While running her business as an REO agent, Lauren Roberts faced challenges such as barely breaking even when managing nearly 300 properties. The real estate industry veteran realized she needed to do something differently in order to have a successful career.
Therefore, Roberts, who has spent 25 years on both the corporate side and as a broker, developed REO Maestro in 2001. This is a software product that allows real estate professionals the ability to track, report, organize and automate every step of the REO property life cycle from occupancy to closing.
“Technology has come to the forefront as the top-performing professionals adapt to new environments, target new opportunities and adopt best practices to produce more revenue with fewer resources,” said Roberts, member manager of Realis Real Estate Software based in Denver, which is the new corporate brand name for REO Maestro.
Instead of relying upon a manual system using hard files and Excel spreadsheets which is not cost effective, REO Maestro gives agents the ability to promote tasks in a Web-based system based on a client’s business needs even before they are assigned by the company.
REO Maestro has simplified and organized all workflows associated with marketing and managing bank-owned properties.
“The life of an REO agent is really about finding preferred status in each of the agent networks they belong, whether that’s an outsourcing company or a servicer,” Roberts told Mortgage Servicing News. “It can take you literally years to find preferred status with your client base and could take about a nanosecond to lose that preferred status. REO Maestro is a technology solution that enables you to stay one step ahead of your clients needs.”
The REO Maestro platform can scale within large and small operations, and has the flexibility to perform a variety of mission-critical functions across the real estate industry’s vertical markets and specialty areas. REO Maestro provides quick, at-a-glance, views to property, occupant, BPO, monthly marketing reports, listing history, offer detail, notes and fees all in one system.
Since there are many expenses for REO agents to deal with when maintaining a vacant property, such as preparing the house to go on market, removing debris or possessions, transferring the utilities and retaining the property, REO Maestro automatically records these expenses to try and limit the write-offs associated with these transactions between the agent and the bank.
Other features the platform does is that it imports all case notes into an Outlook program for historical purposes, tracks a client’s vendors and leverages a client’s listing properties and offers to their personal website.
“I can’t imagine handling REO any other way than using a software because it meets needs better than a manual system,” Roberts said. “A manual system simply cannot effectively do the necessary tasks required for an asset manager. The expectation of the client is too great.
“I find technology to be empowering. I could track every aspect of my team’s performance and report that back to my client in a proactive manner,” she added. “This product has created synergy and a level of accountability that we could not have on a manual system because it would take too much time to go back through and pull all the hard files.”
