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47 How are you and your team working to improve efficiencies within the industry to attract and retain new talent and improve the economic model for those that have remained in this sector? SingleSource leverages its 20,000 national brokers to support our field service network. We have customized dynamic property inspection forms that are easy to complete regardless of the vendor's core competency and expertise. Increased vendor flexibility while maintaining high- quality control has become crucial. SingleSource continues to enhance its field service technology platform to maximize results and automate and reduce processing times. SingleSource is working with our clients to get more equitable fee structures. We have been successful at negotiating several client payment structures, which is a positive start. SingleSource has also offered to support NAMFS with industry pricing adjustment initiatives. Additionally, we have signed the NAMFS pledge, a commitment to ensuring that any price adjustment is shared with our contractor network. We are aware that other nationals are discussing options like reducing required insurance vendors' coverage limits just to make the barriers to entry more feasible for smaller contracting companies, but this does not feel like a viable option. Reducing insurance limits would be tricky to navigate when home prices and material costs are increasing. One thing we have heard about is an ongoing demographic shift to a higher concentration of rural versus urban properties that go through the foreclosure sale process and are taken by the investors/insurers back into inventory. Have you seen this, and if so, what challenges are presented by this higher concentration of properties in "hard to serve" areas? ere is an increase in properties located in hard-to-reach areas. Urban properties are usually closer together than those in rural locations. A contractor covering a metropolitan area with many properties nearby can reach more homes within a single day. A vendor covering a rural area may spend more time driving than conducting work in a day's time. eir billable results are not comparable. e farther away the property, the more gas and labor time needed to get there. Drive time is not factored into pricing models with investors or clients. Typically, we would try to maximize a vendor's trip so they will travel with a trailer, and we would do as much work as possible to limit the amount of back and forth. e challenge with this strategy is the timing of bid requests. Not all work needed at a property can be completed until a bid request is submitted to a client or investor for approval. Sometimes this can result in multiple trips to the same property. We always want to maximize vendor trips, but this is not always possible if the safety and security of a home are at risk. Increased vacancies in remote areas pose their own set of issues. Rural vacant homes can be at a greater risk of vandalism because fewer neighbors are passing by the properties. is can result in minor incidents where small re-securing tasks are needed, meaning more drive time for smaller jobs like a minor rekey, or window boarding. Kellie Chambers EVP, MSI Solutions What regulatory issues or impacts are most challenging for the property preservation sector? How are you navigating them? e most impactful regulatory issue has been national forbearance moratoriums. ese moratoria distorted the market through disruption to the boots on the ground preserving assets and reducing the velocity or turnover in the market, thereby reducing both housing supply and preservation volume. We'll continue to navigate the respective challenges through partnerships with servicers, attorney networks, and industry sponsors like e Five Star Institute to educate the policymakers and help guide future language for the inclusion or exclusion of specific scenarios to lessen the impact on communities and homeownership rates. "Many of our larger vendor partners have reduced their coverage footprint. These vendors, once titans in their regions, have reshaped into smaller companies with more concentrated coverage." —Stacey Bayley SVP, Sales and Performance Management, SingleSource