Mortgage Field Services is concentrating on publishing the latest gossip, rumors and facts concerning the Mortgage Field Services Industry.

Articles of interest will cover company news gathered from the internet and direct contact with company representatives; companies such as Mortgage Contracting Services, Digital Field Services and First American Field Services.

In addition to company news, you will be treated to articles about mortgage field services software, mortgage field services business and interviews with mortgage field inspectors. There will even be posts for mortgage inspector jobs.

Mortgage Field Services will report and comment and rely upon the good sense of our visitors to deliberate on our content and come to their own conclusions.

After considerable thought and mapping out a few business ideas,  I decided to move the contents of www.TerryPlatt.com to a new web site – the web site you are at right now: www.MortgageFieldServices.com.

www.TerryPlatt.com was entirely dedicated  to my experiences in mortgage field services.  Almost 5 years of thoughts, notes and complaints about a business that has been extremely good to me.  Things change and people change and it was getting harder and harder for me to write only about my experiences in the field.  I have many interests besides the mortgage field services business and I felt that writing only about the mortgage field services business on a website bearing my name had me looking like a one pony show and tied me a bit too closely to the field services business.  Terry Platt is much more complicated than that.

So, I moved the content and now www.MortgageFieldServices.com will be about – what else – the mortgage field services business.  This site will be just like www.TerryPlatt.com has always been; there will be no changes – I will continue to speak my mind about the mortgage field services business.  In a nutshell, nothing has changed but the name of the site.  However, www.TerryPlatt.com is now free to exhibit the total Terry Platt.  I am really looking forward to using www.TerryPlatt.com to stretch out and let everyone know about my many interests and endeavors.  I hope you continue to visit and enjoy this site and I’d really like to have you visit me at the all new www.TerryPlatt.com.

One of our field inspectors is on maternity leave so I am having to work the field much more than I really care to but you do what you gotta do.  I’ve been trying to get out early and stay until the job is done each day and it’s been a pretty big challenge since I am filling in for a rep that is 25 years younger than I am and has been working the same zip codes for about ten years or so.  Needless to say, I am not nearly as efficient as she is and I am looking forward to her return.

A year or so ago I gave up working in the field full time so other responsibilities magically became mine.  It’s a thing about nature; some kind of equillibrium law or something like that.  Anyway, since I had to do something to earn my keep around here I inheritated the responsibility of putting the approval stamp on what others in the office do while I’m out.  I don’t run the office, or the business for that matter, so these requests for stamps of approval all come up “after the fact.”

So, after working two zip codes today and out for about seven hours or so, I come in and am told one of our office staff’ had yet another bruising coercion from a company rep.  Of course after ten years of dealing with bullys, idiots and thieves and performing  hundreds of thousands of inspections and doing battle with the worst of the worst companies, this incident really belongs in the “same ole, same ole” pile.  But, I thought you might like to hear about it – so here goes, from start to finish:

This all started about two weeks ago when we received an occupancy verification inspection order for a property in a zip code that has been worked by the same rep for over five years.  The rep lives in the same area as the house and  inspects thousands of properties a year in the area.  We returned the inspection request as “unable to locate” after (1) not being able to find the house, (2) being unable to find the property address on the street, (3) being unable to find the property in the tax roles, (4) receiving a “does not exist” from 911, police and fire departments and (4) being unable to find the mortgagor in the tax records, voting lists or other sources we have.   We are very thorough.  Yes, we do make mistakes – just not too often.

About five days ago, we were contacted by our company rep who told us that we “had” to find the property.  To justify her case, she gave us the truly worn out “this property has been found before”.  We asked for more information …. surely we were wrong since “this property has been found before”.  They sent us a picture of the house.  So, our rep returns to the street and one-by-one visits every house on the street.  Guess what?  There are no houses even close to the picture we received.  We returned the inspection request as “unable to locate”.

Now, you would just have to think that if the court house has no record of the property, 911 has no location on file and the mortgagor can not be found in any public records, it might be time to think something is wrong.  But, not our company rep.  After all, “this property has been found before.”

