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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 63 e mortgage servicing industry is at an interesting crossroads. Still faced with heightened regulations, the industry has shifted its focus to maintaining recovery from the recent housing crisis and evolving its processes to address these new regulations and guidelines. e servicing industry is building stronger relationships and uniform property requirements with investors and communities as another avenue to making the industry stable, including the new investor guidelines being released this year that include suggestions and best practices from servicing and property preservation industry officials. With this juncture in the housing market, mortgage field services companies also find themselves on the edge of a new era. While much of the scrutiny these past few years has caused those companies to utilize additional time and resources to implement new processes, it also has helped them build better businesses. rough servicing client audits, field servicers were able to find flaws and correct issues. But many went beyond the requirements and also were able to highlight best practices and help make them industry standards. National field services companies, like Safeguard Properties, have the opportunity in 2016 to set the tone for the evolving servicing industry through investments in new technologies, taking advantage of the collaboration between investors, servicers and communities by implementing preservation standards that mirror neighborhood benchmarks, and by utilizing new investor guidelines set to be released this year that will help them protect and preserve properties at a higher level. INVESTING IN NEW TECHNOLOGY Although video has been around for some time, it was not until it was made available on mobile devices that the field services industry really began examining its use in the field. Having the ability to report damages and receive bid approvals in almost real-time provides a more efficient way of mitigating issues and implementing additional quality controls. And although video will never replace photo documentation, it will be utilized to provide more detailed evidence of damages and issues at properties. Our company has been testing video's feasibility in the field for some time and will release applications for their inspector and contractor networks to utilize it day-to-day this year. e ultimate goal with video is for inspectors and contractors to be able to utilize it in real-time, like Facetime or Skype, while in the field. In the meantime, the tests show that video and audio services can be recorded utilizing a mobile device and streamed back to the company. An employee receives an email that the video is ready for viewing and can call the inspector or contractor while still on-site at the property to discuss any issues or damages. COVER STORY INDUSTRY INSIGHT SUCCESS FORMUL A INDUSTRY INSIGHT TONE THE

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