Sat Sep 23 7:14:51 EDT 2023
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Five Star: All The Usual Suspects Meet At #FraudFest 2023

Since the departure of Ed Delgado from Five Star, some years ago, any hope of meaningful discussions turned towards the commercialized pomp and circumstance most vividly portrayed in Shakespeare’s play Othello. Candidly, Delgado’s last meaningful attempt to change the Industry from being simply a black hole sucking money in was with his publication about the need for a Universal Work Order. In fact, Delgado’s paper from June 2017 was written in his then position as President and CEO of the Five Star Institute and on behalf of the National Mortgage Servicing Association (NMSA) and entitled, PROTECTING CONSUMERS AND COMMUNITIES: PROPOSAL FOR STANDARDIZATION OF KEY DEFINITIONS, GUIDANCE, AND BEST PRACTICES FOR THE PRESERVATION AND MAINTENANCE OF VACANT & ABANDONED RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES.

On Page 7 and identified as Opportunity #3, Property Inspection Report. Delgado states,

A common inspection report will improve the quality of the report, reduce the training needs for each inspector, encourage the adoption of mobile applications, and establish common industry standards. A derivative of Fannie Mae’s property inspection requirements (Form 30) and format should be utilized to consistently capture the discrete property condition attributes by all servicers and property inspection vendors. Regulators, investors, servicers, and property inspection vendors should collaborate to create a standard methodology and approach for assessing the condition of a property.

The Five Star has become more of a poor man’s IMN conference in recent years and for all intents and purposes, it has completely replaced the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) Annual Conference. In fact, other than the typo ridden NAMFS Response to CFPB Proposed Amendments to Regulation X, nothing has really been forthcoming other than their payments of over $100,000 to Gatehouse Strategies to bump pricing up a bit from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The years of $100,000+ annual payments to NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller have, for all intents and purposes, bankrupted the trade association. Recently, after the co-opting of NAMFS by Verisk with handsome benefits and payments to both the NAMFS Executive Director Miller and NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski, the former with junket trips all over the US and the latter as a paid agent, have been questioned by many for their legality and propriety. Moreover, though, the antitrust issue raised by the control of all property preservation and bidding software by Verisk and the increase of pricing, their almost single handed financing of the last NAMFS Annual Conference leaves little to the imagination.

Brookstone Management along with ZVN Properties joined with MCS to kick off trading their Cliff Notes on property preservation. It was most surprising in that both Brookstone Management and ZVN Properties are aware of MCS and their involvement with GIS Field Services and the accusations of both illegally transferring proprietary contractor information directly to GIS Field Services and that both firms are owned by Littlejohn & Co. Antitrust was alive and well and financially supported, once again, just like the NAMFS #FraudFests of old.

Denia Ray, VP of Property Preservation for ZVN Properties was Ringmaster for Kimberly Dawson, SF Collateral Risk-Real Estate Asset Management Director of Property and Field Solutions, Fannie Mae; Mike Greenbaum, COO, Safeguard Properties; Tracy Hager, SVP, MCS; and Ryan Hennessy, CIO, Guardian Asset Management. Then came Ringmaster Kerry Medel, Director of Client Engagement and Compliance Oversight, Brookstone Management  for Jim Pike, VP Field Services, Cyprexx Services LLC; Talia Ramirez, VP, Claims, Preservation and Government Servicing, Computershare Loan Services; Denia Ray, VP, Property Management, ZVN Properties; and Abigail Schuettinger, Director of Operational Excellence for Field Services, Altisource. Finally, Ringmaster Brian Flaherty, COO, Global Strategic for Micole Booker, AVP, Investor Claims Property Preservation, Flagstar Bank; Meredith Lyons, Executive Principal, Xome; Elizabeth Squires, AVP, Client Account Management, Safeguard Properties and Luis Vergara, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Product Officer, Guardian Asset Management.

Basically, it was a circle jerk of the same people blowing smoke up each other’s ass just switching seats in between forums. It was a mid level advertising event in an Industry that is rapidly imploding on itself. And it was truly sad. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent from the tens of millions of dollars stolen from Labor. And the desperation that was added to the top of these forum discussions was the totally meaningless information spewed about much like how vomit is hurled off the porches on fraternity row.

Littlejohn Owned MCS Buying Employee Based Firms

Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), a Littlejohn & Co. owned firm, has had a history of buying out its competitors and then selling itself off at bottom dollar. This expansionist strategy, recently, has begun to look more and more like an antitrust case in the making. Everyone remembers the purchase of Asset Management Specialists and then selling themselves to TDR Capital and Concentric Equity Group. After being sliced and diced, American Securities bought them out again. Then, in September of 2014, MCS purchased . . .

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What Happens If GIS Field Services Gets No Work?

The profile of National Field Network, in its final death spiral, is looking much like that of GIS Field Services today. In fact, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac are all in the loop now as the potential antitrust actions of Littlejohn and Co. come more and more into focus. And the radio silence and deletion of website pages and social media profiles by Jonathan Dedman Dietz as well as . . .

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California Fast Food Workers to Receive $20 Minimum Wage, NAMFS Contractors Get $3.50 Per Inspection

Robert Bridged Pissed And Moaned About Fair Use With Citation Of His Photo So We Decided This Was More Appropriate.

A new bill anticipated to be signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom will raise the minimum wage for most of the state's 500,000 fast food workers to at least $20 per hour by 2025. The bill, SB 15, appears to have bipartisan support. About 455,000 health care workers --- not doctors and nurses, but the people who do everything else at hospitals, dialysis clinics and other facilities --- will see their salaries rise to at least $25 per . . .

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Google’s Dominance in Search and Advertising Under Scrutiny in Antitrust Lawsuit

Eric Miller at the NAMFS Fraud Fest 2014 embracing an UNSUB

Like fleas on a dog that spread prolifically, antitrust has has been a problem in our Industry for years. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently had a chance to address it in the consolidation of software and price hikes from Verisk whom now control PPW, Pruvan, and the bid platforms used. In addition, HUD also had several unsolicited proposals submitted in accordance with FAR 15.6 attempting to address the matter. And whether or not HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge bowed to the lobbying efforts of Verisk or HUD simply . . .

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