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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 27 weigh heavily into a borrower's trust of a servicer and willingness to cooperate if something goes wrong, so we all need to focus on becoming more sophisticated on social media. e industry also needs more partnership with social media platforms, so we can encourage a communications process that always gives servicers a chance to satisfy a borrower. You have spoken about doing more with less through automation. What kind of innovations are in the pipeline for servicers in the coming years? Virtual assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa, will revolutionize servicing in the next decade. Servicers are positioned to benefit from the growing ubiquity of this technology because we have been doing business for years through automated phone systems that force us to continuously refine how we provide service through voice interactions. Virtual assistants allow us to deploy the same functionality to people's living rooms, mobile phones, and kitchen counters, but with a flexibility that allows us to offer new features that were impossible to think of just a few years ago. What do you love most about your role at LoanCare and what parallels have you drawn from your previous experiences? Our sole business at LoanCare is subservicing mortgages. Our job is to add value to our clients' brands through our service. ey depend on us to convert bad situations with borrowers into good ones. is pure purpose makes decisions about our culture, technology, and people easier. I can always test a project, hire, or partner by evaluating how it helps the brands of our clients. In other roles I have held, servicing has been one of many functions that had to compete for attention and resources. at's just not the case at LoanCare. Servicing is what matters. It comes first. "Virtual assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa, will revolutionize servicing in the next decade. Servicers are positioned to benefit from the growing ubiquity of this technology." Protecting Your Properties. Protecting You. NFROnline.com • 800-639-2151 Nationwide Property Inspections and Preservation Inspections Preservation Insurance Loss Inspections REO Services Violation Management Utility Management Vacant Property Registrations Foreclosure Registrations Special Services THE STATE OF HOMEOWNER CREDIT e average debt to income (DTI) ratio rose to its highest level since 2009 in Q 4 2018, according to CoreLogic. Despite the increase, the average loan-to-value ratio (LTV) during this time was unchanged from a year earlier. Additionally, the average credit score was about the same. e rise in DTI ratios may reflect the growing affordability pressures for homebuyers in the face of rising mortgage rates in the latter months of 2018, according to CoreLogic. Fannie Mae began accepting mortgages with LTV ratios up to 97% in December 2014, and then raised its DTI ratio level from 45% to 50% in July 2017, while Freddie Mac began accepting LTV ratios up to 97% in March 2015. Average credit scores for homeowners with CC home-purchase loans fell by one point year-over-year in Q 4 2018, but Corelogic noted that on average, credit scores are higher than pre-recession levels. "For example, the average credit score of homebuyers was 705 in 2001, but dramatically rose during the Great Recession in 2008, and was 754 in the fourth quarter of 2018," Corelogic stated. "In addition to high credit score standards, those high DTI and LTV loans in 2018 were fully documented and are thus different than the pre-housing crash high DTI and LTV loans, in which many of the latter were low/no documentation loans." While DTI is high, delinquency is down and home equity is up, according to CoreLogic's latest Loan Performance Insights report. e report noted that delinquency and foreclosure rates are lower across the country, but some areas are still feeling the impact of recent natural disasters.

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