Over the first quarter of 2025, foreclosure activity in the United States ticked upward for the first time after a year-long lull. A total of 93,953 properties recorded foreclosure filings during that time—an 11 percent increase from the previous quarter, although still slightly below levels from the same time in 2024. In March alone, nearly 36,000 filings occurred, marking a 9 percent year-over-year rise. Even as some regions showed temporary dips in foreclosure starts, completed foreclosures surged—up over 30 percent in certain metro markets. Observers point to servicers pushing through pandemic-era backlogs and rising economic distress among borrowers. With unemployment slightly up and interest rates still hovering near historical highs, the pool of distressed assets continues to grow. Yet while these trends hint at opportunity for those servicing the industry, the reality on the ground for those doing the work—namely Field Service Technicians and Inspectors—is far more precarious. For every foreclosure filed, a network of underpaid, overworked laborers is deployed into neighborhoods across the country, and their challenges are growing as fast as the caseload.
Field Service Technicians, the often-unseen laborers who perform property preservation work like winterizations, board-ups, grass cuts, and debris removal, are bearing the brunt of this surge. As foreclosure volumes increase, so too do the demands on these workers—without any meaningful increase in pay. Many technicians report being dispatched to wider geographic areas, stretching their vehicles, their gas tanks, and their time without added compensation. A single day’s route might now span dozens of miles more than it did a year ago. And yet the pricing structure for this work remains stagnant, often unchanged since the post-2008 crash era. In fact, in some cases, pay has even decreased due to competitive underbidding between national contractors. The logic of the industry appears to be simple: the more work there is, the less each individual task is worth. The Field Service Technician, standing in the mud and rain photographing services performed on a vacant home, feels the absurdity of this arithmetic acutely. At the end of the day, the net pay barely covers costs, especially when factoring in fuel, tools, insurance, and the time it takes to fight for payment.
Foreclosure auction activity across the U.S. rose to a six-quarter high during the first three months of 2025, fueled by a surge in properties that hit the market after the expiration of post-pandemic protections, according to a report from Auction.com. Completed foreclosure auctions were up 20% from the previous quarter and up 4% from a year earlier, despite some mid-quarter softening. Scheduled foreclosure auctions, a leading indicator of future completions, also rose 14% quarterly to a five-quarter high.
Inspectors, too, are seeing their workload increase, though in a different manner. These individuals, often confused with technicians by outsiders, perform a distinct and critical function: they determine occupancy status, assess exterior conditions, document code violations, and act as the lender’s first eyes on the ground. With more foreclosures being filed and processed, inspection volume has naturally followed suit. Yet instead of more consistent work and better pay, inspectors are facing even more unrealistic deadlines and tighter photo documentation standards. Reports have surfaced of orders being canceled or reassigned mid-route, often with no compensation for the time already spent. Inspectors, who are expected to be on-call across multiple zip codes, are frequently left holding the bag when servicers shift timelines or swap vendors. The net result is a profession that once held a degree of flexibility and independence now finds itself beholden to automated systems and impersonal queues, with humans reduced to little more than GPS-tracked labor assets. The role of the inspector has become both essential and invisible—simultaneously relied upon and disregarded.
Underlying all of this is a structural contradiction in how labor is valued within mortgage field services. The companies that win national contracts from loan servicers often do so by bidding at razor-thin margins. To remain profitable, they pass those savings down the chain—to the detriment of the laborers in the field. Field Service Technicians, mostly misclassified as independent contractors, receive none of the protections afforded to employees. They cover their own fuel, carry their own insurance, and eat the cost of late or rejected work orders. Yet their tasks are dictated down to the photo angle and timestamp, leaving little room for genuine independence. Inspectors, while sometimes W-2 employees through small regional outfits, face similar constraints. They too operate under rigid guidelines and unforgiving turnaround times, without control over job volume or territory. The gig economy framework within this industry masquerades as opportunity but functions as containment. It confines laborers to roles where risk is maximized and reward minimized—ensuring that value extraction flows upward while liability trickles down.
