Stewart Lender Services (STC) launched a nationwide rental property management service, Rental Management Solutions, just in time to address pending government programs.
The service is aimed at mortgage lenders, servicers and investors and will combine SLS’s existing expertise with the on-site presence of a local property manager. Jason Nadeau, president of SLS, said this program is a “natural transition” for the company.
“With our REO property management expertise, REO marketing savvy, and knowledge of the local markets, we are able to quickly deploy rental solutions both in overseeing our clients’ existing REO portfolios, as well as with their new REO assets,” he said.
Ken Blevins, CEO of PMH Financial, a Stewart company, said the program “addresses pending government programs, offers a compliant rental solution to expediently place qualified renters into vacant homes, helps to alleviate the overhead of managing vacant REO properties and aids in restoring communities heavily hit by the mortgage crisis,” he said.
In August 2011, the Obama administration began working on new strategies for how to better sell previously foreclosed homes held by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, which it said at the time may include renting more REO.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development put out a request for information, seeking new ideas from market participants for selling REO. Currently, the government owns roughly half of the REO inventory in the U.S.
More than 4,000 proposals flooded in for consideration.
The FHFA recently said it would begin to pre-qualify investors who want to acquire and rent out real estate owned properties from the FHFA.
