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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM FIVE MINUTES WITH GET TO KNOW INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES BEYOND THE BOARDROOM Dana Dillard CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER FOR NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE Oftentimes, little is said about the professionals who take the human element of defaulting homeownership to heart. That's not true of Nationstar's Dana Dillard. A 2009 Five Star Humanitarian Award recipient, she maintains that treating customers in the most compassionate way possible is the core mission of her work. And that approach has been the hallmark of her more than two decades in the business, throughout tenures with GMAC's Residential Capital, EMC Mortgage, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, and Lomas Mortgage before she joined the Nationstar team earlier this year. What drives you to do the work that you do, laboring so tirelessly to provide at-risk and distressed homeowners with the help they need? One, it's the customers and having met with hundreds of them across the country, and hearing their stories of hardship and how challenging it can be to understand the mortgage process. My objective is to make it as easy for the customers as we can because this is a very difficult time for them. The second reason is that I see so much good in what the servicers do, and that piece never makes it into the media—you hear the bad side of how we've made a mistake, but rarely hear about how we're sitting down with borrowers and pulling out all of our tools to try to find any way possible to keep them in their homes. The good of what we do keeps me going. What new regulations have most impacted communications with homeowners? The biggest one that comes to mind is the recent revision of Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) requirements. Almost all of those requirements are to the customer's favor, and we're excited about that. Customers have struggled with getting good financial packages for modifications; there's always a lot of back and forth. The changes that have been made to HAMP related to the 4506T and tax returns, as well as how early a homeowner can receive assistance—all those things are changing and they're all for the customer's benefit. What's the biggest obstacle to achieving borrower engagement once contact has been made? Having dealt with and worked so closely with customers in financial difficulties, it's clear that they oftentimes feel overwhelmed. That's the biggest obstacle to engaging distressed homeowners—that feeling of being overwhelmed—but it's up to us to make it simple. I advise those working directly with homeowners to make it simple, to give customers both the pros and cons of their options, and to leave them with clear, specific action steps. And then as servicers, we have to do what we say we're going to do and back up any assurances of assistance with our own actions. You've been heavily entrenched in homeownership preservation efforts throughout the industry for 25 years now. How has the mindset of distressed homeowners changed over that time? I don't really think the mindset has changed. They have a willingness and ability to stay in the home, and they are engaged. I believe that customers want to do the right thing and want to make their payments every month—and if they can't, then there's a problem. It's up to us to troubleshoot that problem and offer them different suggestions. Homeowners today may be a little more savvy, but then our tools are so much more vast than they used to be. The mindset hasn't changed—the tools have changed. 27