Well, we knew it was inevitable. Over the past year, as the Industry engorged itself on the massive price hikes with Fannie Mae, none of it found its way to Labor. Tens of millions of dollars have been made without a single penny being passed on. And while the Industry has always had the upper hand when it came to Labor, they are now finding out that the minimum wage paid to their inhouse staff is costing them dearly. In fact, as National Order Mills continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel for people whom agree to abuse Labor over the phone, they are finding out precisely how much money it is costing them. And when taken in conjunction with the entire outsourcing of their operations to firms utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), such as AffirmData, what few contracts were passing through have now ground down to a halt. And for those whom believe that the outsourcing is only limited to work order processing, here is what FoxyAI, owned by AffirmData, revealed in their Case Studies which Dan Leader, Chief Operating Officer of Guardian Asset Management, wrote to further their business interests,

FoxyAI’s technology suite has further increased the level of our quality control around occupancy verification and damages. Our clients view this capability as instrumental in accurately verifying results and an essential piece of risk management. – Dan Leader

Today, over 7.5 million Guardian inspector photos run through FoxyAI’s Models monthly. Since it implemented FoxyAI Models, Guardian has cut its quality control effort in half, saving millions. FoxyAI is currently developing models that Guardian looks forward to implementing. The Models include but are not limited to AC compressor detection to confirm lack of theft, pool and water feature verification for insurance coverage, and general debris detection to further validate property preservation.

And while I like Mr Leader and am somewhat encouraged by the limited actions taken by he and Guardian, the reality is that they continue to refuse to provide a penny extra to Labor while collecting all of the recent Fannie Mae price hikes totaling tens of millions of dollars per quarter. Moreover, though, their inability to keep professionals employed in critical roles with respect to both Industry related and hedge fund rehabs is having catastrophic collapses as one of my Clients brought to my attention last week.

This isn’t an attack on Guardian, it is merely that Guardian has been extremely public about its pride in adoption of AI and its profiteering as you will read in the link. This is extremely surprising as Guardian is owned by New Residential, a publicly traded company, tracing control all the way back to SoftBank in Japan. And that public ownership of Industry firms is not exclusive to Guardian. MCS is owned by a hedge fund called Littlejohn as they defaulted on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans during the COVID Crisis. It is not simply Guardian, though, experiencing the proverbial brain drain which the Industry is experiencing. Our Industry has refused to reward low and mid level staffers whom, regardless of outsourcing, still have to answer the phones and cudgel Labor into believing the lies. And the reality is that it takes a certain type of person whom knows they are stealing from another human being and be all right with that. More importantly, though, when it comes to attempting to take the Industry price models and apply them towards hedge fund flips and turns, minimum wage staffers whom attempt to force 20th Century pricing by and through draconian contractual agreements no longer works.

There is not a single company out there today, which is an Order Mill, whom have an exceptional relationship with Labor. I would venture the guess that unless and until Labor organizes and begins to stand up for their rights, the situation will never change. When a Vendor Manager – or underling – engages with Labor, the relationship is already colored by the inhouse opinion that Labor is predominately uneducated and needs to be controlled. This is the first mistake. Without Labor, none of these Order Mills would ever make a penny. Second, the rude demeanor in which firms like Five Brothers, et al., deal with Labor has already cost the Industry over 70% of its workforce – that’s over 70,000+ workers by the way – as documented by these Order Mills’ shot callers, #TwoForVerisk NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski and NAMFS Executive Director, Eric Miller. And finally, that remaining 30% of Labor has no issue walking out!

Promises have been made and not followed through by the very same firms above and Labor is beginning to take notice. Most assuredly, when Foreclosurepedia has to clean up the messes of these and other firms, the reality is that these one off wildfires are beginning to amass as a forest fire. And where there is smoke, there is undoubtedly fire. Our recommendation is that these firms should climb down from their ivory towers and roll up their sleeves. To date, though, they appear to be content with landing and then losing relationships with their Clients in order to save face and the embarrassment about the inability to consult with the right people as well as properly oversee their own inhouse personnel. And with the vast majority of decisions now being made by foreign nationals, the reality is it is increasingly more difficult to unring the bell.

As we are releasing tomorrow, you will hear about JGM Property Group and how their inability to keep staffing now jeopardizes their perilous hold upon Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) Management and Marketing (M&M) Field Service Manager (FSM) 3.12 Awards. And once again, the bottom dollar payments and the refusal to maintain capital reserves which were normally rolled out on the shoulders of Labor, has potentially cost the loss of yet another Industry firm.

