Exclusive industry-certified training and certification designed to empower asset management specialists in the modern market.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Master the complete short sale lifecycle—from seller qualification and lender negotiation to risk compliance and final closing. This intensive, 8-module masterclass combines real-world strategy with a live case study workshop alongside lender and servicer experts. Includes: Hands-on table workgroup & 10-question certification quiz (80% pass rate required).

Sharon Bartlett, Executive Director, US REO Partners
Ed Laine, REOX Council, Broker, eXp Realty
Serina Lowden, Founder, Owner/Broker, All City Homes

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Exclusively for active REOX members who register in advance, this private cocktail reception is a perfect way to kick off the conference in style.

Venue TBD

Part conference welcome reception, part magazine preview party, this is the first opportunity to network with colleagues, clients, and leaders from across housing finance at HIX.

Venue TBD

An immediate confrontation with the widening chasm between pristine corporate ledgers and dirt-reality operational friction, briefly setting the stakes and examining how collapsing human infrastructure, data liabilities, and fracturing safety nets threaten the stability of the entire mortgage lifecycle.

• The Ledger vs. The Dirt: How abstract algorithms, AVMs, and remote data models actively mask physical asset decay, workforce collapses, and severe valuation vulnerabilities.
• The Perimeter of Liability: Mapping the immediate risks hitting capital, servicers, and legal networks as hyper-local statutory realities collide with national automated conveyor belts.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Opening up the day’s dialogue with a brief introduction to set the stage for all the important, insightful conversations to come.

Annie Collier, Executive Director, REOX
Steve Pagano, REOX Council Chairman; Principal Broker, Pagano Properties

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

The Deal Exchange is a one-day marketplace that puts qualified capital, housing assets, and decision-makers in the same room.

Kick off the day of dialogue and deals with market insights, asset showcases, portfolio debates, and curated, confidential pitch meetings.

• Opening Bell: The Market in Motion
• Deal Room Live: Portfolio Drop
• Stage Debate: Distressed Signals
• Investor Suites: Private Pitch Cycle

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Within the movement toward automated servicing at mass scale, it comes at the cost of the human audit trail, leading to systemic, invisible liabilities. Experts argue the hidden operational risks of transitioning default pipelines to black-box agentic workflows, and how automated processing platforms introduce catastrophic, un-auditable UDAAP and regulatory liabilities when algorithmic edge cases go undetected.

• The Flawless Conveyor Belt: How eliminating individual human slip-ups inadvertently builds a system that scales a single, invisible coding omission across 10,000 files simultaneously.
• Fiduciary Recapture: Operational blueprints for re-introducing intentional human checkpoints into autonomous data pipelines to trace automated decisions without destroying processing velocity.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Changing market conditions are shifting asset management within REO. From volume trajectories and vendor relationships to operations and compliance, industry leaders share practical insights into what servicers and asset management firms need from agents and attorneys in today’s evolving environment.

Moderator

Ed Laine, REOX Council, Broker, eXp Realty
Panelists

Justin Askew, Chief Operating Officer, AREMCO
Tara Dugger, Senior Operations Manager, VRM Mortgage Services
Mary Best-Brill, Vice President of Client Relations, Equator
Tom Bohlmann, REOX Councilmember, Broker/Owner, Bohlmann & Bohlman

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

A high-level forward look at the battle over enterprise intelligence. This session tackles who actually owns the borrower's behavioral data footprint, the fight over AI platform training rights, and the shifting dynamics of platform interoperability and vendor lock-in.

• The Training Rights Standoff: Do default vendors have the right to train proprietary AI models on client data lakes, or is that intellectual property theft?
• Interoperability and Hostage Tech: Breaking through intentional vendor lock-in to achieve true data portability across servicing systems.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Within the movement toward automated servicing at mass scale, it comes at the cost of the human audit trail, leading to systemic, invisible liabilities. Experts argue the hidden operational risks of transitioning default pipelines to black-box agentic workflows, and how automated processing platforms introduce catastrophic, un-auditable UDAAP and regulatory liabilities when algorithmic edge cases go undetected.

