Equi­Trax Asset Solutions, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based national property valuation firm, announced it joined a consortium of companies that serve as a clearinghouse for short sale opportunities to mortgage servicers. Led by Irvine, Calif.-based REsource Asset Management, the free service connects servicer/lenders to real estate agents, homeowners, title/closing agents, valuation companies and other parties required to structure, process and close a short sale. As a member of this consortium, Equi-Trax will provide broker price opinions (BPOs) other valuation services to the consortium and its clients. Typical procedures or lender loss mitigation departments call for the worst cases to be handled first, leaving distressed borrowers who might otherwise be eligible for a short sale waiting for an overworked staff to address their cases. But according to REsource Asset Management data, short sales can reduce investor losses by up to 25% over traditional real estate owned (REO) recoveries. “Financial institutions are poorly equipped to accomplish short sales, even though they know it will reduce the loss severity in almost every case,” said Guy Taylor, Equi­Trax CEO. “Servicers are dealing with hundreds of short sale requests daily and most companies operating in the space are not experienced or well qualified. Servicers need a proven workflow to deal with this and the REsource clearinghouse provides it,” he added. Write to Austin Kilgore.