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96 ever, the addition of Pre-Scheduler to eTrac es- tablishes more control and better organization to prevent problems. Ensuring that appraisal orders are efficiently assigned, accepted, and completed is paramount to making the process expeditious and cost-effective." Global DMS provides cloud-based com- mercial and residential real estate valuation solutions catering to lenders, servicers, AMCs, appraisers, and other real estate entities. e company's solution set is delivered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) transactional basis that aims to ensure compliance adher- ence, reduced costs, increased efficiencies, and an expedited real estate appraisal process. e company's solutions include its EVO-Com- mercial (EVO-C) for commercial lending, eTrac valuation management platform for residential lending, eTrac WebForms, Global Kinex, AVMs, the MISMO Appraisal Review System (MARS), ATOM (Appraisal Track- ing on Mobile), and AMCmatch.com. RHODE ISLAND Extending Foreclosure Protections for Homeowners e Rhode Island legislature voted to extend the sunset provision on the state's Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Act, which mandates "good-faith effort" mediation between lenders and homeowners facing fore- closure before that foreclosure can go forward. e Act, which was originally passed in 2013, was due to expire on July 1, due to its original sunset clause. It requires the lender and homeowner "to deal honestly and fairly with the mediation coordinator with an intent to determine whether an alternative to fore- closure is economically feasible." e media- tor must be a member of a HUD-approved counseling agency and is required to serve as an "unbiased, impartial and independent coor- dinator" between the lender and homeowner. Rhode Island Senate Bill 2270 shifts the sunset clause of the Act back to July 1, 2023, extending it by another five years. A compan- ion bill, House Bill 7385, would have removed the sunset clause entirely, but it stalled along the way. Senate Bill 2270 is now headed for the desk of Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo. Why was there a sunset clause on the original bill in the first place? According to e Jamestown Press, optimism. e Jamestown Press reported, "e sunset clause was added because legislators hoped the economy would communities, and local governments, in addi- tion to lenders and servicers." "is new bipartisan legislation is a signifi- cant improvement to the fight against blight, as well as serving to eliminate the accompany- ing delayed and costly foreclosure process that came with vacant or abandoned properties," said Stephen Hladik, Partner at Hladik, On- orato, and Federman. "Cities throughout the Commonwealth carried a significant cost—as well as a budgetary depletion—in having to maintain vacant properties. e new proce- dures put in place by this law gives servicers and lenders the opportunities to fast-track foreclosures of vacant properties, and quicken the pace lenders can restore these homes to the tax producing rolls." Global DMS Adds Functionality to Appraisal Platform Pennsylvania-headquartered cloud- based commercial and residential real estate valuation solutions provider Global DMS announced the introduction of its eTrac Pre- Scheduler. e new tool streamlines appraisal appointments, allowing lenders and AMCs that are leveraging eTrac to easily set predeter- mined appraisal dates, apply specific parame- ters, and broadcast appraiser communications. e eTrac Pre-Scheduler empowers users with the ability to easily select multiple ap- praisal appointment dates per appraisal order, automatically search for applicable appraisers that are available to complete the order, and then present potential assignments to eligible appraisers along with the order and specified dates. e appraiser can then quickly accept the order by agreeing to one of the required dates from their cell phone via email and/or text message. e end result is that the entire process of coordinating and completing appraisals becomes quicker, easier, and more efficient. In addition, Pre-Scheduler flexes with unique business processes or special requests from borrowers and clients, as users have the ability to define what appraisers must agree to before accepting orders. "Appraisals typically take the longest of all loan fulfillment processes to complete, which extends underwriting times, increases costs, and also opens up the potential for deal fallout," said Vladimir Bien-Aime, President and CEO at Global DMS. "Appointments are sometimes set at the vendor's discretion and can lead to unexpected delays and issues; how- bounce back stronger by now. e Jamestown resolution, however, says 'while foreclosure rates have improved since the depths of eco- nomic crisis, the percentage of Rhode Island- ers facing foreclosure today is still four times higher than pre-crisis rates.'" e AP reported that nearly 1,000 homeowners have sought mediation since 2013. Furthermore, Rhode Island Housing— the organization that administers the state program—reported more than 70 percent of the homeowners who have participated in the mediation program have come to terms with the lenders and were able to remain in their homes. According to e Jamestown Press, "Before the law took effect, Rhode Island had one of the least restrictive foreclosure procedures in the country. Lenders merely were required to provide notice to the homeowner of their intent to initiate foreclosure. ey also had to post public notice of the foreclosure in a newspaper. ere was no required court involvement and no requirement that lenders meet with borrowers to explore alternatives to foreclosure." e housing crisis a decade ago saw nearly 10,000 Rhode Island homes go into foreclo- sure. Had the Residential Mortgage Foreclo- sure Act been allowed to expire, Rhode Island would have once again joined the handful of states that do not require a judicial or media- tion process prior to foreclosure. In written testimony to the state's Senate Judiciary Com- mittee, Rhode Island Attorney Michael Zabin put it succinctly, saying that if the mediation requirement had been allowed to lapse, "we would be back to the wild, wild West that existed before the statute." According to data collected by the Rhode Island Realtor's Association, the median home price in the state is now $280k and the average time on the market is 50 days. KNOW THIS

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