Tampa Bay ‘power couple’ forms asset management co.

TAMPA - Seeing an opportunity in the adversity facing real estate markets around the country, well-known Tampa Bay-area business leaders Bill Eshenbaugh and Lynda Keever have embarked on a new enterprise aimed at bringing relief to lending institutions with growing REO lists.

USAsset Management & Disposition Corp., the couple reports, will provide a single point of contact for all of the services necessary to rehab the “special assets” on a bank’s books and get them sold.

“By taking charge of foreclosed properties, USAsset Management is helping banks solve several problems,” said Eshenbaugh, best known here as the president of Eshenbaugh Land Company.

“By outsourcing these functions, we could help them reduce staff, speed up paperwork through our high-speed secure Web platform and alleviate the hiring and supervision of brokers and vendors.”

The Web platform is the heart of the system, Eshenbaugh said, permitting asset managers to connect to a task list for each property. When the property is ready for market, notices can be sent to the appropriate REO specialists in the company’s database, who will respond with marketing proposals, he said.

“It’s our goal to help the banks achieve their goals with the property. On any given day, there might be 10 or 50 reminders to that asset specialist of what they’re supposed to do that day with their properties,” said Keever, who recently retired as publisher of Florida Trend magazine.

“If you’re a lawn care company or a Realtor who wants an assignment, you can sign up on our site for free. If we need services in Kansas or Florida, we’ll look up people on our Web site first. We’ll have a great database of companies who can handle the services we want.”

Eshenbaugh said he expects the company to focus on residential properties until at least 2010, when the wave of REOs starts to hit the commercial market. The company may then start to handle assignments such as office condominiums, retail bays and small warehouses. Relevant land opportunities will be referred to Eshenbaugh Land Company.

“If it’s a $10 million or a $30 million shopping center, it’s not likely they’ll give that to us. They’ll go with Cushman & Wakefield or somebody else. We think our niche is in the smaller commercial,” he said.

Each of the company’s principals has years of experience in Florida’s business environment. Keever built a lifelong career in publishing, management and sales before retiring from Florida Trend. She has been a member of the Florida Economic Development Council, the Board of Directors of Enterprise Florida, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and the Florida Research Consortium. In 2001, she was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame.

Before founding his own firm, Eshenbaugh had early success as a special assets expert at the Resolution Trust Corp., created in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early ‘90s. Eshenbaugh was honored in 2003 as the Land Realtor of America by the Realtors Land Institute.

Eshenbaugh said USAsset Management has been met with a warm welcome from banks who are seeking qualified help as supposed “asset managers” come out of the woodwork to capitalize on the real estate downturn.

“A lot of people know us and have done business with both of us. They see us a trustworthy,” he said. “Everyone thinks they’re an asset manager, but not everyone has been to the rodeo.”