Geographic trends are compounding the issue. States like Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, and Florida are leading in foreclosure rate growth, with California and Texas following close behind in absolute numbers. These markets are notorious for high labor saturation and long commutes. With servicing routes expanding beyond city cores into rural and exurban zones, the math simply doesn’t work for those at the bottom. An Inspector covering five properties over 80 miles of driving might net $150 gross—before fuel, taxes, and wear on their vehicle. In areas with seasonal weather complications, the job becomes even more difficult. Snow and flooding don’t pause foreclosure orders. Crews are expected to complete grass cuts in rainstorms and winterize homes in sub-zero temperatures. Inspectors, too, must navigate these routes, often accessing neighborhoods with limited cell coverage and poor GPS mapping. And yet there is no hazardous duty pay, no travel bump, no meal reimbursement. There is only a deadline—and the unspoken threat that if they miss it, they may not get another job.
What’s worse is that legal protections for these laborers are virtually nonexistent. Field Service Technicians have little recourse when a national contractor delays payment or imposes unjust chargebacks. Many are forced into arbitration, a process where they must contest decisions made by the very clients withholding their pay. In some cases, work orders are reclassified after the fact, denying the technician proper compensation for higher-tier tasks they’ve already performed. Inspectors face similar risks. Their documentation is often the deciding factor in whether a foreclosure proceeds or is delayed. Yet they carry the risk of errors that could result in legal disputes—without the benefit of legal teams or insurance coverage that protect servicers and contractors. This asymmetric liability turns the lowest-paid laborers into the most vulnerable actors in the chain. They are expected to be flawless in execution but are afforded none of the legal or financial tools needed to defend themselves when things go sideways.
Foreclosure auction volume grew most sharply in Arizona (up 151%), Utah (up 100%), New Hampshire (up 80%), Kansas (up 74%) and Texas (up 73%). Among larger states, trends were mixed. Texas, Illinois and Michigan posted annual increases, while New York and Ohio posted declines. Several states, including Connecticut, Colorado, Wyoming and Minnesota, reported foreclosure auction volumes above pre-pandemic levels. REO supply also rose modestly, climbing 2% from the previous quarter and 3% from a year earlier to reach a six-quarter high.
The industry has also become increasingly consolidated, with a small number of national contractors controlling the bulk of foreclosure preservation and inspection work. These firms, often privately held and opaque in operations, wield disproportionate power over pricing and job allocation. Smaller regional vendors have little leverage and often accept subpar rates just to maintain workflow. Technicians and inspectors are then forced to choose between accepting work at a loss or walking away entirely. The result is a downward spiral in labor conditions, where competition is based not on quality or reliability but on who is willing to suffer the most for the least. This is not a sustainable model. It is a race to the bottom that imperils not only workers, but the integrity of the entire foreclosure process. Properties left unmaintained, inspections rushed or falsified, and communities left vulnerable to decay—all of these are consequences of an industry that values paperwork over people.
From an ethical standpoint, the situation is indefensible. These workers are preserving America’s distressed housing stock—often entering dangerous or unsanitary conditions to do so. They protect neighborhoods from the blight and criminal activity that often follows neglected foreclosures. They make it possible for servicers to recover value from defaulted loans. And yet they are treated as disposable, interchangeable, and invisible. There are no hazard bonuses for removing biohazard material. There are no grief counselors after witnessing violent evictions. There are only rejection codes, submission portals, and ever-tightening service level agreements. For an industry so obsessed with compliance and performance metrics, it is staggering how little attention is paid to the well-being of the labor force that makes compliance possible.
Some have called for reform—mandatory minimum rates, travel reimbursements, stronger labor protections. But those calls often fall on deaf ears. Servicers are incentivized to keep costs low. Contractors are incentivized to win volume. And so the technicians and inspectors remain trapped in a system designed to extract every ounce of value without acknowledging the cost to those who generate it. Without intervention—legislative or regulatory—the foreclosure rebound of 2025 may very well mirror the post-2008 period in all the worst ways. A surge in volume, a rush to secure and assess, and a new generation of laborers discarded once the market stabilizes. Only this time, the veil of gig economy gloss makes it even easier to ignore the damage being done.
What remains is a stark contradiction. The same servicers and asset managers who tout ESG goals and community stabilization efforts rely on a labor force they refuse to protect. The same investors demanding timely, photo-documented results are blind to the human cost behind each image. Field Service Technicians and Inspectors don’t need pity—they need pay. They need contracts with teeth, protections against abuse, and a voice in how this industry evolves. Otherwise, we will find ourselves repeating history, with distressed homes littering the landscape and the very people who kept them afloat left bankrupt and broken. If this is the new normal for mortgage field services, then it is time to start asking who really benefits—and who is left behind when the foreclosure storm rolls through.
