Well, it’s that time of year again. Time for the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) #FraudFest in Orlando. And if you want to follow the dirty money, simply track those folks rubbing shoulders with Mitch Davidson, Chief Operating Officer of Purdy Enterprise. And as we discuss later in this article, Davidson’s great pals over at BLM Companies, the same firm Davidson begged be kept off the radar by myself and others, screwed US Taxpayers out of nearly One Million Dollars in one area alone according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). And even though Davidson is occupied with his Anti Whistleblower provisions of the Purdy Enterprise Subcontractor Agreement, we hear that his other pals, Innotion Enterprise, are also dealing with their own issues under size protests with respect to the HUD Management and Marketing (M&M) Field Service Manager (FSM) Contracts. Sound familiar? It should as Davidson’s former employer, Market Ready, lost nearly $200 Million in HUD Contracts for the same fraudulent behavior. Color me stupid, but I do not believe in coincidences. Fraud and Davidson are synonymous when it comes to federal contracting.
There is a silver lining, though. And we are going to talk about it for a moment.
Over the past several months, the International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST) has been closely examining multiple areas of the Mortgage Field Services Industry and their impact upon ultimately the most important group, the Client. The IAFST represents a multitude of trades within the Industry ranging from Realtors and Investors to Field Service Technicians and Processors. As opposed to the standard echo chamber in which business leagues such as the NAMFS emit their message, IAFST is disrupting dialogue much like Amazon is changing how Real Estate had been thought of, to date.
Online shoppers may have been too busy sorting through the deals on Amazon Prime Day this week to notice a “Hire a REALTOR®” page launched within the site. The web page was tucked within Amazon’s Home and Business Services section, where visitors can receive quotes from professionals on services like setting up new technology or assembling new purchases.
Technology has become the Holy Grail for how business is done — at least profitable business. Ironically, in the Mortgage Field Services Industry, the only profit which exists is for those whom control the work order process. The reason for this is not, particularly, based upon technology. Some firms, like Assurant, are beginning to understand the need for streamlining and implementation of technology. In fact, it is not simply technology, but the complete overhaul of workflow and management which are becoming vital as Daniel Hoppes, senior vice president of Assurant Mortgage Solutions, said in an interview with HousingWire, last year. And in the same way in which IAFST has brought all aspects of the Mortgage Field Services together, under one roof, so to Hoppes’ made clear that single sourcing reduces risk,
“Assurant’s primary strategy for the rapid growth of the Mortgage Solutions division has been to provide mortgage leaders with a single, committed partner throughout the mortgage lifecycle,” said Daniel Hoppes, senior vice president of Assurant Mortgage Solutions. “One of the largest benefits of working with a single-source vendor like Assurant is that lenders can access a clear trail of their compliance from origination to disposition.”
A key issue that the mortgage industry faces in regard to compliance is the varied interpretation of regulations by different vendors and businesses. Wide-ranging levels of adherence and commitment by different providers can make audits both painstakingly lengthy and complicated.
Technology, though, is not the only answer. And while many are complaining about their inability to break even in the Industry, others are taking an active role in changing their circumstances. Diversification is a main topic of discussion within circles at the IAFST. Foreclosurepedia spoke exclusively with Kelly Brown, the IAFST Membership Director, about some of the IAFST initiatives taking place. While the full interview will be available both on the IAFST Main Website and the Foreclosurepedia Radio Network, this will be the jest of it,
The IAFST realized, early on, that one of the most important assets it had, was its Membership. The ability for not only a Trade Association, but an Industry as a whole, to closely examine itself and look from multiple vantage points inward and outward, is a rare event. As the IAFST Membership runs the gambit covering all trades in which play a role in the lifecycle of a foreclosed asset, we realized that first, we needed to get a baseline of what was going on. To do that, we created several subcommittees: The HUD Steering Committee; The Administrative Processing Subcommittee; and The Realtors Subcommittee. These Committees allow the IAFST to gather information, from cradle to grave, in order to begin long needed discussions between Labor, Management, and ultimately both the Clients and US Government. — Kelly Brown, IAFST Membership Director
One of the things I was most impressed about was an IAFST Initiative to begin hosting a bi-monthly teleconference with both IAFST Members and the General Public. Part of this discussion will revolve around topic based information to assist both Management and Labor in improving their bottom line. The reason I am impressed is because these will be unscripted events and will be made publicly available to assist all in the Mortgage Field Services Industry. That type of risk, in the pursuit of honesty and professionalism, is a telling sign of the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the IAFST.
Since 1971 both the US Dollar and being paid by NAMFS Members have been based upon blind faith. And many are beginning to challenge how that has impacted the innocent victims. As opposed to the normal protection of the opulent minority against the downtrodden majority, which NAMFS has dedicated its entire existence to at the cost of their Clients, IAFST appears to be dedicated to the Rule of Law. The irony in this statement is that truly the Law, in and of itself, poses the single most destructive danger to NAMFS and all it stands for. And while Eric Miller and his hyperventilating all white NAMFS Board of Directors gather for their annual #FraudFest in Orlando, let’s not forget the hollowness of Miller’s welcoming of Minority Females and Labor at the NAMFS Leadership Summit, earlier this year. At nearly $1,000 per plate, how many of those folks he targeted in Labor do you believe could afford the non member #FraudFest tickets still available? This truly documents the disconnect present in the Industry, today.
