This morning I went down to one of the local Chase bank branches and attended a meeting with the Chase Western Region REO Relationship Manager, along with some other local Chase employees and a dozen or two local Chase REO listing agents. From what I could tell, this REO Relationship Manager is the essentially the REO Vendor Manager for Chase – except that they don’t really have an REO Vendor Manager because the REO at Chase is all outsourced to 11 different companies.
I don’t really want to get into the nitty-gritty of what was discussed at the meeting, since who knows it might be considered to be proprietary information. I will say though that it does sound like Chase really has its act together, and that they do see there being an increase in REO volume in the coming months, and that they expect this current market to last another “five or six years.” That’s even longer than I see this current market lasting, and I’m no optimist when it comes to seeing all this put behind us.
One thing that was nice was that I got to meet some of my erstwhile competitors. Some of them I’ve met before, and all of them I’ve talked to at least a few times, inquiring about properties they’ve sold or listed as I go about preparing my own BPOs. It was great having an opportunity after the meeting ended to shoot the breeze with these guys.
To be honest, I haven’t sold all that many assets for Chase, although this is something I hope to change, and maybe this meeting will be a catalyst to help me finally get approved of some more of Chase’s 11 approved outsourcers – something I’ve been picking away at for years. As luck would have it, about 15 minutes after I arrived back at my office, I got a brand-new REO assignment for a Chase asset up in Felton. It seems like the universe is in alignment with my getting work from Chase, and for that I am truly grateful.