• The Flawless Conveyor Belt: How eliminating individual human slip-ups inadvertently builds a system that scales a single, invisible coding omission across 10,000 files simultaneously.
• Fiduciary Recapture: Operational blueprints for re-introducing intentional human checkpoints into autonomous data pipelines to trace automated decisions without destroying processing velocity.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

A diverse, powerhouse panel of experts confront the future through a prognostic lens, utilizing data trends and strategic insights to predict where the industry is headed, and how you can best prepare for what's next.

Moderator
Dorothy Macias, REO Specialist, Commonwealth Home Realty
Panelists
Talia Ramirez, President, Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions
Machelle Redmond, Principal, Raine Asset Management
Sandra Thompson, Former Director, FHFA
Arleas Upton Kea, Former COO & Deputy Chairman, FDIC

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Experts analyze how structural instability in the nation's valuation infrastructure paralyzes institutional risk-pricing. It exposes the critical market gap between data-hallucinating Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) and a catastrophic professional appraiser workforce shortage.

• Valuation Reliability in Volatile Markets: How legacy risk-pricing models collapse when regional market shifts cause AVMs to miss hyper-local realities.
• Data Scale vs. Dirt Reality: A direct debate on whether automated data aggregation can ever truly replace physical, boots-on-the-ground collateral verification.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Designed for agents looking to scale sustainably in the distressed asset space, experts focus on operational discipline, client retention, technology integration, and relationship-building strategies that support long-term growth in default and REO.

Attendees select from a pair of dual tracks, with dynamic quick-hitting talks and audience Q&As.

11:00 – 11:15 a.m.
‍What Asset Managers Actually Want From Their Top Agents
Molly Merchant, REO Manager, Statebridge Company

11:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Using Technology to Scale Without Losing Compliance
Rida Sharaf, Chief Strategy Officer, USRES/RES.NET

11:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Vendor Scorecards, Communication & Staying Assignment-Ready
Tara Dugger, Senior Operations Manager, VRM Mortgage Services

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
‍Building Relationships That Lead to Repeat Business

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Experts examine how data, repair strategies, valuation analysis, and market timing intersect to maximize disposition outcomes. Speakers will discuss how predictive decision-making impacts rehab approvals, auction alternatives, days on market, and net recovery performance.

Attendees select from a pair of dual tracks, with dynamic quick-hitting talks and audience Q&As.

11:00 – 11:15 a.m.
‍The Cost-to-Value Equation in Today’s Market
Justin Askew, Chief Operating Officer, AREMCO

11:15 – 11:30 a.m.
‍Using Market Analytics to Predict Buyer Behavior
Mary Best-Brill, VP, Client Relations, Equator

11:30 – 11:45 a.m.
‍Data-Driven Decisioning in Modern Asset Disposition

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
‍Repair Thresholds vs. Auction Strategy
Mike Russo, Head of Product Innovation, Auction.com

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Capital experts and deal architects break down how creative structuring—preferred equity, seller financing, mezzanine debt, and gap capital—is bridging valuation gaps and pushing complex deals past the finish line in today's evolving rate environment.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Hosted at multiple off-site venues in Downtown Fort Worth, just a few minutes walk or shuttle ride from the hosting hotel. The perfect time to reconnect and refuel alongside partners, clients, and new contacts.

Multiple Venues, TBD

‍As mortgage servicing shifts from legacy mainframes to a modular, cloud-native, and AI-enabled future, every operator faces an existential choice: adapt or perish. The platform vendors take the stage not for a sales pitch, but to address the industry's most critical bottlenecks and technical friction points in a live, moderator-led, and unscripted debate. We challenge their architectures, audit trails, and ROI. Who can actually power the next decade of default servicing?

• The Battle for Interoperability: Forcing platforms to prove real, seamless file portability and system-to-system integration with localized default legal networks.
• AI in Default—Real or Vapor?: Demanding validated, auditable, and production-ready automation for complex default workflows over marketing roadmaps and buzzwords.
• The Ultimate Stress-Test: Exposing how each platform performs under sudden delinquency spikes and market breaks when workflow automation meets human dependency.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Auctions have a reputation problem, often seen as a channel of last resort when all else has failed. This session puts that assumption on trial. A debate-style panel of auction advocates, legal practitioners, and institutional operators dismantles the most common objections one by one, making the case that auction isn't a concession—it's a critical asset.