Now, we get a phone call from the rep; just before I get home today.  I can imagine how the discussion went even though I’m going to be told the whole story anyway.  It boiled down to this:  the rep wanted us to verify that the picture is the house.  How can we do this, we ask?  Your picture means nothing.  Who took the picture?  Have you asked the picture taker to verify their own work?  Have you ever known a rep to lie?  Ever heard of table-topping?

Poor thing.  She’ll probably loose her job right here at Christmas time all because she could not intimidate us enough to lie for her.

I doubt there are many visitors to this site or readers of any of my publications that doubt how critical I am of most of the mortgage servicing companies, their personnel, their procedures and their treatment of property preservation contractors and field inspectors.

Having said that, I publicly acknowledge that I am experiencing a tremendous amount of  joy and glee since finding out that some of these companies are in the process of getting their comeuppance.  It appears that either HUD has had enough of the sloppiness and the greed that is so rampant in the industry or they are trying to save face by calling out  lenders and servicing companies.

I have stated before that it’s my opinion that HUD allowed a lot of the problems we see today to arise and  fester by not being in control of the industry and for all practical purposes let the servicing organizations interpret the regulations and dictate field procedures.  Regardless of who or what actually started the whole mess, it appears we’re starting to see the start of serious changes in the industry and only time will tell if it is a real solution or just another big mess getting started.

I’m asking all inspectors and contractors to look at the changes as possibly the best opportunity we have had to hasten the demise of the bad guys in the industry.  Your actions over the next several months can have a tremendous impact on the future of each company you work for.  Now is the time to get involved and act.  Your best course of action is to learn to say “no” to the abusive and greedy companies.  Let them dry up for lack of suckers willing to work for nothing while getting treated like dung.

Although primarily about the banking industry, you may enjoy this article at DSNews.com.

I welcome your comments.

Terry Platt, founder Cubicyard.us
President, Gulf Thunder Corporation

Some titles considered for this article were “Black Bart – Dead at 55 From Absinthe Poisoning”, “365 Days With AADD”, “A Hot Bath With Sade” and a few others but an article in “The Writer’s Handbook” helped gel the decision to use “The Old Lady On The Stairs”. You’ll just have to keep wondering about the others but the choice to use “The Old Lady On The Stairs” has to be explained. Luckily, it’s easy to do.

I am pretty convinced by now that I was meant to be a writer. Too bad I spent all those years with real jobs. I read about writing; I dream about writing and hell, I even write about writing. I know that’s probably pretty weird but there’s no use in hiding the truth from you. On occasion, all the stars are aligned just right in the heavens and the tide has minimum influence and wham, I’m star struck with an idea that cannot be contained. So, tonight, while in the hot tub with Sade, a absinthe spirit on ice and thinking about surviving just one more day with this damn AADD, the idea for this article gummed up in the sump pump of my brain – lodged tight in the right pre-fontal area and all the credit goes to the old lady on the stairs.

Ever noticed how we all run around often not too mindful on the guy or gal right next to us? Picture a tall flight of stairs, broad in expanse. The stairs at Grand Central Station are perfect. Now picture hundreds of people trying to get down those stairs and an old lady, holding the rail with all her might – trying to safely make her way to the bottom of the stairs. Picture all of us sliding past the old lady as if she did not exist. Most of us are guilty of living this type of lifestyle. Not only too busy to help but too busy to even notice the old lady on the stairs.

Keep that picture in your head while I finish my story. You’re going to be the old lady on the stairs. I’m going to be the good guy that recognizes that the old lady might could use some help.
Years ago I wrote a manual about the field service business. It’s original intent was to prepare potential inspectors for perils of the field service business. The original manual was very prejudicial against the big players in the industry; mostly the national mortgage field service companies and even some of the regionals. I was very happy with the original – it was scary as hell. I was quite sure that very few people would want to get into the field service business after reading it. Then, over time, I lost sight of the old lady on the stairs. Sells were pretty good and I rushed down the stairs and even though I saw the old lady, I mostly told myself she was doing all right. “She’s going to make it”. It’s easy enough to do. All you have to do is tell yourself all that matters is if “I” make it down the stairs.
Here I am, many years later. The manual is still for sale and I even update it. Sales are still good, especially since the mortgage melt down and all the starving unemployed looking for anything that will help feed the kids. But – the manual has gotten soft; I’ve gotten soft. After the hot bath with Sade and some slow sipping of a highly alcoholic beverage it’s time to give into a very strong pull from the AADD and write a few articles about the present condition of the business. Who knows, this may very well be the introduction to a new manual about the field service business, property preservation and REO.

