SOFI Blog

Most Low-Fee Mortgage Inspections Often Come With A Monkey

Mortgage drive-by inspections pay the lowest fees in the field services industry. Fees span the range from $2 to $5. One of the large national field service firms has about 70% of its field service inspectors performing $3 drive-by inspections.

Almost all of the low fee mortgage inspections include a monkey that sits on your shoulders.  The firms have a large basket of required FREE services. They want you to take lots of photos and fix bad addresses (mistakes of the bank). The bank has a 2-inch high pile of loan documents with a survey and the correct address ... and they want you to correct the bank typo when they sent out the wrong address information. The firms want you to travel long distances outside of your service area for the same low fees. It's all about you providing more and more FREE services.

Some firms want a photo of the ceiling of every room in a property and a an exterior photo of the address numbers, street sign and all four sides of the property. You are not trusted ... hence all of the photos and the monkey on your shoulders. The monkey on your shoulders does not help with any of the photo-taking. The money is just a weight on your shoulders. The monkey is watching your every move as you perform the low-fee mortgage inspections.

After you have collected all of the data and photos, the monkey continues to sit on your shoulders in the evening as you sit at your computer and fill in online forms. Yes, you the mortgage drive-by field inspector are responsible for all of the data processing.

Yes, almost all of the low-fee mortgage inspections came with a monkey to help keep you on track.

The sweet spot in the field services industry is commercial inspections. Most of the firms in the commercial segment believe that monkeys belong in zoos and not on your shoulders. They are the higher quality firms that pay higher fees.

About Errors & Omissions (E&O) Insurance

About 98% of the firms in the field services industry require NO insurance.

The mortgage segment of the industry is the home of the #2 - $5 mortgage drive-by inspections. Most of the firms that task out these low-fee inspections require E&O insurance.

The commercial segment of the industry is the home of the higher quality firms that pay the higher fees of $25 - $300. In most cases, these firms require NO E&O insurance.

Summary:

Low fees ... YES on E&O insurance requirements
High Fees ... NO on E&O insurance requirements

Napoleon Opened His Mail Once A Month

Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was the Emperor of France from 1804 to 1815.

I read that Napoleon opened his mail about once a month. Why? Because if it was still important after a month, he attended to it; if not, it was just junk mail.

In today's world, some field service representatives take several days or a week to open and answer emails. That's okay for me and you because someone else not being responsive and reliable means more business for both me and you. We live in a competitive world. If you take too long to respond, you don't get the job ... someone else does.

A vendor manager at a national field service firm for car chases says that if he does not get a response from an email for a field service representative within a day, he strikes them from his database. No response or a delayed response to an email will kill your business in a very short time. Most email providers provide an autoresponder that will take care of the times when you are away from the office on a short vacation or an emergency. I use an autoresponder when I am traveling as my response time is not as quick.

www.pointofmail.com is an online application that will tell you when someone has opened an email and read it. We use the service to make sure our emails get opened and read. We can track response times. Some emails are never opened. Some field service representatives do not control their junk mail filters and a lot of good mail in their junk folder is viewed or answered. Many field service representatives are email illiterate.

We find that some field service representatives will not open and read one of our emails for 3 ... 4.... 5 ... or more days. We label these field service representatives as students of Napoleon in our private database notes. 

Your competition loves it when you are lazy and don't open and respond to emails. They get the work. Firms interact with field service representative and they are quickly able to apply scores for responsiveness and reliability. Yes, you are graded by firms. A grade of B is a failing grade in field services. How do these field service firms score you? Has your work slowed down?

 

About Communicating With SOFI

For business-to-business communications, please email SOFI at richard@law.name. Be sure to include a subject line that reflects the gist of the information in the body of the message. We do not open emails with no subject line.

Expect long delays before you get a response when you use Twitter or Facebook or Linked-In or other social networks. If you have a question for SOFI, send an email or call 352-449-1041 (east coast).

At SOFI we like to communicate primarily by using plain old emails.

Field Services Is Great For Seniors

In the field services, there are more inspectors over the age of 65 years than inspectors under the age of 25 years. The average age of all field service inspectors is about 50 years old. I talk to inspectors who are in their 80's. Bob in Alabama is in his 80's. Jack in New Jersey is in his 80's. They are sharp and their performance is great. Seniors do a great job. They are an important part of the field services industry.

Seniors grew up in a time that was much different than today.

•  Decisions were made by going 'Eeny-meeny-miney-moe'
•   'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest
•   Catching tadpoles could happily occupy an entire day
•   It wasn't odd to have two or three 'Best Friends'
•   The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was 'chickenpox'  
•   Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a slingshot
•   War was a card game
•   Cigarette cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle
•   Taking drugs meant orange - flavoured chewable aspirin?
•   Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

Promote Your Capabilities & Services? But Don't Exaggerate!

This is from Richard Law at SOFI.