Mike Russo, Head of Product Innovation, Auction.com
Paul Viguerie, Vice President, Head of Commercial and Retail Brokerage, Hubzu

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Rapid-fire pitches, AI-driven underwriting, live Investment teardown in "The Hot Seat", plus private suite negotiations to take transactions across the finish line.

• Deal Room Live: Recurring and Pipeline
• Stage Debate: AI on the Buy Side
• Deal Room Live: The Hot Seat
• Private Pitch Cycle: Diligence and Matches
• Closing Bell: What Moves Next

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

A candid conversation on the institutional mandate—tackling mounting timeline pressures, litigation risks, and operational bottlenecks, providing a strategic roadmap for how attorneys, brokers, and vendors must align with servicer expectations to drive portfolio performance right now.

Steve Pagano, REOX Council Chairman, Principal Broker, Pagano Properties
Jacquelyn Cayon, VP, Global Supplier Services, JPMorgan Chase
Clay Kellett, VP, Mortgage Servicing Contact Center, BOK Financial
Nolan Turner, Managing Director, Carrington Mortgage Services

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

In climate-strained mega-markets like Florida, California, and coastal Texas, the secondary safety net has officially snapped. This session confronts the board-level nightmare of managing default portfolios in regions where property insurance is either completely non-existent or financially ruinous—leaving servicers holding toxic, un-saleable collateral that cannot be liquidated, hedged, or easily moved.

• The Stranded Asset Reality: Navigating the mechanics of foreclosure and asset preservation when an un-insurable property hits the REO pipeline, rendering it ineligible for standard buyer financing.
• The Regional Exposure Hedge: Tactical portfolio strategies for credit funds and major servicers to offset cascading loss expectations as entire zip codes become un-underwritable.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

As servicers seek alternatives to foreclosure, this session explores the operational realities of pre-foreclosure resolutions, borrower engagement fatigue, and strategies for successful deed-in-lieu and short sale execution.

Attendees select from a pair of dual tracks, with dynamic quick-hitting talks and audience Q&As‍.

3:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Why Borrowers Disengage—And How to Reconnect
Nolan Turner, Managing Director, Carrington Mortgage Services

3:45 – 4:00 p.m.
The Servicer’s View of DIL Success Metrics
Clay Kellett, VP, Mortgage Servicing Contact Center, BOK Financial

4:00 – 4:15 p.m.
Short Sale Timelines, Escalations & Expectations

4:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Market Conditions Driving Pre-Foreclosure Resolution
Chakri Uruma, Vice President, Altisource

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

In climate-strained mega-markets like Florida, California, and coastal Texas, the secondary safety net has officially snapped. This session confronts the board-level nightmare of managing default portfolios in regions where property insurance is either completely non-existent or financially ruinous—leaving servicers holding toxic, un-saleable collateral that cannot be liquidated, hedged, or easily moved.

• The Stranded Asset Reality: Navigating the mechanics of foreclosure and asset preservation when an un-insurable property hits the REO pipeline, rendering it ineligible for standard buyer financing.
• The Regional Exposure Hedge: Tactical portfolio strategies for credit funds and major servicers to offset cascading loss expectations as entire zip codes become un-underwritable.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Complicated title issues continue to delay and derail transactions across the default servicing and REO space. Experts probe answers to probate complications, municipal liens, title defects, HOA disputes, and lien priority conflicts that impact timelines and marketability.

Attendees select from a pair of dual tracks, with dynamic quick-hitting talks and audience Q&As‍.

