Special Asset Management (SAM), a Saratoga Springs, New York-based company that provides real estate-related services to the financial industry, and America's Home Rescue (AHR), the premier trainer of real estate agents in the specialized area of short sales, today announced a formal partnership to assist major mortgage lenders and government agencies in reducing the number of foreclosures in the United States.

 The SAM /AHR collaboration furthers the Obama Administration's announced objective of emphasizing alternatives to foreclosures through the Making Home Affordable program, and thereby lessening the negative effects of the mortgage crisis on families, communities and lending institutions. "The combined capabilities of SAM and AHR make for a total package of services wherever homeowners are facing difficult choices in making mortgage payments", noted Michael Dean, SAM ‘s Chief Executive Officer. "It's never an easy situation, but there are usually ways we can help people avoid the pain and the financial devastation of a foreclosure".  

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced new incentives last month for lenders and borrowers to find alternatives to foreclosures, including short sales, through which properties are sold for lesser amounts than their mortgage balances. Austin, Texas-based AHR has already trained over 20,000 realtors across the United States, in educational seminars and on-line modules that SAM CEO Dean calls "hands-down, the most practical and effective short sales training available".   

SAM works with a host of major national lenders to sell properties that are in foreclosure or whose owners appear to be headed that way, through a network of over 80,000 agents who have registered to handle distressed assets. The new partnership will offer AHR's short sale training to SAM‘s current roster of agents, greatly expanding the national capacity to provide pre-foreclosure solutions. "It's wonderful to have access to SAM ‘s current panel of experts-the needs are so great", AHR President Stacy Cunningham Spickes said. "The additional knowledge that our training provides makes a significant difference in getting workable solutions to all parties."  

Realtors who have already completed AHR's short-sales training will also have the opportunity to become part of the SAM network. "Now we can give our students knowledge and support them with direct business leads through SAM", AHR President Spickes noted. "Up to now, they've had to solicit the short sales work themselves."