Posted by on June 14, 2011 07:29 AM

Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services and Vendor Resource Management scooped up multiple awards at HousingWire's annual Pinnacle celebration.

Wells Fargo/Premiere won four Pinnacles and VRM won three and one runnerup award.

The Pinnacle Awards, now in its second year, recognizes the nation’s top real estate management firms and corporate real estate departments. Winners are chosen via an extensive survey data involving thousands of real estate agents and brokers nationwide.

"At their core, the Pinnacle Awards celebrate real estate sales expertise, a skill set absolutely fundamental to our nation’s recovery," said Paul Jackson, publisher of HousingWire. "In particular, these awards recognize excellence in REO sales management — a specialized area of real estate sales that often goes unnoticed, but remains critical to the future stabilization of our nation’s housing."

More than 2,200 real estate professionals participated in the survey underlying the awards program, generating more than 1.4 million data points that served as the basis for Pinnacle Awards consideration. Agents and brokers rated up to five corporate sellers they regularly list properties for, spanning dimensions including staff professionalism, closing processes and listing practices.

An outside firm, M/A/R/C Research, conducts the survey and analyzes the data on behalf of HousingWire.

"This awards program gives the REO specialists an opportunity to voice their thoughts about the firms they list homes for," said Richard Bitner, associate publisher of HousingWire. "We will continue to build upon this survey, bringing needed transparency to the market."

The awards program recognized first and runnerup winners across 12 different categories, including a major servicer category that assessed broker/agents' perception of real estate performance at the nation's largest financial institutions: Bank of America ($13.21 0%), CitiMortgage ($50.53 0%), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac/HomeSteps, JPMorgan Chase ($53.35 0%), and Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services ($40.01 0%).

Complete survey results are available to firms and investors interested in benchmarking real estate management performance across peers, clients and competitors.

2011 Pinnacle Award winners

Best Listing Practices, Servicer

Winner: Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services

Runner up: Freddie Mac/HomeSteps

Best Listing Practices, Outsourcer

Winner: Vendor Resource Management

Runner up: LRES Corp.

Best Closing Process, Servicer

Winner: Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services

Runner up: OneWest

Best Closing Process, Outsourcer

Winner: Vendor Resource Management

Runner up: LRES Corp.

Most Professional Servicer

Winner: Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services

Runner up: Freddie Mac/HomeSteps

Most Professional Outsourcer

Winner: New Vista Asset Management

Runner up: Vendor Resource Management

Most Improved Servicer

Winner: Aurora Loan Services

Runner up: Fannie Mae

Most Improved Outsourcer

Winner: NRT REOExperts

Runner up: Nationwide REO Brokers

Best Overall, Major Servicer

Winner: Wells Fargo/Premiere Asset Services

Runner up: Freddie Mac/HomeSteps

Best Overall, Bank Servicer

Winner: OneWest

Runner up: Fifth Third Bank

Best Overall, Non-Bank Servicer

Winner: Select Portfolio Servicing

Runner up: Nationstar Mortgage

Best Overall, Outsourcer

Winner: Vendor Resource Management

Runner up: New Vista Asset Management

Write to Kerry Curry.

Follow her on Twitter @communicatorKLC.