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.