Joyce Milaszewski, CEO of JGM Property Group has been preaching to the choir in the echo chamber of white noise that former VRM Senior VP Brandon Kirkham operates as her newly minted Chief Operating Officer. For over a week now, JGM has been prancing around publishing about all of the new areas they have taken over as the presumed lowest bidder in Housing and Urban Development‘s (HUD) Management and Marketing (M&M) Field Service Manager (FSM) contract. It was the same speech as last year except with a few more graphics that have fallen short with Labor. Here are the areas that have been awarded for the umpteenth time by JGM,
6A Georgia, 7A AL, MS, and TN; 1P MI; 4P OH; and the massive 3P CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, and VT.
I want to put this into perspective: JGM which is presumed to have submitted the lowest possible bid out of all US contractors has been awarded multiple Regions which they have no long term track record in. Now, while working for the lowest bidder in any setting is generally a guarantee for bankruptcy, I want to put that into perspective for anyone stupid enough to get involved with them, 24 Asset Management, or any other National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) member whom have low balled the HUD M&M FSM 3.12 contract. First, there are no assets in the HUD post conveyance inventory. Look, don’t take my word for it, here is how a Senior HUD official, speaking on condition of anonymity, put it,
From Sept. 2022 to present, HUD REO volume has been hovering around 8500 properties nationwide, and about 80% of those are HECM custodial conversions. While overall inventory is still down, the percentage of HECMs has steadily been increasing, so overall condition of the inventory has been worse overall.
That means only one out of every four assets will be anything more than a $25 grass cut and some photos while you stage a broom. And when you look at the rural nature of say Ohio, or the fact that Michigan also includes the Upper Peninsula which is over 10 hours away from Detroit and on top of Minnesota, or say the wild frontier of Maine whose 3,478-mile “tidal shoreline” is the fourth-longest in the nation, even beating out expansive states like Texas and California, the futility of doing $25 grass cuts comes into perspective — and remember, JGM was the presumed LOWEST bidder of the best and final as that is how the Awards roll out! And if anyone has found an ability not to pay tolls in the Northeast, please reach out to me as I would love to see how Siri is routing you! Building on that, when JGM originally bid the contract, inflation was low, compared to 2022’s 9.1% and today’s 6.3%. Did I forget to mention the fact that by the last business day of December 2022, there were about 11.01 million job openings in the United States?!
Now, remember, this is the same Kirkham whom refused to pay single mothers, firemen and disabled wartime veterans defrauded by Carol Boyd, the then Bronze Star contributor to Eric Miller, NAMFS Executive Director and Verisk guest at the MBA, and his merry band of hacks on VA Contract # VA798-12-C-0012 which I reported on ten years ago! Anyone getting that revolving door theme here?!
It is not going to get any better in the Mortgage Field Services Industry. Period. Wolff Street has a great piece that came out on the heels of the Verisk — oops NAMFS as I get them confused anymore — prognosticators. Foreclosures have ticked up from historic lows but remain near historic lows. In Q4, the number of consumers with foreclosures edged up to 34,280, just below Q2. During the Good Times before the pandemic, there were about 70,000 consumers with foreclosures, more than double the current number. During the Good Times before 2006, at the low point, there were about 150,000 consumers with foreclosures, over four times the current number.
It is not all doom and gloom, though. Guardian Asset Management, whom still holds nearly all of the HUD M&M FSM contracts under J&As issued by HUD, saw the writing on the wall in more ways than one. Guardian realized, some time ago, that the Industry was changing; Guardian realized that the business as usual of only paying Labor when and what they wanted just wouldn’t fly. Over the last six months or so C Level staff have placed Andrew Maloney in charge of ensuring that accounting was on top of their game. Here is how an email to Foreclosurepedia put it yesterday,
I wanted to give a big Thank You! to Andrew Maloney of Guardian Asset Management for showing compassion and truly making a difference for our company over the last several months! He deserves to be recognized for going up and beyond!
This was not the exception as we heard from multiple Inspections contractors whom, all told, represent nearly 40,000+ monthly inspections nationwide and have all concurred with the above statement adding that they are witnessing an uptick in work. As opposed to firms like Innotion Enterprises, whom simply throws their hat in the HUD M&M FSM ring, time and again, Guardian has been out landing contracts which appear to be buttressing their moves into the Maintenance and SFR space. By way of comparison, here is how one contractor spoke of Safeguard Properties,
I have actually made the decision to exit the property business and I have been interviewing for 9-5 jobs. SG [Safeguard Properties] fucked me over hard. They have decided to go into insurance-related stuff that cannot end well for them.
So, how does this all translate for Labor? Well, the obvious statement is that Guardian seems to be unique in wanting to make sure Labor gets paid. Second, Guardian staff are ensuring that Labor has options — options which are far more lucrative than what JGM is offering — available as the HUD M&M FSM J&As expire. And finally, when you sit down to determine whom you work for and what contracts you choose to service, remember your actions send a clear message to folks like Brandon Kirkham whom, ten years later, is still recalcitrant and refuses to admit fault in the Carol Boyd fraud.
