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62 Caroline Reaves leans forward in her seat as if to tell a secret, points to three of her most senior operational executives, and says, "is is our sales team." It's hyperbole to be sure. Her company has a business development division, but her statement is said with a purpose. e secret, as it were, is that the executives around this table in her office oversee a 700-person enterprise across three time zones, and yet they make time to meet and greet clients, vendors, and contractors as if their company lives or dies by strong personal relationships. Because it does. Reaves leads Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), a national property preservation, inspection and valuation firm headquartered in the north Dallas suburb of Plano. She came to MCS as its COO in 2007 and now serves as its CEO. Also at the table is Marc Hinkle, a Philly-born SVP who came to this side of the mortgage industry from the vendor/client side and now oversees the company's vendor management, support, valuations, and REO operations. ere is Chad Mosley, who came seven years ago to oversee business development and now serves as a SVP in charge of client on- boarding—the sometimes complicated, always long-term task of meeting with clients and making sure both sides are a good fit for each other—among other functions. And there is John Maxwell, the company's COO and one of Reaves' most trusted advisors, who used to work with Reaves at First American. What's immediately apparent when sitting among this upper echelon is twofold: ese executives and coworkers are genuine friends whose relationships anchor in deep waters, and the company's de-facto sales team is exceedingly good at building relationships among its vendors, clients, and prospects. If you listen, you will hear each of these managers use terms such as "relationship building" often, but without a trace of the corporate-buzzword insincerity common at so many companies. You will also hear them credit each other for turning a longstanding regional firm into a national powerhouse that is gradually becoming the gold standard in the field industry. Mosley refers to Reaves' arrival in 2007 as one of two major game changers for the company (the other being the opening of the Plano office), while Reaves says the best thing she's done for the company is hire this executive staff, who bring a wealth of experience MCS did not have eight years ago. All agree their collective experience in the servicing industry is the key ingredient in the company's growing success in a difficult field. Since the crash of 2008, mortgage-related businesses have suffered an endless and knotty spate of federal regulations designed to keep the bottom from falling out of the economy again. ese regulations, though cumbersome, have actually benefitted savvy companies that embrace the new rules. Whether from the CFPB, HUD, or a local municipality, says Mosley, new regulations have forced companies to be "100 percent buttoned-down" in their approach to doing business while demanding best practices in every area of business, from data security to the care and management of vacant properties. e new regulatory landscape, according to Mosley, has rewritten the industry by increas- ing the scope of services companies provide and by triggering consolidation. e new scope THE PERSONAL TOUCH: BUILDING SUCCESS ONE RELATIONSHIP AT A TIME S U C C E S S F O R M U L A S / S C O T T M O R G A N DS News is proud to present a periodic series chronicling the building of successful firms.

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