As embezzlement cases continue to rise both within and without of the Mortgage Field Services Industry, Foreclosurepedia felt it urgent to put out a brief statement. Probably the most well known case of embezzlement came from GTJ Consulting‘s – also known as GTJ Online – CEO Brandon Johnson whom embezzled over $10 Million to fuel his illegal narcotics binge and was finally convicted, years later, in federal court. Many asked how it was possible that GTJ Consulting, a firm with direct contract arrangements with Government Sponsored Entities and US government agencies, took years to detect the embezzlement. In fact, the federal government took great pains to paint the picture of how Johnson’s co-defendant, an 18 year old street peddler, had somehow masterminded not only the embezzlement, but had orchestrated a large and complicated money laundering scheme. As opposed to Johnson, whom received a sweetheart deal from federal prosecutors, his co-defendant came to realize precisely how far a National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) member would go to protect their own. Foreclosurepedia had broken the story as early as 2014 and in the ensuing years we continued to report on Johnson’s drug addiction and rehabilitation, but it was only when the Detroit News broke the story in 2023, that anyone – really no one – noticed it.

In the case of GTJ Consulting and Johnson, the fraud had an eerie similarity to how other NAMFS members such as the NAMFS Board of Directors Secretary, Heather Berghorst, had overseen millions of dollars systematically defrauded from Labor. A simple search of Foreclosurepedia or the US Bankruptcy courts in Michigan will reveal the entire sordid details.

And while I have no love for NAMFS members let alone those whom are national and regional order mills profiting on the backs of Labor each day, the reality is that embezzlement is back. Much like NAMFS 3.0: Lie Hard With A Vengeance, it is a tale of firms refusing to keep even the most basic of security protocols in place which NAMFS itself screams Labor must do. I point this out as there is not a single law, rule, or regulation which NAMFS members have not offloaded upon the shoulders of Labor – all of which have come with price cuts instead of increases! And as the #TwoForVerisk, NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller and NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski have overseen not only the collapse of NAMFS itself – #95 is the number of firms attending the latest NAMFS #FraudFest compared to hundreds just a couple of years ago – they now are the poster children of antitrust. Attempting to coin the recent SpaceX failure, NAMFS members are calling it a rapid unscheduled disassembly of membership. And while in the past Miller, Mr. Aw-Shucks and Wink and a Nod, had forever launched threats and intimidation against Labor and most especially Foreclosurepedia, the reality today is that he is nothing more than Blow Hard With A Vengeance.

This year, we are already out the gate with roughly a million dollars worth of  embezzlement – almost half of that verified and pending criminal indictments – the reality is that the time for responsibility has finally come for those whom issue the work orders to follow their playbook forced upon Labor and implement it themselves. In fact, I would submit that financial stress tests should be placed upon firms issuing work orders and that further, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should finally come clean with the statistics of failure within the HUD Management and Marketing (M&M) Field Service Manager (FSM) contract. HUD’s premise that it is allowed to spend US taxpayer’s hard earned money and yet the US taxpayer is not grown up enough to know the bitter truth of how it is squandered just doesn’t pass the smell test. This is especially true when tHUD continues to hire the same washed up firms that they have documented have no ability to perform and pose a clear and present danger within the HUD M&M FSM. It is the black eye that has followed HUD for decades. In fact, the only legitimate reason for continuing the protection of offenders like this is to keep the wheels of fiscal irresponsibility churning.

Look, I am not going to tell companies how to take the time to read their ledgers. After all, the morning financials should be side-by-side with the work orders complete and in field. What I am going to say, though, is that when, not if, I find that the funds lost from these company’s employees criminal actions are placed on the backs of Labor to repatriate, I am going to drill down so deep it will take a proctologist in order to sit down for the next six months. With a bankruptcy rate totaling $135 Million in book value to date – not counting the NFN Involuntary Bankruptcy – and the collapse of NAMFS itself, I would say it might be cheaper to reach out to professionals for consultation when it comes to running a business than face the spectre of collapse.

The days of zero transparency and the defraudment of Labor are long gone just like the #TwoForVerisk will soon be. Get your affairs in order because class is in session!

The National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) #FraudFest 2023 began its six hour festival today much like the train wreck budgetary talks between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy. Everyone knew that the Verisk timeshare presentation that #TwoForVersik NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski and NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller were serving up would be lukewarm, at best. This year, though, NAMFS had to step in to fill the Welcome Reception slot — presuming at a loss of the listed $7,000 price tag. More telling, though, was the fact that only 95 firms — plus NAMFS itself — were attending with 30+ of those as exhibitors. When you break it down even further, you begin to realize that many of the NAMFS stalwarts like Safeguard Properties were obviously missing. The list read much like the Statue of Liberty — Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. They were summed up with firms like Joel Irish’s once great firm, Hawkeye Field Services, Cyprexx Services, Gryphon Group, and First Freedom.

