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44 The Exchange Elizabeth Squires joined Safeguard in 2011 as an REO specialist and has continued to take on additional duties and responsibilities within the organization, including client account representative, business analyst, supervisor, and manager all within the Client Account Team. Squires has also successfully partnered with clients to coordinate multiple IT Integration projects that help improve efficiency and optimize processes. She spoke to DS News about what challenges are currently facing the property preservation sector. Editor's note: a version of this interview previously appeared in an episode of the DS5: Inside the Industry webcast. What are the primary challenges the property preservation sector has faced this past year? With foreclosure and eviction moratoriums, we have seen a decrease in the amount of volume that would feed into certain services, including the post-sale FHA space. Right now we are working and being strategic with clients to work through the current volume and ensure that we're on track so that, once we see an increase in volume, everyone's prepared, and we can efficiently execute and ensure high performance for on-time conveyance. Also, we partner with our clients to make sure that we have the right controls in place to prevent certain types of work for properties on forbearance plans where the client dictates. We just rolled out additional functionality in our safety-access system to control workflow by department, be that inspection, seasonal, or maintenance, which is really crucial and key to our clients to ensure they have those types of controls, especially when borrowers are on certain types of plans where you want to make sure that you restrict workflow where it dictates. What are the primary headwinds you expect to face this year? Will it just be a continuation of what we've seen or new challenges? It comes down to volume. ere is no crystal ball to know if and when it will hit. So we're preparing so that we can absorb any influx of volume. But it's important to prepare for the unknown since every prognosticator has a different opinion on the anticipated foreclosure volume. It's also just working with clients to ensure that we're keeping that compliant to GSE expectations. If there's any changes to guidelines, we need to be really nimble to ensure we update our systems and platforms. It's a unique situation we find ourselves in within property preservation. Our issues in volume are subject to drastic changes based on many external factors. Sometimes they're challenges we've faced before like the natural disasters, but other times they're unforeseen challenges like the pandemic we're currently facing. So it's just about partnering and communication and working together as an industry … to make sure that we're all on the same page, tackling these challenges together. Elizabeth Squires Director of Client Account Management, Safeguard Properties Get to Know Industry Executives Beyond the Boardroom "We're preparing so that we can absorb any influx of volume. But it's important to prepare for the unknown since every prognosticator has a different opinion on the anticipated foreclosure volume."