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VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM increased 6.8 percent, and San Bernardino is up 1.2 percent. Both counties have also seen a decrease in REO saturation, with San Bernardino's REO sales as a percentage of all sales nearly cut in half, while Maricopa's REO saturation rate has been reduced 66.6 percent. While the two counties do have their differences, Clear Capital stated they appear to be on similar trajectories in terms of healing from severe price declines and high REO saturation rates. Clear Capital concluded that San Bernardino has the potential to continue in the positive direction, and thus may be able to alleviate some of the negative equity homeowners are currently facing without the use of eminent domain. PennyMac Announces Pricing of 15M Shares nounced in mid-August that it priced 15 million common shares for public offering. Accord- ing to a company release, PennyMac will use proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the purchase price of a portfolio of residential mortgage loans. The capital raised will also be used to grow the company's lending business and acquire additional mortgage loans. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust an- Citigroup, and Credit Suisse Securities acted as underwriters for the offering. Underwriters were given a 30-day option from the August 17 date of the offering to purchase up to an additional 2,250,000 shares. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust serves as a mortgage real estate investment trust that invests primarily in residential mortgage loans and mortgage-related assets. The company is headquartered in Moorpark, California. Equator Launches EQforeclosure for Servicers EQforeclosure, the mortgage industry's first streamlined, transparent platform for managing the entire foreclosure process. With EQforeclosure, mortgage servicers' foreclosure and bankruptcy teams have direct access to attorneys and other parties involved in proceedings without a third-party vendor directing the process. "As we've seen from recent media reports, there have been some hard lessons learned by Equator announced the release of servicers and attorneys who process foreclo- sures through a third-party," Equator CEO Chris Saitta said. "With EQforeclosure, we've eliminated the need for third-party involvement. The result is a much smoother, much more transparent workflow that leads to safer and faster outcomes." EQforeclosure gives servicers the ability servicers, real estate agents, and other mortgage and real estate professionals. Final Homeowners' Rights Bills Passed by California Legislature to customize the process based on needs, al- lowing pre-foreclosure rule changes, state-by- state status configuration, and flexible report cards. Before developing EQforeclosure, Equator surveyed servicers and attorneys to find out what type of foreclosure solution was needed in the marketplace. EQforeclosure provides servicers with access to all of the company's attorney networks and 26,000 vendor companies through the EQmarketplace—the Equator platform used to electronically order and receive services in a secure, Web-based environment. EQforeclosure also integrates with all major servicing and vendor platforms. "The demand for a better foreclosure solu- tion has skyrocketed with longer foreclosure timelines, increasing requirements from government entities, and the need to avoid 'headline exposure,'" Equator COO John Vella said. "EQforeclosure gives servicers a much cleaner process that meets the strict demands of today's environment." The company also announced the launch Harris issued a statement at the end of August, announcing the final pieces of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights passed out of both legislative chambers and on to the governor for enactment. SB 1474, authored by Sen. Loni Hancock California Attorney General Kamala (D-Berkeley), grants Harris' office the ability to convene statewide grand juries to inves- tigate and indict perpetrators of financial crimes involving victims in several counties. AB 1950, authored by Assemblymember Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) extends, the statute of limitations for mortgage-related crimes from one to three years, giving the Department of Justice a bigger window to fully investigate and prosecute complex mort- gage fraud crimes. Just days before the final two bills were cleared by lawmakers on August 30, Gov. Brown signed into law another component of its servicer-specific training program, en- abling mortgage servicers to train real estate agents on their own short sale and REO pro- cesses and standards. The training is provided through Equator's EQ platform and can be customized to each servicer's requirements, helping to enhance compliance, performance, and the borrower experience based on the servicer's individual objectives. As part of the program, Equator creates 23 YEARS IN REAL ESTATE 10 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN REO and produces servicer-approved materials such as manuals, videos, and task guidelines. Equator says its new training offering is de- signed to help servicers reduce costs, increase standards awareness, reduce complaints, and elevate quality. "It's one thing for real estate agents to have a strong track record of handling short sales and REOs, but it's quite another to meet the servicer's unique standards and workflows," Saitta explained. "Our servicer-specific train- ing adapts to any servicer's program, ensuring that agents who receive certification from a particular servicer will be more prepared to handle any assignment that comes from that servicer." Equator, based in Los Angeles, provides default software solutions for lenders, 20955 Pathfi nder Road, Suite 100 Diamond Bar, CA 91765 Phone 909-860-5540 Cell 951-315-7327 Fax 909-860-8470 mr.sold007@yahoo.com www.garycarterrealtor.com 81