Most industry leaders anticipate an increasing volume of distressed properties and fluctuating loan-to-value ratios over the next several quarters as default and REO properties continue to enter the market. Default management services provider, Integrated Asset Services, unveiled a tool to help mortgage servicers manage and more accurately value these distressed residential properties and loans. “Financial institutions and mortgage servicers need a fast and affordable way to review their portfolios and make decisions for each individual loan,” says Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. “The distressed valuation feature is a way to individualize the value of each property according to the state of the local market and the property-specific factors that may negatively impact value.” The new feature is located within the iValue suite of automated valuation products. It extends the automated valuation model (AVM) to extract and weigh key data points that indicate whether a property is considered distressed. The feature will identify and flag those properties that are in some state of distress. It applies neighborhood analytics to search and select area listings and sales that can be identified as troubled, enabling the AVM to utilize relevant comparables. The company says the methodology isolates and monitors price trends for distressed properties in a local market, allowing the model to accurately establish the spread between retail market value and distressed value. Write to Kelly Curran.