REO Gets Noticed in Mortgage Field Services Market.(real estate owned preservation)

Experts say the relatively young mortgage field services industry is fast evolving into a self-regulated marketplace that sees further growth in areas like real estate owned preservation.

"REOs are an emerging area of the mortgage field servicing business in it's own right," Alan W. Bunker, president and CEO of Spectrum Field Services, Inc. and past president of the National Association of Mortgage Field Services told MSN.

An emerging trend within the MFS industry that will continue in 2007 is the consolidation of the REO "as a very defined segment of the marketplace," he said.

"If you go back even one or two years ago, that work was being done but not to the extent where you would say: It is a segment of the industry," he explained. "It is an emerging segment of the industry and that I think is a very significant development."

Until a few years ago, the focus of property preservation was pre-foreclosure work, argued current NAMFS president Paul Magaha, compared to the after-foreclosure or REO preservation trend "that has made foreclosed properties very much part of our industry."

Education is another trend both executives believe will continue in 2007.

"Probably the most important thing regarding the mortgage field services industry in 2007 will be education, training and certification," Mr. Bunker said.