3:30 – 3:45 p.m.
The Curative Problems Asset Managers See Too Late
Molly Merchant, REO Manager, Statebridge Company

3:45 – 4:00 p.m.
Municipal Liens, HOA Super Liens & Investor Risks

4:00 – 4:15 p.m.
Operational Breakdowns That Create Closing Delays

4:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Pre-Sale Risk Identification & Legal Escalation Strategies
Tom Bohlmann, REOX Councilmember Broker/Owner, Bohlmann & Bohlmann

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

In a landmark special event taking place just one week after this November’s watershed midterm elections, a distinguished panel of industry executives and senior government officials will collaboratively address the stakes and state of our industry with exceptional clarity and candor, with the evening concluding with a special presentation by Operation Homefront in honor of our military veterans.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Hosted just two minutes from the Sheraton at Acre Distilling Co., this ticketed event offers an exclusive opportunity for attendees—including LegalX member firms, servicers, capital market firms, and more—to connect over elevated craft cocktails behind closed doors.

*Exclusively for LegalX members, law firms, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Acre Distilling Co., Downtown Fort Worth

Go below the surface, and beyond the noise with this exclusive, limited-seating event. Hosted off-site at a fully reserved private venue in Downtown Fort Worth, this is the party the industry will be buzzing about.

*Must register in time to be included on the guest list.

Secret location, Downtown Fort Worth

An introductory brief on the state of the industry from both servicing and foreclosure perspectives, setting the table for the Lab’s docket of critical dialogue and ideas.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

A hands-on walkthrough from assignment to close. Covers pre-foreclosure engagement, occupancy management (Cash-for-Keys), and closing execution.

Laura Dietz, REOX Councilmember, Broker & Auctioneer, Summit Realty
Mary Best-Brill, VP, Client Relations, Equator/Altisource
Bill Colbeck, Head of Loan Management, LoanDepot
Tara Dugger, Senior Operations Manager, VRM Mortgage Services
Steve Pagano, REOX Council Chairman; Principal Broker, Pagano Properties

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Confronting the paradox of using automation to eliminate entry-level overhead while demolishing the training ground for the firm’s future legal leadership.

• How AI reliance is eliminating essential staff training and leading to liability.
• Frameworks for capturing the wisdom of veteran paralegals and attorneys.
• Protecting the talent pipeline by utilizing AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Executives and policy experts examine shifting expectations, how the elections impact CFPB posture, new regulatory upshots, foreclosure moratorium risks, and how the next cycle of GSE policies will influence the default and REO markets.

Sharon Bartlett, Executive Director, US REO Partners
Eric Will, Senior Director of REO Operations, HomeSteps, Freddie Mac
Dan Barnett, Former Senior Asset Manager, FDIC
TBA, Senior Fannie Mae Operations Executive

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Opening digital endpoints and automated portals for high-volume referrals creates severe infrastructure risks and invites sophisticated cybersecurity threats. Data security, risk, and legal experts explore how external bot incursions or ransomware trigger cascading digital domino effects capable of paralyzing the default ecosystem.

• Countermeasures to malicious ransomware bot attacks on automated funnels.
• How data-scrapers cause data leaks between servicers, firms, and borrowers.
• Who’s responsible when secondary programs suffer catastrophic breaches.
• New models for balancing borrower records and real-time speed mandates.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Changing federal policy, affordability challenges, and regulatory shifts are reshaping the landscape. Industry leaders will discuss how economic pressures and institutional capital influence the future of distressed assets. This briefing explores expectations for liquidity, secondary market trends, and GSE policies in the next market cycle.

Dan Barnett, Former Senior Asset Manager, FDIC
Molly Merchant, REO Manager, Statebridge Company
Ty Miller, Managing Director, Annaly Capital Management

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

An honest confrontation of the financial strain when fixed-fee files evolve into complex, margin-destroying litigation.

• Measuring the point where a standard referral becomes a net-negative liability.
• Implementing data-mining at intake to flag for strategic triage in high-risk files.
• Collaborating with servicers on data to GSEs to revise obsolete fixed-fee limits.
• Automations to free up senior legal talent for complex, high-fee litigation files.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Hosted at multiple off-site venues in Downtown Fort Worth, just a few minutes walk or shuttle ride from the hosting hotel. The perfect time to reconnect and refuel alongside partners, clients, and new contacts.

Venues TBD

A tactical, balance-sheet briefing on breaking through the bottlenecks of contested foreclosure growth to protect asset yield and limit daily interest burn rates.

