The wait is over! For nearly two years, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been tinkering with the Management and Marketing (M&M) Field Service Manager (FSM) 3.12 Awards. And while we are going to discuss the Awardees later, first and foremost we need to talk about the elephant in the room: 18 month old bidding which did not anticipate a red hot labor market; record setting fuel prices topping $7 a gallon and anticipated to double; and meteoric inflation at over 8%. More on point, though, with HUD Mortgagee Letter (ML) pricing which has not increased in 30+ years and a mandatory $15 an hour pay rate for federal contractors, the question that presents is whether or not these Awards will mean anything even if they survive protests.
The serial fraud which has run rampant throughout the Mortgage Field Services Industry since the 2008 Financial Crisis has always been offset by volume — volume from the distressed asset inventory. There was always a way to bury the losses by stacking services on pending assets awaiting servicing. Those days are gone. As to are the days when Labor could be lied to with the statement that the cheap price is offset by volume. And it does not bode well for the few remaining National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) hucksters remaining.
Three of the Awardees — 24 Asset Management, JGM, and Spectrum — have a storied history in the Industry. That history is either good or bad depending which side of the table you are sitting. The reality, though, is that all of them have shortcomings. With 24 Asset Management it was the fact that Foreclosurepedia had to inform them that their entire website was NOT SECURE and risked exposing Labor’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII). With JGM it appears that all of their key personnel required on the RFP to even bid were all Rent-a-Nobs and had to be replaced. And with Spectrum, well, they haven’t ever experienced an actual contract with the US government since — ever!
We will keep you up to date on all of the insanity — including HUD’s inability to even keep track of their Awardees on SAM — as the weekend continues!
