Field services

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has signed a bill that will expedite foreclosures of vacant and abandoned properties this fall.

The days of vacant, distressed homes covered in sheets of plywood appear numbered, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac move toward greater adoption of polycarbonate "clear boarding" to secure foreclosure properties.

Kentucky has a property problem and Henderson is no exception. Some property owners let their grass grow past 10 inches. Unsafe structures are not secured or boarded up. The list or problems goes on.

Years after the worst of the housing crisis, states still dealing with high foreclosure activity are weighing laws to speed the process on vacant or abandoned properties.

Robeson County, N.C., is losing needed revenue by not taking foreclosure action sooner against property owners who have not paid taxes, according to Commissioner David Edge.

On the eve of delivering money to help flood victims rebuild their homes, the federal agency is demanding Louisiana repay $6.6 million because of sloppy handling of funds for building low- and moderate-income housing over the past decade.

Ohio has prohibited the use of plywood to board up certain vacant or abandoned properties in foreclosure.

The National Fair Housing Alliance and 20 local fair housing groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Fannie Mae over its maintenance and marketing of foreclosure properties.

Two consumer advocacy groups in California have accused CIT Group's OneWest Bank of failing to provide mortgages and other financial services in minority neighborhoods.

Condominium associations cannot afford to take on the potential legal risk that reporting delinquent borrowers to the credit bureaus would bring.

Prepayment speeds were lifted to a 12-month high in June thanks to historically low interest rates, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

New York's State Assembly has passed legislation that seeks to address problems related to preforeclosure vacant and abandoned properties.

Servicers are taking a much-needed hard look at the full range of customer touch-points that they operate, and NMN's 10th annual Mortgage Servicing Conference promises to offer an engaging agenda of hottest trends and topics.

Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, agreed to pay $1.2 billion to resolve claims related to its Federal Housing Administration mortgage practices.

SingleSource Property Solutions in Canonsburg, Pa., has merged with iMortgage Services in Pittsburgh.

Stewart Information Services Corp., a Houston-based title insurance underwriter, has launched a companywide rebranding effort to support other growth initiatives.

Investor expectations for preparing real estate owned properties for conveyance vary wildly and demand a tailored approach from servicers.

Servicers should make some simple requests of their tech vendors to tailor compliance systems to their needs and avoid the headaches of overhauling compliance systems.

LRES in Orange, Calif., and OSC in Kennesaw, Ga., have partnered to broaden their offerings of real estate services.

Real estate owned managers can differentiate themselves and earn more business by bringing focus back to distressed property rehabilitation.