SOFI can help you out with some great advertising. Resumes ... banner ads ... audios ... videos ... you need to get the word out about you and the great services that you offer. You are great ... we all know that. Don't be shy about promoting yourself. But, be truthful and don't over exaggerate your capabilities. If you have no field experience, do not say you have thirty years of field service experience.

With the earthquake on the east coast and hurricane Irene bearing down on the northeastern states, you probably missed the prime time announcement of my leadership award last evening on World News Television. Watch the video clip. Again, do not exaggerate your capabilities or advertise falsely. Enjoy the video.

  Watch The World News Video Clip 

When Performing Field Inspections ... Dress For The Job

The firms that hire you to perform inspections, expect you to dress appropriately. I can remember one case where a field service inspector was performing a merchant credit card verification at a dry cleaners. The merchant called VISA and complained about the attire of the inspector. VISA called the company they hired to perform the inspection and asked them to investigate.

The field inspector said he was dressed appropriately with a long sleeve shire and long pants. A further review of the inspection photos painted a different picture. The photo of the front of the store and signage showed a reflection of the inspector in a glass window. The inspector was wearing an old Budweiser sweat shirt with the arms cut off.

The inspector was fired for inappropriate attire and also for not telling the truth when questioned. Most field service firms have a dress code. Make sure that you adhere to it. Make sure that you dress right for performing inspections ... you are not out drinking with your buddies.

Business casual or smart casual or better is usually appropriate for field inspections.

What Will You Be Doing In Ten Years?

What will you be doing ten years from now? What exit (mortgage inspections or commercial inspections?) will you be taking to get to the future?

You can live in the past with mortgage inspections. Today, mortgage inspectors pay about half of what they earned ten years ago. Ten years ago mortgage inspection fees were much higher. Most inspections required no photos ... you were trusted. You were paid $1.50 for Polaroid photos. The firm you serviced provided all of the data processing ... inspectors did not perform any data processing. Your evenings were yours to spend time with your family and enjoy life. Today, the national mortgage field service firms demand more for a lot less in pay. Some firms want an many as six FREE photos for every property inspected. Why all the photos? The reason is that there is no trust ... inspectors can not be trusted by the national field service firms. Can you trust Brian T. Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America?

I'm sure this downward trend in mortgage inspections will continue for the next ten years. You will be paid low fees and you will not be trusted.  More photos will be required. More work for less pay ... more personal liability for less pay. Where will you be in ten years? Will you still be on a sinking boat and bailing water?

Decide today that you are going to explore commercial inspections. The sweet spot is commercial insurance loss control control inspections and commercial loan underwriting inspections. David in Connecticut completed a 3-day seminar in March 2011 and a few weeks later completed his first $300 Holiday Inn underwriting inspection.

Call Richard Law at 352-449-1041 (east coast) if you would to chat about opportunities in the commercial segment of the industry. Aim high!

What will you be doing ten years from now? What exit (mortgage inspections or commercial inspections?) will you be taking to get to the future? Will you be taking the low-fee exit or the high-fee exit? Your success in life depends upon the decisions you make. Make great decisions.

 

Good Enonomy: Bad Economy - Field Service Jobs Are Stable

FOCUS on the road and not the wall.

Field services is a great job in both a good economy and a bad economy.  

Lots of inspectors have several part-time jobs. Other stable jobs are couriers, process servers, court record retrievers, court reporters, lawn maintenance, snow removal, large appliance deliveries, ham deliveries, flower deliveries, appliance deliveries, and the list goes on and on.

I know one inspector who lives near a large airport. Airlines lose or delay luggage. He delivers the found or delayed luggage to passengers' homes or hotels at the arrival destination. I know another inspector who recycles laser printer tone cartridges for businesses. Another inspector with a box truck delivers large applicances for a local applicance dealer. Another inspector delivers Honey-Baked hams at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Another inspector helps a local florist with deliveries at Easter, valentines day, mothers' day and fathers' day. Another inspector delivers US mail from a distribution center to local post offices. Another inspector cuts common area grass for a homeowners association. Another inspector works a few half days a week installing Directtv antennas and cabling. Another inspector, with two dogs, chases geese off of his local golf course. Another inspector cuts grass at a golf course using the equipment belonging to the golf course. Another inspector boards homes and businesses before a hurricane and helps with cleanup after the hurricance. The jobs are all around you ... can you see them? ... they are there.

FOCUS on the road and not the wall. The jobs are out there ... find them. Find the BEST jobs.

For field service jobs, check out the National Field Service Directory at www.sofistore.com

There are always opportunities through which businessmen can profit handsomely if they will only recognize and seize them.

~ J. Paul Getty ~

 

What's Required For Working With Local Code Enforcement

Q: I was reading your blog about code enforcement and connecting with their offices. I'm interested in this, but what type of knowledge and experience do I need? Also, if I need to be trained at this, where can i get the training? Thank you

 A: About 95% of code enforcement tasks are grass cuts, snow removal and debris removal.

Training required ... probably none.

Insurance required ... perhaps ... ask the code enforcement office.

License ... perhaps ... ask the code enforcement office.