Free RESPA Class at the ARU.

The staff at ActiveRain have always worked hard to make sure our members are some of the best educated, compliant and well connected professionals in their local markets. We have worked hard to secure some of the best training for real estate professionals available for free online today, and in the spirit of continuing with that commitment we are proud to announce the RESPA class.

Dr. Gary Lacefield is President and Senior Consultant of Risk Mitigation Group near Dallas, Texas. Dr. Gary Lacefield was a Senior Civil Rights Analyst, Investigator, and Conciliator for HUD. Throughout this period, he negotiated the twelve largest civil rights settlements involving housing providers in HUD history. Dr. Lacefield investigated over 600 cases, reviewed advocacy group grants, and has performed over 800 mediation's. Dr. Lacefield holds Bachelor’s and M.B.A degrees from Dallas Baptist University and an Ed.D in Administration and Conflict Resolution from Texas A&M University at Commerce.

• National expert concerning fair lending, fair housing, predatory lending, insurance redlining, testing and diversity marketing.
• Conducts fair housing/fair lending training to HUD Investigators and other federal and state regulators.
• Industry consultation regarding federal and state compliance programs including self-testing and monitoring, quality assurance, loss mitigation, and fraud related issues.
• Interviewed by the Bush administration as a candidate for Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.

Now he is the offical ActiveRain Dr. of RESPA. Starting Friday January 14th, Dr. Gary Lacefield will be running a RESPA compliance class to answer our members RESPA questions on the second Friday of every month.

Please take the time to visit his website, or profile, and be sure to give him a warm welcome to ActiveRain.

Our ActiveRain Confirmed Loan Officers had a chance to sit down With Dr. Lacefiled a few months ago and pick his brain. What we learned was mind blowing. A lot of real estate professionals have practices that are in direct violation of RESPA, and consider these practices to be business as usual. We have no doubt that HUD will eventually find, fine and/or imprison those they find to be in violation of RESPA.

With government agencies lacking funding, the number of real estate fraud cases on the rise, and the resulting national outcry for real estate and banking reform, we have no doubt that HUD will be getting much more aggressive in their pursuit of violators. This class can make all the difference in keeping our members free of costly litigation/imprisonment, and we are honored to have Dr. Lacefield as a professor at the ARU. Please visit the:ARU, and register for his class today.

If you have questions for Dr. Gary Lacefield, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.