Field services

The move further diversifies a company working to grow beyond its roots in what is currently a small — but possibly expanding — single-family distressed market.

Combining the two property preservation firms brings specialized technology and capabilities that Five Brothers has to MCS and broadens the operations of both.

The agreement, which is extended for five years, also expands upon the delinquent mortgages services Altisource will provide to Ocwen.

MCS isn’t the only distressed mortgage services entity gaining interest from investors as poor economic conditions threaten more hardships for homeowners.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions is adding its online "for sale by owner" real estate platform to the list of noncore businesses it is shutting.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions cut its previous-quarter net loss by 49% in its most recent fiscal period, when property maintenance revenue and new Hubzu real estate auction site inventory increased.

The city of Savannah, Ga., more than doubled the number of properties targeted with a blight tax this year in a continued attempt to reduce the amount of unsafe and unsightly structures throughout its neighborhoods.

Bank of America allows foreclosed houses in black and Hispanic neighborhoods to fall into disrepair even as it studiously maintains bank-owned homes in white areas, housing activists allege.

Robert Klein, the son of Holocaust survivors who went on to build an empire in the property preservation industry, died on May 3. He was 65.

Sledgehammered by the foreclosure crisis, drug dealing and other crimes, some Dayton, Ohio, neighborhoods are too far gone even for the Montgomery County Land Bank to use its limited resources for demolitions.