The Cogsville Group Selects Management Vendor for Chicago REO Properties

FirstService Residential Realty was named the vendor to manage the renovation, maintenance and rental management of 94 single-family homes in Chicago that was purchased by The Cogsville Group from Fannie Mae.

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based FirstService Residential Realty offers a complete suite of services ranging from acquisition, market and property assessments, leasing and evictions through to disposition.

Last month, the firm merged with TenantAccess and PropertyAccess, subsidiaries of FirstService Corp. Now with the merger, FirstService Residential Realty provides property management services to more than 50,000 properties nationwide.

“We saw this as a unique opportunity to partner with The Cogsville Group to have a significant impact, both socially and economically, for families in the Chicago community,” said Greg Tolander, CEO of FirstService Residential Realty. “Part of a growing trend, The Cogsville Group fully recognizes and has embraced the potential return investors can foresee from converting foreclosed and REO properties into rental opportunities.”

The Cogsville Group acquired the properties from Fannie Mae early this week for $13.7 million as part of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s REO-to-rental initiative.

The agency claims all properties were sold “near or above market value.”

“FirstService Residential Realty is a great fit for our investors based on their local experience in Chicago and their centralized management, billing and reporting systems,” said Don Cogsville, CEO of The Cogsville Group. “With the shifting fundamentals in the housing markets, single-family residential is fast becoming an important asset class.”