How much has the drop in default inventory changed the market in the last, say, five years from the law firm standpoint?
From a mortgage default law firm standpoint, it’s been quite an adjustment. Volumes are down to a quarter or a third of what they were during the peak of the crisis. Luckily, my partner Peter Lublin and I are pretty conservative and methodical by nature. We didn’t expand the business too quickly. I can recall instances where we chose to spend our dollars on technology instead of just adding staff. That helped us a great deal then and we continue to reap the benefits of that investment today. We also resisted the urge to expand into other jurisdictions like Florida because we were formally at a firm that practiced there. We knew the challenges that type of expansion would pose and we elected not to go there despite it making so much sense from a geographical standpoint. We even turned away certain types of business. We stayed true to our core and to our people that enabled us to be where we are at. As a result, we have been pretty fortunate as a firm.
What strategy (or strategies) is your firm employing to adjust to the decline in REO or distressed properties?
As a firm, we became very committed to REO several years back. Despite the decline, we remain as committed as ever. Our REO group is still very busy, but we know in that market the pool of properties is a shrinking one. While I anticipate we will always have an active and vibrant REO practice, we have added to our retail and commercial closing capabilities significantly in the last year or two. As a result, we have seen a big uptick in those practices areas and we expect them to continue to grow. We know from our years of practice in the real estate arena, you have to have all the bases covered: a strong default capability along with retail and commercial closing capability; as well as a top-notch litigation group. At Rubin Lublin, LLC, I believe we have all those bases covered.
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| Justin Lee Thayer 541 543 7287 |