The field service industry, commonly referred to as the “property preservation,” “foreclosure cleanup,” or “REO junk” industry, has changed considerably over the years.
When the mortgage crisis and eventual housing fiasco first took hold of the real estate industry, large numbers of small foreclosure contractors entered the market. Many of these micro-businesses performed a variety of mortgage servicing tasks for lenders, banks, financial institutions, REO conglomerates, and asset management companies in villages and various regions of the United States of America.
A ton of larger national entities were also part of the landscape that was fast becoming a burgeoning property preservation industry.
Many of the larger entities, such as Pemco, Sentinel, Cyprexx, Safeguard, Chronos Solutions (formerly known as Matt Martin Real Estate Management), and a host of similar companies, were direct, first-hand components of HUD (“The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development “).
These larger companies hired smaller debris removal, cleaning, and trash removal services as subcontractors to handle tasks such as lawn maintenance, property protection (shipping doors / windows), property inspection, trash removal / debris, winterizing and de-wintering work, repairs, lock changes, home maintenance, painting, carpet removal, gutter cleaning, power washing, tree removal and many similar property maintenance and maintenance tasks.
Services were often provided in vacant houses, many of which mortgage lenders had left after receiving foreclosure letters from their mortgage companies.
Multiple outsourcing opportunities, jobs and contracts for REO service providers
Contracts and work order requests were received in large numbers, and many small businesses had to rush to hire subcontractors to help with the overflow.
As a result, these smaller contractors made a ton of money in the property maintenance and foreclosure cleanup industry at the height of the foreclosure crisis.
A changing property preservation industry
However, fast forward five to seven years, and it is clear that the industry has changed exponentially.
The New Trash Business, Foreclosure Cleaning Services, and REO Property Preservation Model
In recent years, foreclosure cleaning and garbage removal services have not only started targeting new key clients and customer bases, but have also added a number of highly profitable new mortgage and field services and signed on. Necessary new policies and procedures that work specifically for its own services and businesses, regardless of with whom their companies are aligned or for whom they may be providing services as suppliers and subcontractors and for whom they work, whether at the local, national or regional level.
