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80 placed in the distressed disposition process. During this time, the courthouse served as the epicenter for all real estate auction sales, and buyers and sellers performed their due diligence using a variety of sources that proved to be time intensive and inadequate. While the strategy to purchase and sell real estate remained strong, the experience lacked the ease of use needed to expedite disposition timelines and welcome new entrants looking to buy property during auctions. It was time to evolve. e market needed a place to serve as a hub for information and one that could facilitate REO sales much faster and more efficient than before. By leveraging the internet, the online marketplace came to fill this need. e online marketplace idea itself resembled consumer- facing retail auction sites. However, unlike those sites, in auctioning real estate, these online platforms had to incorporate a new level of compliance, transparency, and ease of use. With the proper technology in place, there was no better time to provide an innovative way to bring new life into the auction process, while making the experience better for all parties involved. IMPROVING FOR BUYERS—AND SELLERS It is this same online technology that held the key to a better outcome for sellers of distressed properties. Without easy access to buyers, sellers were forced to spend more money and take more time to dispose of their assets. e internet made it possible to more easily reach a massive population of buyers who were already knowledgeable about the advantages of buying distressed real estate. Since selling bank-owned real estate is a subtly different transaction than transferring property from one consumer to another, web-based technology to facilitate these deals needed to differ from the traditional multilisting system (MLS) or consumer-facing real estate search websites by offering all of the search capabilities of these sites, along with offering insights from buyers, sellers, and credible third-party sources as well. e online auction marketplace gave buyers access to more properties with more information, enabling them to know what properties were worth sooner and what borrowers were able to likely do to cure default. When it became certain that a property would go into foreclosure, servicers began to seek the best online marketplace to dispose of those properties. ey understood this was the optimal method to reduce the disposition timeline and risks. e online auction platform made it possible to servicers to reduce their overall default servicing costs and for investors to market foreclosed properties to many more prospective bidders than they could ever attract to a live auction. is was also good for buyers as it enabled them to purchase properties confidently with greater levels of transparency and it gave them the ability to search properties in all 50 states. Online buyers could invest in the properties, fix them up themselves, and flip them for a profit or rent them out. is has led to an entire market segment for whom "e American Dream" isn't just to own a home but to own a portfolio of revenue- generating real estate assets. RELENTLESS, INNOVATIVE, FORWARD- THINKING As the saying goes, "iron sharpens iron." Successful organizations share three qualities that propel them forward: they are relentless, innovative, and forward-thinking, and I believe there is value in examining how this impacted their business. Relentless companies doggedly pursue the most optimal solution for the people they serve, whether they are consumers, investors, lenders, or servicers. In our case, it was about serving both sellers and buyers, which translates to extreme customer-centricity, deeper data insights, and a bias for action. Every organization we have seen survive—and thrive—through the last 10 years was relentless in pursuing its mission of serving its customers. Innovative companies are committed to providing customers with new opportunities and clear strategies to maximize their success. In our case, it was about providing new tools and resources that would help our customers achieve their real estate goals. For others, it meant developing new technologies and creating new business processes to allow industry participants to do more with less, faster, and in full compliance. ose that succeed change the way they operate, right down to the way they think and act. Ten years ago, buyers and sellers of real estate possessed the understanding of the strategy behind purchasing property during auction but lacked the tools to do so in the most efficient way. is created an opportunity for the industry to better prepare buyers and sellers for auction sales by leveraging the platform to provide detailed information around the asset and facilitate real- time communication prior to the auction. For us, it was about taking what we knew about buyers, sellers, and auctions to create an entirely new marketplace. For others, it was about finding new opportunities to serve the industry. ZERO EVICTIONS While we have made great progress as an industry, there are still more than 930,000 properties in foreclosure or REO nationwide, and it is estimated that a vacant property can lead to losses of approximately $150,000 in the first year, stemming from reduced property value for its neighbors, increased crime, and higher costs for emergency services. e good news is that a strong contingent of smaller real estate investors has been growing in the online marketplace for some time. ese investors are often small construction contractors or do-it-yourself consumers who enjoyed buying homes and fixing them up for sale. If the properties didn't sell, they would rent them, but they were not as sophisticated as the institutional investors at running real estate management firms. To counter this, we began identifying some of our buyers who were interesting in buying to rent (but did not have the time or inclination to market properties for rent) to consider buying foreclosed homes and immediately renting them back to the current occupants. Assuming that most borrowers in default generally didn't choose this outcome, they would prefer to cure the default and stay in a home they had chosen for all the benefits it would offer their families. If given the option, we believed they would choose to rent and stay in their homes. And they did. As the concept grew, banks across the country set a goal of zero evictions and began sending foreclosed properties to the online marketplace in the hopes that the new investors would rent them back to the original homeowners. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's a wonderful outcome for everyone involved and provides a simple, effective method to help combat blight in communities nationwide. THE NEXT 10 Over the past decade, our online marketplace has helped sell more than 285,000 residential properties nationwide worth a cumulative $33 billion. Looking back over the last 10 years reminds us of what we have accomplished as an industry. e innovative technology along with the numerous lessons learned have created an environment rich with new ideas and processes to best serve our buyers and sellers. Looking forward, it's hard not to be optimistic. With an improving economy, consumer hope is high, and consumers are ready to move forward in confidence. It's difficult to imagine all the challenges that may still lie before us, but they are out there. ose that have withstood the past 10 years have learned the value of being relentless, innovative, and opportunistic and that, as much as anything else, gives me great hope for the future of our business.

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