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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 34 August 2024 C O V E R S T O R Y THE BURDEN OF PROOF MortgagePoint profiles Bron, Inc., a company that has carved out a unique niche with a focus on crucial but often-overlooked tasks such as managing registrations, utilities, and HOA verifications. B y DAV I D W H A R T O N I n any line of business, there is always competition for the required services and problems that must be solved. One key way to differentiate oneself and find a path to success is to seek out a niche where those needs are not be- ing addressed, where the work is complex or tedious or highly technical—the sorts of roles not every company is equipped to fill or wishes to expend resources on, but which still need to be done. These areas allow a company to rise to the occasion and fill a specific niche. It's in one of these areas that Bron, Inc. has found its lane. Founded in 2013 with a focus on compliance-related issues and process- es, Bron now focuses on several core business lines: » Vacant, Foreclosure, Rental & REO Registrations: Utilizing its extensive database of municipal data, Bron works to indemnify clients against any fines, penalties, and late fees that could accrue for their properties. » Utility Activations, Disconnects & Account Maintenance: Bron handles utility activations/deactivations, coordinates with property preserva- tion vendors, maintains accounts and payments, verifies utility balances, and ensures no late fees will be assessed. » HOA Verifications/Super Lien Pro- tection: Determine if a given property is subject to an HOA, confirm the status of HOA payments, and handle communication to prevent HOA foreclosures. Kevin Hamilton, CEO of Bron, told MortgagePoint, "Our specialty is focusing on the things that other people don't do, or don't do well. For the people that are our competitors, this is only a small portion of their revenue. Registrations, utilities—that's everything to us, and we back our product. We have clients that have been with us over 11 years, and in the 11 years that they've been with us, they've never had a fine, fee, late charge—nothing in 11 years with loans under our care." Todd Imwold, Bron's COO, added, "A lot of companies do [registrations], but that's our specialty. Utilities: many companies do them, but that's one of our specialties. You've got the clients, you've got the municipalities, you've got utility companies—it may take a lot of conver- sations to get something resolved. That's the space we want to work in." Find A Need, Fill a Need I n its current form, Bron owes its origins to Kevin Hamilton seeing an opportunity to address a need that he didn't believe was getting the attention it deserved. Prior to 2013, Hamilton had worked at several large national mort- gage servicers. While in this role, Hamilton got his first municipal violation and fine on a property, which he says opened his eyes to this sometimes-overlooked aspect of compliance. "I took the fine, I threw it in my drawer, and I said, 'This wasn't us.' Then I got a second one and thought, 'Maybe this is something I need to look into.'" As he navigated through trying to figure out where the breakdown had occurred and how to prevent future instances, he began to understand that while this was a comparatively small area of risk in 2013, it had the potential to become much more problematic as the number of municipal ordinances contin- ued to increase in the years following the 2008-2009 housing crash. "The first thing that happens with defaults is people stop paying their prop- D A V I D W H A R T O N , Editor-in-Chief of MortgagePoint, has two decades of experience in journalism, having built an extensive and diversified portfolio of freelance material covering the entertainment beat prior to joining Five Star in 2017. He has served as MortgagePoint's Editor-in-Chief since 2021. He can be reached at David.Wharton@thefivestar.com.