Avid readers of this blog may recall that a few months ago, I sent my assistant down to the REOMAC fall conference in Hollywood, Florida. Since i myself wasn’t able to personally go this passed October, I decided I would for sure go to the REOMAC dinner in Los Angeles in December.

I’d never been to a REOMAC dinner, and I was curious to see what it would be like. I have a lot of respect for REOMAC – I’m not a member, but I’d love to be. Unfortunately they are chock full of real estate brokers and agents – you literally have to wait for someone to die to get in as a real estate professional at this point.
I decided to drive down there. I calculated that it would take about 4 hours door-to-door if I went via airplane, and about 6 hours door-to-door driving. The drive down was a breeze, a little rainy to begin but later it was smooth sailing all the way down past Santa Barbara, when the traffic choked up with typical LA snarl.
The reception began at 5:00 PM – unfortunately, I had a few tasks I needed to complete in various portals, so I sat down, whipped out my laptop, and worked quietly for an hour or so until dinner was served at 6:00 PM.
The festivities were opened by Ivan Choi, the present of REOMAC. I’ve met Ivan before, and he strikes me as a really nice guy. His remarks were humorous and to-the-point as always, he’s got a great speaking style. I met Ivan when he was with Prospect Mortgage; it now seems that Ivan, according to his LinkedIn profile, has stared at outfit known as Savvia Home Loans – props to you Ivan for stepping out!
At 7:00 they started a panel discussion. The discussion started off talking about robo-signers and foreclosure affidavits and the crisis in confidence of the foreclosure process. As you may recall (and as I blogged about) this was big news a short while ago. The panelists included a title professional and a lawyer, and the message is that if there are mistakes in a foreclosure, it happens less than 1% and probably less than 0.1% of cases. And, if there are any technical errors in a particular foreclosure, it does not change the fact that in most cases the foreclosures are valid because of the essential fact that the borrowers did not make their payments as per the contract.
Ray Methoda was one of the panelists – formerly of IndyMac, now with her own outfit called AssetPlanUSA which provides training and for HAFA certifications. I’ve seen her speak a couple of different places before, and she’s always a pleasure to hear – very sharp and informative as always.
I left shortly after 8 PM, but I understand the festivities were to continue until about 9 or so – I had a long drive home. The drive was uneventful, but the fog was so thick in so many places the drive home took about seven hours all together.
All in all it was a great trip. I enjoyed the drive (I got a chance to catch up on some podcasts), and I enjoyed meeting some of my colleagues in the REO business. From what I can hear, it sounds like the REO business will continue to be strong for several years yet to come – for better or worse, the market we have today has got legs – but it’s not going anywhere.