The International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST) is also breaking ground with their Education Platform. NAMFS centric education models focus upon a set of skills which profit only the Vendor and not the Client. Moreover, though, the current educational modules available today do not even address the woeful state of knowledge present amongst those currently servicing the Industry. In light of the recent Bowerman Decision wherein the first 11 out of over 100 jury verdicts brought back over $2.2 Million against Assurant Field Asset Services and the Vinson v MCS trial which is anticipated to bring nearly $100 Million in jury verdicts, both for misclassifying employees as independent contractors, the reality is that both NAMFS and the Industry itself, are out of touch with not only the educational needs of Minority Females and Labor, they are also woefully out of touch with the law.
Whether or not we are looking at a situation of the plutonomy versus the precariat is best left to those whom work, day in and day out, in the field. What is uncontested is the NAMFS Membership have shifted the burden of sustainability upon the backs of Minority Females and Labor. Scandal after scandal have plagued Eric Miller and his all white NAMFS Board of Directors. Miller, whose $120,240+ annual salary, which consumes over seventy five percent of all NAMFS Member dues, could care less. In fact, NAMFS was borderline financially insolvent at the time of their last tax filings. And just like cattle led to the slaughter, NAMFS Rank and File are terrified to ask why. In the nearly thirty years in which the yoke of NAMFS has been borne by Minority Females and Labor, only one White Paper has been issued and that, created by Miller, was chock full of typos and plagiarized concepts which Foreclosurepedia and others had brought forward. In fact, recently Foreclosurepedia had to bring forward the fact that NAMFS Members were not only publishing HUD Master Key Codes, but SELLING the HUD Master Keys for one dollar apiece. Foreclosurepedia and Richard Law, founder of SOFI, single-handedly forced the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Ben Carson, to change the entirety of key codes within the HUD Inventory of assets.
There is always a pretext which NAMFS would like to roll out such as they have with their tens of millions of dollars a year background check scam which enriched Eric Miller and his cronies like Jim Taylor over at Wells Fargo. The narrative is that everything NAMFS does is to better the Industry or to comply with the law. There is no evidence to support this. In fact, the US Government does not require any form of background checks nor does Wells Fargo, for the servicing of any foreclosed property. Those requirements pertain to the administrative personnel which NAMFS Members continue to refuse to background check allowing drug felons such as Five Brothers’ Operations Manager, Melissa Shankin, to service FHA Insured, foreclosed properties in contravention to requirements established by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
As if not enough to make anyone take notice, NAMFS elected a legally bankrupted Heather Berghorst to their Board as Secretary. For over a year, Miller was notified of her fraud and even Fifth Third Bank finally sued her for Willful and Malicious Injury. Even after her second bankruptcy and a federal judge limiting what she could file and forcing her to pay monies to Labor, Miller kept her in her position as Secretary. Or how about Nabil El Gadari, MSI’s then Vice President of Operations, whom kicked the hell out of his defenseless victim and was charged with Domestic Violence?!
And did we forget to mention how Mitch Davidson’s sweetheart, BLM Companies, yet another NAMFS Member, was described in a recent HUD Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report which was just released identifying over an over 71% failure rate in Region 1D which raped US Taxpayers out of nearly $1 Million?! Yeah, you have to really, really hand it to Eric Miller and his NAMFS Regime. Here is what HUD OIG had to say in no uncertain terms about Davidson’s former pals,
BLM did not comply with its HUD area 1D field service manager contract. Observations of properties assigned under the contract had a 71 percent failure rate. This condition occurred because BLM did not effectively manage the performance of vendors that provided property preservation and protection services on its behalf. In addition, it did not consistently follow up on discrepancies reported during inspections. Further, BLM focused more on meeting HUD defined performance metrics for timeliness than on quality performance. Lastly, it created an ineffective quality control system that failed to identify and resolve performance problems. As a result, BLM did not protect and preserve HUD-held properties in accordance with the contract, increasing the risk to the Federal Housing Administration insurance fund related to health and safety hazards and reduced sales prices. HUD paid BLM approximately $497,000 in unearned property management and inspection fees over the term of the contract. We recommend that HUD require BLM to repay more than $8,000 in ineligible costs and support or repay approximately $489,000 in unearned property management and inspection fees.
We further recommend that HUD require BLM to implement an effective quality control system to ensure it complies with its contract, putting an estimated $891,000 to better use.
If NAMFS has one goal, it has been to destroy Solidarity. The IAFST would appear to actually support Solidarity, in a cradle-to-grave model, protecting the Client’s assets. The IAFST believes in the investment in the independent contractor; IAFST believes that a well versed and tested independent contractor benefits both the Vendor and the Client. NAMFS believes that it is far better to have a misclassified employee whom represent the proverbial Savings and Loan (S&L) chapter in deregulation, than to actually embrace true capitalism wherein failed business models, such as Mortgage Contracting Solutions (MCS) are weeded out due to their short-sightedness with respect to actually protecting the Client’s assets.
The financial institutions are not to blame for the corrosive environment in which the Industry has become today. It is the ivory towers of debt which has been built upon the acceptance of mediocrity and fraud which are now the norm and daily protected by Eric Miller on behalf of NAMFS. With that said, the IAFST is probably the last thing standing between the Industry turning to Labor Ready for personnel and being even remotely capable of dealing with a Labor drain which will most assuredly leave the Industry to work in the Hurricane #Harvey rebuilding area and soon to be the Hurricane #Irma zones. At least there, Minority Females and Labor will be paid, paid on time, and paid FAR MORE than they are today!
