I just got back this week from the 2008 REOMAC Fall Conference in Hollywood, Florida.  The event was attended by approximatley 2,000 industry people including asset managers, portofolio managers, REO brokers, attroneys and service provides.  The event was more than half the size of thhe 5 Star Conference in Dallas last month.  This gave the setting a much more intimate feeling and I was able to have more in depth conversations with attendees.

Some of the asset management companies that i was able to talk with included Old Republic Default Servicing, Lighthouse, Citi, Asset Management Servicing, LLC, Keystone Asset Management, Phoenix Asset Management and US Real Estate Services.

I also networked with many other REO brokers.  One broker, Bob Siegmeth of the Seigmeth Team, really impressed me.  Bob was an Asset Manager for IndyMac for many years and has transitioned into a REO broker.  He has about 15 years of REO experience and really has an incredible understanding of asset management business.  In just six months, he has built an impressive team of agents managing over 70 REOs.

The biggest lesson that I leared from the REOMAC event was that change is inevitable.  Lenders are constantly shuffling assets around from one management company to another.  The business is always going to be in a state of flux and it is extremely important to attend these types of events to stay on top of what is going on in the market and continuing to learn best practices.

Sincerely,
Mark Shandrow
ShandrowGroup