First, let’s set the mood for the articles. It’s the same sad mood as the original but nothing has really changed since then unless it has gotten worse. Their names are not important but their story is. They were both retired, married almost fifty years, still in pretty good health and wanting something to do. Something that would let them spend time together, get out a little and possibly even make a little extra money. A little extra money is always handy to have around when there is a sell on senior vitamins and that kind of stuff. They were inspired by an ad in a national newspaper. Something along the line of “spend some time together, get out a little and make God awful amounts of money in the field service business”. The sweet thing liar on the phone convinced them that all they had to do was spend a few hundred dollars on a fax machine, spend a few thousand dollars on E&O and liability insurance, get a computer and a high speed internet connection for a couple of hundred, a digital camera for another hundred and sign up for cell phone service and then we will send you all kinds of work in your area.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. They wouldn’t even return their calls. “What do we do now – We’re in pretty bad shape now; things were livable before but now we’ve got all this equipment to pay for and we aren’t getting any work”. Time to write a book; a manual or something. That’s how it all started.
I’ll have to admit that things are different today. There are more lies than ever before; there are more inexperienced companies in the business hiring larger numbers of incompetent inspectors and contractors. They’re all digging in the same over hyped expiring gold mine. The stories I hear these days have the same plot: fantastic promises and huge disappointments. The numbers have changed though: $12000, $25,000. $250,000.

The last phone conversation I had today was with a guy that told me his father had told him a long, long time ago that the only way to get a million dollars was to steal it. He said he finally figured out what his father meant. It’s his opinion that some of these companies have a simple business plan: steal millions a year – $100 from this contractor, $250 from that one and maybe $12,000 from another. Round up a couple thousand contractors from all over the country and steal a little from each one. Wallah! A million bucks!

So there you have it. A few upcoming articles that every old lady should read before she starts down the stairs.

Terry

I had a phone conversation earlier today with a lady that has been working pretty hard to make up for income lost when her primary business encountered the recession.  What’s she doing to create income?  She’s doing a lot of what I do.  She’s trading good solid income producing information for a few of your dollars.  Well you gotta know that got my attention.  Heck, that means we might be related somehow.

Anyway, she mentioned that several web sites had plagiarized her work.  Well, not actually plagiarized.  Down here where I’m from we call it stealing.  Us southern boys never shoot at the perpetrator running away from the scene. Instead, we run ‘em down in our pickup truck and get it on!  So I decided to to run this sucker down.

I started doing a little a little snooping to see what may be behind this thievery.  I visited the web site the lady mentioned and lo and behold there is absolutely no contact information; no name, no address, no phone number – nothing except gimme your money. There’s a link to pay for a manual.

Okay, back on track here.  Now I figure I’m a little smarter than this guy and went to check out who owned the site.  Well, well, well.  This guy knows a little bit about this stuff.  The site is registered by proxy which means its true owner is hidden behind the registrars name.  Just to let you know how often that takes place, I own about 700 web site names and only one is registered by proxy!  Okay, I ain’t through yet.  Let’s check out his paypal account.  I know you’d never think this but it’s a generic name company.  There’s probably only 108,000 companies hiding behind the same generic name.

Why am I telling you this?  Because I know things are mighty rough for a lot of people.  Some people are grasping at straws.  Don’t let some thief take what little you do have.  If there is no contact information for a product or service you are looking at on the net, then you’re probably looking at a scam.  Be leary of blind ads on Craigslist too.  Blind ads have a definate place and are really good for some uses but if you are not made aware of who you are dealing with in one or two e-mails you need to be very careful.

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