• Quantifying Judicial Drag: Calculating the direct loss of investor and servicer capital when files stall in contested judicial state dockets.
• Scorecards Under Stress: Advanced strategies and KPI frameworks to measure law firm performance on contested files without compromising defense integrity.
• Protocol Real-Time: Vendor and counsel communication protocols that eliminate data lag during active litigation escalations.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Obtain the latest, in-depth insights from the inside on today’s servicer operational challenges, evolving vendor expectations, shifting workflow challenges, and what REO leaders can do to stay on top of a changing market.

Clay Kellett, VP, Mortgage Servicing Contact Center, BOK Financial

*Session exclusive to REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

An unscripted clash connecting traditional legal advisories with the hyper-aggressive monetization strategies of modern IMBs, non-bank servicers, and private equity capital.

• The Ownership Shift: Analyzing the operational friction as default servicing moves away from risk-averse banks to agile, velocity-driven private equity and IMBs.
• Pricing Velocity: How algorithmic software is used by servicers to price file velocity and demand immediate turnover.
• Resisting the Tool Trap: Concrete strategies for legal partners to resist becoming simple administrative processing units while insulating investors from long-tail title liability.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Using the "Yield Delta" model to determine when an asset should be converted to SFR rental versus a traditional sale, and how to pivot ahead of the curve.

Ty Miller, Managing Director, Annaly Capital Management
Nolan Turner, Managing Director, Carrington Mortgage Services
Chakri Uruma, Vice President, Altisource

*Session exclusive to REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

In this final, solution-driven discussion, our experts will cover critical topics from regulatory uncertainty, performance pressures, and liquidity concerns, to foreclosure prevention policies, investor readiness, and maximizing success in the next cycle.

Clay Kellett, VP, Mortgage Servicing Contact Center, BOK Financial
Dan Barnett, Former Senior Asset Manager, FDIC‍

*Session exclusive to REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

Four high-density, 15-minute operational briefs on resolving borrower-facing conflicts before the foreclosure sale clock runs out.

• Navigating the Loss Mitigation Dispute: Strategies for counsel when a borrower files late loss-mitigation or disputes a trial modification mid-foreclosure.
• The Mediation Program Minefield: State-by-state tactics to document court mediation efficiently and prevent deliberate stalls.
• Deed-in-Lieu (DIL) & Early Legal Workouts: Aligning legal teams and asset managers on rapid pre-sale resolutions, including DIL and cash-for-keys.
• Litigating Borrower Resolution Fraud: Combating predatory "foreclosure rescue" scams and bad-faith litigators abusing rules to freeze timelines.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

The track most REO professionals haven’t cracked. Bringing together the lenders, servicers, and asset managers who control HECM assignment flow with the qualified agents and brokers positioned to serve them. Equal parts education, access, and business development in a rapidly growing segment.

• Inside the HECM Default and Disposition Pipeline: from triggering events through foreclosure or deed-in-lieu and into REO disposition.
• How HECM Assignments Are Really Awarded: Candidly conversing needs, gaps, what separates a credible candidate from a generic solicitation.
• Servicing the Asset and the Individuals Correctly: A case-driven look at the complexities agents encounter and the communications that define performance.

*Session exclusive to REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Venue TBD

A final executive panel where servicing leaders explicitly debate how they structure, assign, and audit their legal networks for the coming cycle—a confrontation of the conflict between the corporate desire for centralized, uniform vendor management and the practical necessity of hyper-local judicial expertise.

• Consolidation vs. Expertise: Comparing localized, specialized, and multi-state firms, and the friction of consolidating regional boutiques into national networks.
• The Automation Gap: How national automated templates miss local statutory nuances, leading to costly dismissed filings.
• The Modern Scorecard: Building scorecard metrics that reward local accuracy and asset recovery over baseline file volume.

Sheraton Downtown Fort Worth

REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders conclude the afternoon’s sessions with an exclusive party-before-the-final-party.

*Event exclusive to REOX members, servicers, and invited industry leaders.

Venue TBD

Close out conversations, lock in relationships, and raise a glass to the industry’s last big hurrah of the year, and your final opportunity to make business happen.

Venues TBD