered the country through more than a dozen U.S. ports since 2006, enough to build 60,000 average-sized homes.

The report said at least two American drywall manufacturers are also in disputes with Florida homeowners about corrosion and odors in their homes, which contain only domestic wallboard. Both domestic producers, Charlotte, N.C.-based National Gypsum and Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, have denied their products are to blame.

DSNews.com picked up the story on Safeguard Properties’ move to their new facility in Valley View, Ohio.

Safeguard Moves To New Ohio Headquarters

Carrie Bay | 05.13.09

Safeguard Properties has announced that its move to its new Valley View, Ohio, headquarters is complete, doubling the company’s office space and staffing capacity.

The new facility, with approximately 63,000 square feet of finished space for the company’s current 700 employees has expansion capacity to 75,000 square feet to accommodate nearly twice the number of staff. Safeguard’s previous facility in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, which the company occupied since 1999, was 33,000 square feet.

Alan Jaffa, Safeguard’s COO, said, “Safeguard has experienced consistent 10 to 15 percent year-over-year growth since its founding in 1990. Our growth in 2008 and projections for 2009 are even higher. We added 200 employees in 2008 and plan to add 125 more in 2009.”

Jaffa said Safeguard’s investment to purchase, expand, and build out the new facility was approximately $6 million, plus approximately $2 million invested in additional IT infrastructure.

The new space features an improved work flow design to allow department teams to interact and work more efficiently, additional space to enhance IT and support services, and an expanded training center for new staff and contractors. The facility also will house a full-service cafeteria and fitness facilities for employees.

Jaffa added, “This new facility is an investment in our clients, our employees, and our community. All three have been integral to Safeguard’s success, and this facility is our way to demonstrate our gratitude and our commitment today and for many years to come.”

Safeguard, founded in 1990 by the company’s CEO Robert Klein, is the largest privately held mortgage field services company in the United States. On a monthly basis, the company conducts more than 1 million property inspections and maintenance orders on defaulted and foreclosed properties nationally for mortgage service companies, banks, financial institutions, and major investors.

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