Professor Kermit Lind

Clinical Professor Emeritus Kermit Lind was interviewed for the Washington Post article Good business for bad times:  Mortgage field services, by Brady Dennis, Friday, October 28.  The article addresses the surge in businesses that service the mortgage foreclosure industry.  In particular, the article focuses on a Cleveland-area business, Safeguard Enterprises, that cares for foreclosed upon properties.  Safeguard fixes broken windows, mows lawns, repairs pipes, etc.  Business is booming and critics contend that Safeguard’s founder is “a shill for the banks whose mortgage abuses helped create and exacerbate the crisis.” Lind was asked about the paradoxical situation of Safeguard’s founder — as a businessman making a fortune out of the foreclosure crisis, or as a businessman serving the needs of his clients by caring for their properties. “He’s an apologist of the first order” for mortgage servicers, says Kermit Lind, a housing expert and former Cleveland State University professor. . . “[a]nd why not? They are the ones who are making him rich.” But, Lind adds, “To his credit, he’s tried to position himself as a mediator between the banks and the public. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/good-business-for-bad-times-mortgage-field-services/2011/10/24/gIQA2FTlPM_story.html