Speakers
Alex Charfen, CEO of the Distressed Property Institute
Alex Charfen is internationally recognized as the “Distressed Property Expert,” helping agents and homeowners persevere in just about every market. When the market began to shift, Charfen found that he could help many more homeowners, and have a direct impact upon the massive wave of foreclosures across the United States, by training other agents to handle distressed properties. Since the inception of CDPE, over 28,000 real estate professionals have attended his education courses and achieved the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) Designation, making it the fastest-growing independent designation in real estate industry history.
Abel Fregoso, Jr., National Field Short Sale Manager of Wells Fargo
Abel Fregoso, Jr. has been in the Mortgage Industry for 27 years. The last 17 years he has been with the three “Ws”: World/Wachovia/Wells Fargo. During this time, Abel has held senior management positions in lending as a Division Manager which required oversight of the origination, underwriting, loan processing, appraisal and all loan fulfillment departments.
Abel holds a degree in Finance from San Diego State University. He was born in Mexico City and naturalized to an American citizen in the fall of 2002. Abel lives in San Diego with his wife Marti and daughter Arianna. Currently, Abel is in the loss mitigation department as a Vice President and National Field Short Sale Manager. Before taking his current position, Abel was the Regional REO Manager for Premier Asset Services.
Chris Bird, Founder of Chris Bird Seminars, Inc.
Chris Bird has been in the financial business for over 30 years and holds the Certified Financial Planner designation (CFP). After a 16-year career with the IRS, Bird began conducting courses on accounting, financial planning, wealth building, residential rental property ownership, and tax strategies for the real estate and financial industries. Founder of Chris Bird Seminars, Inc., he conducts more than 125 seminars a year to audiences nationwide. Bird is a licensed realtor with a unique way of making a tough subject (taxes and investments) entertaining and enlightening at the same time.
David Sunlin, SVP for Short Sales, Deed In Lieu and Real Estate Management for Bank of America
David Sunlin is Senior Vice President and Operations Executive for Short Sales, Deed in Lieu and Real Estate Management for Bank of America. In this capacity, he is responsible for real estate operations for Bank of America’s default loan servicing operation, including management and disposition of REO, property valuation, Deed in Lieu and short sales. Sunlin has been with Bank of America since 1997. During that time, he held various management positions in the areas of default management, compliance, and technology development.
Most recently, he has been instrumental in formulating Bank of America’s strategy as it relates to disposition of short sales and supporting the bank’s efforts in support of the federal government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program. Sunlin continues to explore and develop new programs and alternative markets to assist homeowners and investors in an ever-changing housing market. Based in Plano, Texas, Sunlinalso manages operations in Arizona, California, Florida, and North Carolina. Sunlin is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Economics.
Laurie Maggiano, Director of Policy in the Office of Homeownership Preservation, US Department of Treasury
Laurie Anne Maggiano joined the US Department of Treasury as Director of Policy in the Office of Homeownership Preservation in May 2009. She has been one of the architects of the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, whose goal is to help up to millions of American families avoid foreclosure through refinance or modification of at risk loans. Before joining Treasury, Ms. Maggiano worked for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for 10 years where she ran the FHA loss mitigation program and oversaw the sale of foreclosed homes. Prior to government service she spent 20 years in the mortgage industry as Sr. Vice President of a major West Coast savings bank and as Director of Real Estate at Freddie Mac. For four years she was on the faculty of the Neighborworks Training Institute and has consulted extensively in the nonprofit housing sector.
Matt Vernon, Retail Sales Executive for Bank of America Home Loans
Matt Vernon is the Retail Sales executive for Bank of America Home Loans, which originates and services one out of every five mortgages in the country. Bank of America serves more than 59 million consumers nationally through its network of banking centers located in 32 states and the District of Columbia and 175 countries around the globe.
In this role, Vernon oversees the operations and performance of the Retail Sales organization and more than 4,000 mortgage loan officers serving customers across the country. With home loan offices across the country, the team offers a variety of home loan products and services through direct-to- consumer business, as well as through strategic business alliances, such as joint ventures and marketing agreements with real estate professionals and home builders.
Rick Sharga, Senior Vice President of RealtyTrac Inc.
Rick Sharga is one of the country’s most frequently quoted sources on foreclosure, mortgage, and real estate trends, having appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNN, CBS, ABC World News, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR. Sharga has briefed the Federal Reserve and Senate Banking Committee and corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and Deutsche Bank on foreclosure trends and ran foreclosure training for leading real estate organizations such as Re/Max, Prudential, and Keller Williams. The 2006 Stevie® Award Winner for Best Marketing Executive, Sharga acts as RealtyTrac’s V.P. of Marketing to oversee the development and management of the company’s brand, public and investor relations, and business development and data operations.
Dolores Roth, CDPE & CIAS Certified Instructor
Dolores Roth has been involved in sales, marketing and training in the real estate industry since 1998. In addition to being an instructor, speaker and coach, she is currently a broker-associate licensed in the State of Florida and has earned several real estate designations and sales awards. Dolores is very active in the Realtor® community. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and the Florida Association of Realtors, and is a Federal Political Coordinator for the National Association of Realtors.
