GRAPEVINE, TX-Though the number of distressed assets coming to market has gone down since, say, about a year or so ago, there are still questions and issues that need to be sorted through. Furthermore, distressed assets aren’t going away any time soon, but consistent information about how to handle this trend is, at best, sketchy.

The third annual RealShare Distressed Assets conference will take place Tuesday-Wednesday, Oct. 4-5 at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center to address the changing focus of the distressed assets markets.  With this event, “we’re bringing together all the major players of the deal cycle and putting them in one location, so an audience can listen to them and network with them,” says Jason Young, conference producer, RealShare Conference Series.

The event will kick off with an evening cocktail reception on Oct. 4 at the venue (1501 Gaylord Trail in Grapevine) . Then the learning begins (and the networking continues) on Oct. 5.

The opening speaker, who will address “How Much is in Distress and Where?” will be Christopher Seyfarth, transaction advisory services partner with Ernst & Young.  Other sessions will focus on information about the FDIC’s asset disposition program (featuring the FDIC’s Richard Salmon, who will chat with John Salustri, content director-real estate with ALM)  and a special servicers power panel complete with collection of special servicers moderated by Transwestern’s Steve Pumper and including Michael Carp with Berkadia Commercial Mortgage Inc.; Joe Greenhaw Jr. of Cohen Financial; Kevin Donahue with Midland Loan Services Inc.; Tom Shearer with CWCapital Asset Management LLC and TriMont Real Estate Advisor’s Matt Stewart.

Scattered between programs with names such as “Property Sectors in Focus,” “Who’s Buying, Who’s Selling and Where are the Deals” and a special address capping off the entire event entitled “The Government’s Take on Distress (with the Real Estate Roundtable’s Jeff DeBoer),” will be networking breaks.  

One of the main goals of RealShare Distressed Assets, Young notes, is to get buyers and sellers of distressed assets in the same room with some of the nation’s best-known real estate leaders. “The tsunami of distressed assets hasn’t hit as strongly as people predicted – yet,” Young tells GlobeSt.com. “There are still billions of dollars out there, and a lot of potential in distressed still.” By getting all the players together, participants can get deals done in what is “not a networking event, but a deal-making event,” Young remarks.

Along those lines, the Dallas-Fort Worth area provides a logical location for such an event, Young continues. The area is in the middle of the country and is convenient to participants and speakers. Furthermore, “many of the special servicers are located, if not in the Dallas-Fort worth area, nearby,” Young adds.