DS News

120 Florida Minority Certified Business MIAMI-DADE & BROWARD COUNTIES 786-499-6994 www.REOPitStop.com Luis@ContinentalRealtors.com RESNET ID: 106089 | Equator ID: 272261 Luis F. Guzman Broker/Owner TEXAS HUD Relief Coming to Florida and Texas, But When? In November, HUD announced a $615.9 million grant had been awarded to the State of Florida, designed to help communities in the Sunshine State recover from Hurricane Irma's damaging floods earlier this year. is comes after a mid-November grant of more than $5 billion to help Texas recover from Hurricane Harvey. Both grants are pulled from a larger $7.4 billion block that is being divided between Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and California (following that state's widespread wildfires). But how exactly will the money be distributed and used on the ground in Florida and Texas? In the case of Florida, the nearly $616 mil- lion will be distributed through the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. e grant is earmarked for housing, business losses, and damaged infrastructure, but it almost certainly won't be enough to cover every need. Of Florida's 67 counties, FEMA designated 48 of them for individual assistance. Ac- cording to the Orlando Sentinel, "in Orange, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties, more than 37,660 Irma-related insurance claims had been closed without payment—making them part of the 250,000 unpaid and closed claims statewide." According to a HUD analysis, thou- sands of middle- and lower-income Florida homeowners and renters "experienced serious damage to their residences and were not ad- equately insured for flood damage." e state is coordinating with various government officials to figure out exactly how that grant money will be disbursed. Tiffany Vause, Director of Communications for the state's Department of Economic Opportunity, also said that they will likely seek additional federal funds beyond the $615 million. ree months after Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast, the Texas Tribune reported that Texas leaders were estimating they might need as much as $121 billion in federal money to tackle damages just to public buildings and infrastructure—a figure that makes that $7.4 billion grant look like a drop in the bucket. According to the Tribune, "more than 18,000 families were still living in FEMA-paid hotel rooms as of November 13 and federal inspec- tors have visited more than 570,000 homes damaged by Harvey." Texas received more immediate federal relief from FEMA, which had spent around $1.4 billion to assist Harvey victims with short-term needs as of this writing, including $186 million toward hotel rooms for displaced residents. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program had paid out even more, paying more than $5.7 billion in claims for Texan homeown- ers who were underinsured or not covered by private insurance. Even once those HUD millions are disbursed, it will be a long road to recovery for Florida and Texas homeowners trying to pick up the pieces after hurricane season. Black Knight Launches Robotics Capabilities in the LoanSphere Empower LOS Jacksonville Florida-based Black Knight, Inc. announced that it has added robotics capabilities to its LoanSphere Empower loan origination system (LOS) to help clients maximize automation and enhance overall op- erational efficiencies throughout the loan pro- duction process. Black Knight's comprehensive Empower LOS supports the retail, wholesale, consumer direct, and home equity channels, helping lenders electronically capture, process, underwrite, and close loans. e advanced robotics capabilities in Empower are designed to facilitate auto- mated processing of certain tasks based on the lender's configuration without the need for human intervention—often referred to as "lights-out processing." is advanced technol- ogy actively monitors the LOS for key data changes—or lack of necessary changes—and triggers automated or manual tasks that need to be completed based on configurable logic, when appropriate. e robotics functionality also triggers third-party service integrations, such as flood, appraisal, and title, via lights-out processing, eliminating the need to manually perform many of the redundant tasks commonly required during loan fulfillment. For example, Empower can systematically order and review flood zone determinations, and based on predetermined rules, complete the evaluation task. If the subject property is not in a flood plain, then the evaluation task will automati- cally be checked off as completed, requiring no further action. If the subject property is in a flood plain, the system will alert the proces- sor, and automatically prepare the borrower flood notification letter. e technology offers numerous other opportunities to deploy lights- out functionality. "Empower's robotics capabilities can pro- vide significant benefits to lenders, including risk mitigation, since the advanced automation helps eliminate human errors," said Rich Ga- gliano, President of Black Knight's Origination Software division. "With robotics, more loans can be processed, enabling clients to scale their operations and lower the average origination cost per loan. Lenders can also benefit from decreased turn times and increased customer satisfaction because robotics can help lenders eliminate bottlenecks and speed up processes, creating an improved customer experience." Breaking Down Bankruptcy and Top Servicer Challenges By Katier Brewer Clayton, headquartered in Riverview, Florida, has performed more than 500,000 loan reviews of servicers and subservicers over the years. One of the most widespread issues and/or fails in the testing environment is the handling and posting of payments during bankruptcy. Managing bankruptcies is a complicated process with multiple nuances, and many servicing systems are not equipped to meet the specific compliance requirements surrounding pre- and post-petition payment application and treatment, both inside and outside of the bankruptcy plan. So, by default, servicers and subservicers have created manual workflow workarounds, which can lead to a multitude of errors. e amended Consumer Financial Protec- tion Bureau (CFPB) Mortgage Servicing Rules regarding Regulation Z, which take effect April 2018, will likely spur more issues with bankruptcy billing statements, which under the new rules will now be required for all accounts in bankruptcy. Most servicers will require new fields within their tracking

• Cover