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MortgagePoint » Your Trusted Source for Mortgage Banking and Servicing News 36 August 2024 C O V E R S T O R Y erty taxes," Hamilton said. "That segues into the biggest challenge we have, too, which is the volatility of these munici- palities. The rules they come up with, how they enforce them, and what you need, are ever-changing. Even with our database, we must stay on top of it, keep up with it, and make the rules according to it. At the end of the day, the burden of proof is always on us." Most companies don't want to handle these issues internally, Hamilton ex- plained, because it's a time-consuming and expensive process. "It's millions of dollars to build a database," explained Hamil- ton—and building it is just the first step. It also must be maintained and kept current. Hamilton assembled a business proposal to build out a business unit to handle these issues of registrations and utilities, but he was met with minimal interest. Believing he had the makings of something important, he reached out to his colleague Eric Moore, now Bron's Chief Information Officer. At the time, Moore was "one of the top REO produc- ers in Southern California." Hamilton called Moore up and asked, "Hey, do you know anything about this?" Through their discussions, the two developed a process and decided there was a poten- tial business here, because, as Hamilton noted, "people need this." Hamilton predicted that as default rates increased, it could create even more opportunities for municipalities to levy fines. "They've become tougher," Hamil- ton explained. "There are more rules re- garding the ordinances and registrations, and nobody was taking responsibility [for these processes]." Hamilton's concerns proved prescient: he notes that when they began Bron in 2013, only a fraction of the municipal ordinances that Bron's database now tracks were on the books. Hamilton estimates that during that decade, the number increased from 40 to over 3,000 ordinances across the 33,000 municipali- ties the company tracks. To make matters more complicated, existing ordinances may be revised over time. It's a complex, ever-changing web that has to be closely monitored to ensure a servicer's compli- ance—and that was a niche Hamilton, Im- wold, and Moore believed they could fill. At the time they began formulating their business plan and approach, it was an uphill battle simply because access to that information wasn't always easy to get. "It's millions of dollars to build a database. and building it is just the first step. It also must be maintained and kept current." —Kevin Hamilton, CEO, Bron