It’s like a sad traveling circus in a Breaking Bad Winnebago arriving in Southern Mississippi selling Black Lives Matter T Shirts. The little red engine that couldn’t has run out of Labor which used to finance the entire weekend, Big Ticket Guest Speaker #FraudFests — at least those conferences used to have value added meaning. Today, though, they are tragic blips on elderly radars of washed up old men whom still grovel and become giddy when the name Mickey Snow is mentioned. It is the #Epic Train Wreck that the Industry did to itself like a bad George Santos campaign ad nightmare with his campaign sign still in your yard.

#95 has come to represent the great collapse of Eric Miller and his Merry Band of Financial Terrorists whom have finally had their Day of Reckoning. Under siege with complaints, accusations of fostering antitrust with their new sugar daddy Verisk, and the lowest membership count in its entire multi-decade history, the NAMFS #FraudFest 2023 was doomed from the start when it chose the same dates as IMN’s 11th Annual Single Family Rental Forum (East). Look, doctors know when to retire; band members know when its time to call it quits after the 5th farewell tour; and hell, even street walkers know when the lipstick isn’t going to work anymore. Apparently, NAMFS hasn’t gotten the Memo yet.

NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller’s post from the Antitrust, Inc. #FraudFest shows the excitement over the Verisk timeshare presentation,

For those waking up after a late night of jetlag and watered down bourbon, we wish you the best. And don’t forget as half of you are press ganged into tearing down your displays by midday, you cannot say we didn’t tell you!

The more loyalty oaths a person signed, the more loyal he was; to Captain Black it was as simple as that, and he had Corporal Kolodny sign hundreds with his name each day so that he could always prove he was more loyal than anyone else. — Joseph Heller

That intro came from a great colleague of mine, Matt Tiabbi over at Substack. And it really makes sense when you look at the collapse of the National Association of Mortgage Field Services. With the NAMFS #FraudFest just about to rear its ugly head down in the Land of DeSantis — or Florida for those of us whom are red blooded Americans and believe that freedom is a way of life best left to individual determination — many are also gravely concerned about the co-opting of NAMFS by Verisk. As we have reported, Verisk now controls the only options for field service work order submission and bidding in the Mortgage Field Services Industry. The NAMFS #FraudFest has now become nothing more than a timeshare presentation funded by Verisk by the #TwoForVerisk Eric Miller, NAMFS Executive Director and Matt Zoldowski, NAMFS President.

Look, here’s the deal, NAMFS members could barely stay afloat during the years of massive money flowing and large levels of fraud. The ongoing National Field Network Involuntary Bankruptcy has been an autobiography of NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller’s playbook as Shari Nott and Jack Jaffa, brother of Safeguard Properties Alan Jaffa, defrauded tens of millions of dollars from Labor and were given a pass by the New Jersey federal judiciary. It set the tone with Labor that neither NAMFS itself nor the federal government were to be trusted.

Today, as the International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST) has entered the scene, things are changing. Recently receiving their Wyoming nonprofit status and now pending their federal nonprofit status, Labor and Management have both broken away from the NAMFS mandate that neither may work together. And with IAFST Membership now controlling the vast majority of HUD Awards, the reality is that the foundations are now being laid for the Industry 2.0 in High Def. What Labor needs to be asking themselves right now is why are their Clients not bringing more red meat to the table. The reality is that nearly 64% of all money streams directly into the Client’s pockets. And when you look at the remaining 36%, a good 20% of that is streaming into the pockets of firms like Verisk. We are talking tens of millions of dollars.

Here are some startling statistics,

From Wolf Street: Home sales plunge, supply rises, prices drop Year-over-Year most since 2012. The median price of all types of previously owned houses, condos, and co-ops whose sales closed in April fell year-over-year by 1.7% to $388,800, the third month in a row of year-over-year declines, according to the National Association of Realtors. A debacle we haven’t seen since February 2012, when the market emerged from Housing Bust 1. From the peak last June, the median price declined by 6%.

So, why on earth, when additionally foreclosure rates are increasing, are your Clients not bringing more work with higher wages? They are not because they know as long as Labor refuses to even care about themselves or their own families, they will always grovel at the feet of the #TwoForVerisk NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller and NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski. And the reality is that no matter how horrible that sounds, the vast majority of Labor are still working weekends as well as doing paperwork late into the evening as their children grow up rarely seeing their parents.

It is time to break away from the firms like Five Brothers whom continue to use the language that HUD adjusted your bid. HUD does not adjust anything with. Why? Because you do not have a Doctrine of Privity with HUD. Your bid is YOUR bid! And when you agree to allow these NAMFS members to tell you what you will work for you are nothing other than an employee. Break free from the lies and the financial terrorism and free yourself this year. Stop funding the lavish jetsetting for Eric Miller and Matt Zoldowski. Join the IAFST today!