DS News

12 Rayman Mathoda brings more than 20 years' experience to her role at Xome, which includes overseeing the company's growth throughout all segments, including the expansion of third-party opportunities across the exchange, title, valuation, and field services businesses and the transition of the recently acquired Assurant Mortgage Solutions business. Prior to being appointed as CEO at Xome, Mathoda was Co-CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at Genesis Capital LLC, one of the nation's leading specialty finance companies focused on commercial loans in residential real estate markets. She spoke with DS News on the evolution of the real estate industry, how technology is shaping the field-services business, and the real estate trends she foresees in 2019. What have you learned about the real estate market during the more than 20 years you've been in this industry? I have learned that notwithstanding the significant impact of both data and technology on real estate and mortgage finance—which I believe is now accelerating at a pace like we've never seen before—that real estate has and continues to be both local and cyclical. At the local neighborhood level, supply and demand characteristics for both purchase and rental continue to define pricing standards, as they have over the last 20 years. While consumer demand for real estate ebbs and flows with economic cycles (particularly employment and income trends), the dominant driver of real estate cycles are mortgage interest rates and credit. e desire for homeownership continues to be a significant part of the American dream, and today we are seeing technology and data finally start to transform the consumer experience on the real estate and mortgage transaction side. How has the role of women in housing evolved from the time you entered the industry? Women have always been key influencers in our industry and today we're seeing more women playing a significant role in the real estate sector. Although I'd like to see more of this in the real estate technology space, the influence of women has undoubtedly increased in the last 20 years. More broadly, I believe it's time for us to see a female HUD Secretary and FHA Commissioner—two of the most visible leadership roles in real estate. How is technology reshaping the third- party exchange and field services business? Technology is the foundation of the real estate exchange and auction business. Today with more innovative use of big data by players such as Xome, who both understand and know how to leverage this data, we can start to create better outcomes for all stakeholders in transactions related to foreclosure or REO properties. e field services business is still largely an old-school business, where technology is primarily utilized within workflow tools designed to manage the field services value chain from servicers to property service providers. However, we're seeing that the field services business is also starting to re-invent, using data to supplement the existing workflow automation by creating better and more timely property level decisions to reduce exposure to risk and meet goals. What real estate market trends do you foresee impacting the market in 2019? is year will be a transitional one for real estate. Although fundamentally we are in a healthy place post-crisis, we're facing significant headwinds in the form of rising mortgage rates and constricted supply of real estate listings. Constricted real estate supply has been driving up home prices and rising mortgage rates are increasing homeownership costs even more. In 2019, housing affordability will be the number one issue and players who attack this problem "There is a real need in the industry to build efficiencies to reduce timelines and improve accuracy. We will see companies combining data analytics with streamlined workflows to reduce manual input and duplication while increasing transparency and advanced decision-making." FIVE MINUTES WITH GET TO KNOW INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES BEYOND THE BOARDROOM Rayman Mathoda CEO, Xome Holdings LLC

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