Open Door Institute has named Art Acosta president of the resource group for the REO industry.

"Art is a leader in the real estate industry who is respected by his peers as well as property sellers and managers," said David Parrish, CEO of Open Door Institute and Real Estate Educate. "As a member of our advisory council, Art played a pivotal role in expanding our resource network. His passion for real estate and for keeping Open Door an inclusive network made him a clear choice."

Acosta is the owner of ERA Regency Realtors, which provides services for lenders, loan servicing companies and outsourcers. He serves San Bernardino and Riverside counties and parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties in California.

His background includes service on a variety of industry boards, including REOMAC and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. He has also served as vice president of the National REO Brokers Association and director of NRBA's western region.

"I'm honored to be selected as president of Open Door Institute," Acosta said. "I've been involved with Open Door since its inception, serving on the advisory council, and I'm excited about our mission. Nobody else is doing what we're doing. Anyone can be a member of Open Door, even consumers. We aim to represent the whole spectrum of the real estate industry, and I believe that's what sets us apart and will continue to strengthen our membership and the services we offer."

St. Louis-based Open Door Institute is a resource network for real estate professionals, consumers and investors to support communication throughout the industry. The institute provides educational and networking opportunities that help industry professionals grow and develop their businesses.

On the consumer side, it promotes education to empower homebuyers and foster long- term homeownership. Real Estate Educate provides online training to financial institutions, real estate professionals and homebuyers.

Write to Kerry Curry.

Fannie Mae and the U.S. Army today announced a new initiative to support borrowers in the service or military families suffering from a death or injury who are having trouble paying their mortgage. Under Fannie Mae's "Unique Hardships" guidelines, military personnel will be protected by a mortgage payment forbearance of up to six months.

"The men and women of our Armed Forces have shown extraordinary commitment to our country while facing unique challenges as a result of their service," said Jeff Hayward, senior vice President of Fannie Mae’s National Servicing Organization.

"No family impacted by a death or injury in the line of duty should have to face the additional burden of foreclosure as a result of the hardship," he said.

With the forbearance, a mortgage company can reduce or suspend monthly payments for service members or surviving spouses for up to six months. The credit bureaus reporting on these families will be suspended to minimize any derogatory impact to their credit scores.

Fannie Mae also announced the creation of a special mortgage guidance hotline military families can use to receive information about their options and enlist assistance.

Write to Christine Ricciardi.

Equator Financial Solutions has developed a new segmentation module to evaluate strategies for loans that are more than 60 days delinquent that it plans to launch later this year. The software provider for the default servicing industry also has a new invoicing module that is under review by five servicers, it says.

Equator CEO Chris Saitta sat down with HousingWire during the recent Five Star Default Servicing Conference and Expo in Dallas to unveil the new services and recap the company's success with its still relatively new short sale platform.

The segmentation module is an automated strategy that runs financial analysis like net present values and performs a check of government regulations to produce a recommendation on how a servicer should handle the delinquent loan. It suggests disposition via a short sale, deed-in-lieu or loan modification, including looking into the viability of the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, and Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, known by its acronym HAFA.

The automated system can also tap into Equator's borrower portal to get the homeowner's financials to help determine the best course of action. The segmentation module gives servicers back-end administration to change the decision rules at any time, Saitta said.

Equator's new invoicing module provides an automated, rules-based method to track invoices. Under the system, a servicer can set its own rules to provide for faster reimbursements.

For example, a servicer could set up the system to approve lawn mowing every 30 days. If it receives a bill for cutting the grass once a week, it would automatically be rejected and flagged, but invoices that fall within the parameters would automatically be approved, thus speeding up the reimbursement process.

The servicer can also input an acceptable price range for reimbursements, and invoices that fall outside the range would be rejected and flagged for personal attention while those within the range would automatically be approved.

The process allows servicers to set different rules for each portfolio and automatically identifies related expenses to find anomalies, Saitta said.

Saitta also got HousingWire up to speed on its short sale module. Equator launched a short sale platform for lenders Nov. 1. It followed up with its HAFA treasury short sale platform April 5. HAFA Fannie and Freddie were added August 5.

Since the launch, 400,000 short sales have been initiated in the system, Saitta said. Short sales in the system currently take 114 days from the initial point of contact until funds are received post closing, he said.

That length for the short sale transactions has risen because of aged properties in the system, but Saitta said he expects the timeline for short sales to level off at about 114 to 115 days. Three major servicers are using the short sale platform and another three are expected to come onboard in the next few months, Saitta said.

"Short sales have been a phenomenal success," he said.

Write to Kerry Curry.