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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 25 able to separate what were the occupied properties and what were the vacant properties. is allowed us to start to strategize on prioritization of which properties should be inspected, the ones that definitely had a good chance of being in the storm track with a high probability of damage; versus which ones were probably not in the storm track. Even with this new technology, we still have to utilize our vendors to have boots on the ground inspecting these properties, but utilizing new technology allows us to plan and prepare and to prioritize how we react. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT SOME COMPANIES MAKE WHEN USING TECHNOLOGY? e absolute biggest mistake is that you can't solely rely on the technology in inspecting a property. ere are some high tech tools that are being used in the industry right now. ere's satellite imagery, where companies will fly airplanes and have high definition photography of areas from a very high altitude. ese things are great and there are different tools that can be used as part of the management process, but it does not replace having boots on the ground and having an actual professional property inspector visit a property, especially a vacant property. You can see from the air using planes, drones or satellite imagery to see large areas. From the air, you can see things like where there has been flooding, where there are damages, and you can see roofs very well. However, having the human element to actually be able to stand in front of that property and walk into that property can oftentimes be more accurate, it has to be a combination of both. A good example is Superstorm Sandy that hit the Northeast Coast and the amount of storm surge that was pushed into those communities in the Jersey Shore area, and even up into New York City. You could look at the roof of a property, or you could look at a property visually from a bird's eye view, and it looks like there's no damage. But as we had boots on the ground, both representatives from MCS and our vendor contractors in the area, you could walk down a street and one property would have no damage; it escaped the storm, there was no water or wind damage. But then as you approached the property right next door you could immediately see the damage from the amount of water that hit that property. We had entire structures that were pushed six to 12 inches off the foundation, to where that property became uninhabitable and that's something that you can't see from 30,000 feet. at type of damage is something that you have to have boots on the ground, you have to have an actual human element of somebody going in and visually inspecting those properties. It goes back to only relying on the technology and not including those local property inspectors actually going into those vacant properties. It's a combination of using all the tools that are available, which is really what creates and what results in the best strategy. HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY BE USED IN THE RESPONSE EFFORTS AND THE REACTION EFFORTS FOLLOWING A STORM? From a default mortgage servicing perspective, it allows us, along with our clients, to prioritize based on where the risk is at. Vacant properties are going to carry a higher risk than an occupied property that has a homeowner living in the property. ose consumers and those customers are the utmost value and the utmost concern. But a property that's been vacant or abandoned, there's nobody there, there's nobody looking after it. ere's nobody there that may be boarding up the windows or may be putting the sandbags in front of the house. From a default perspective, it allows us to analyze the storm track, overlay that with where the vacant properties are at, and make sure that we're getting boots on the ground to inspect those vacant properties. e other piece of that, of where technology can really aid in the response to a disaster is also on the performing side of the house. With all of our mortgage servicer clients on their performing book of business, most of those servicers are doing call campaigns to all of their customers that potentially could have been in the storm track. What we're able to do is take a portfolio for a customer of their performing loans and overlay those properties into our technology tool to look at the storm tracks and where the actual wind damage was, where the precipitation was or maybe where the flooding was. By looking at elevations, we're able to prioritize, and we're able to give feedback to our clients to know that they could have thousands of customers that were impacted by a storm. ink of Hurricane Irma in Florida that struck in the Keys, went inland on the Gulf Coast and then traveled straight up through the middle of Florida, all the way up through the state. You had thousands and thousands of customers that were impacted. We're now able to use our storm tracking technology to provide a tool to our clients. ey can prioritize by being able to see, these are the customers we need to start contacting first, here are the ones that probably have less risk that we can contact second and then here's the bucket of customers that we can contact towards the end of the call campaign, because there's a good probability that they didn't suffer any damage. " e absolute biggest mistake is that you can't solely rely on the technology in inspecting a property."

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