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Our Mission

Distressed Property Advisors exists to ensure that every homeowner facing foreclosure can find a qualified, certified professional to help them navigate their options — and that every real estate professional has access to the training they need to serve this market with expertise and integrity.

The Problem We Solve

The infrastructure that supported distressed homeowners during the 2008 crisis is gone. Specialized programs wound down. Experienced agents retired or moved on. The certifications that once existed haven't been updated in over a decade.

Today, most real estate agents with fewer than 12 years of experience have never handled a short sale, guided a homeowner through a loan modification, or navigated the foreclosure timeline. Yet FHA delinquency rates have climbed above 11%, and foreclosure filings are rising for the first time in years.

Homeowners searching for help have no reliable way to find an agent who actually specializes in their situation. And agents who want to serve this market have no modern, comprehensive training to build on.

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Updated distressed property certifications available today

11.52%

FHA delinquency rate — highest since 2021

890K+

FHA borrowers currently delinquent

Meet the Founder

Ross Kilburn has spent more than 20 years at the intersection of real estate, foreclosure, and direct-response marketing. He has generated hundreds of thousands of distressed property leads for agents and investors, published a guide to short sales, and built data systems that track household financial distress at the national level.

Through that work, Ross saw the same gap from both sides: homeowners couldn't find qualified help, and agents couldn't find quality training. The certifications available were outdated — built for a market that no longer exists. The platforms that once connected specialists with homeowners had shut down.

Ross created Distressed Property Advisors and the CALM certification to close that gap. The curriculum draws on two decades of real-world experience — not recycled theory — and the directory gives certified advisors direct visibility to the homeowners who need them most.

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Ross Kilburn

Founder, Distressed Property Advisors

  • 20+ years in foreclosure lead generation and marketing
  • Published author — guide to short sales
  • Creator of the American Distress Index (ADI)
  • Founder of American Default (americandefault.org)

Powered by Data

DPA is powered by data from American Default, which publishes the American Distress Index (ADI) — a composite measure of U.S. household financial distress.

The ADI tracks delinquency rates, foreclosure filings, forbearance exits, credit stress indicators, and housing affordability metrics across all 50 states. This data informs everything we do — from the CALM curriculum to the directory's market insights to the resources we publish for homeowners and agents.

American Default

A sibling platform dedicated to tracking and analyzing U.S. mortgage distress data. American Default provides the research foundation that keeps CALM certification content current and grounded in real market conditions.

Visit American Default

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