Eric Miller’s National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) is in dire straights. With contractor’s locks and padlocks receiving 145% tariffs — these are the mainstay of materials — no one is going to go from a $23 profit down to $9. This is based on the MFS Supply price today of $22.20 per set of knob and deadbolt up to $32.19 plus shipping. On a typical lock change order, a contractor has about two hours of round trip windshield time in addition to fuel. Add to that the insurance, which is now going up due to tariffs, ever present inflation, soaring costs for food, housing, and utilities, no one in their right mind would do a lock change for the typical $42.50 paid today.
As new vehicle and auto parts prices go up to cover the cost of tariffs, prices for repairing or replacing a car after an accident, other damage or vehicle theft will rise. Insurers will pay out more for auto insurance claims and then will likely seek higher car insurance rates to compensate for their higher costs.
In requests for comment from the few institutionally based national order mills, both were met with a wait and see approach. The problem with most C Level personnel at these firms is that they understand default rates and the profit margins there as the International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST), in the Industry’s first ever petition for a NAICS pointed out here. When it comes to the economic ramifications of tariffs, most have never even heard of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 8301.40.60.30 which is the code assigned for Door locks, locksets and other locks suitable for use with interior or exterior doors (except garage, overhead or sliding doors). And then there are the dozens of other HTS codes for things like hasps, hinges, nails, screws, and the HTS list goes on and on and on. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the Trump Administration doesn’t even seem to know what they are or are not tariffing. Complicating matters is that many of the regional order mills are hacking off yet another 30% off of what the nationals pay.
Enter MSI, a Ft Worth based firm that, for years, has never been able to pay contractors on time. During a recent taking of the pulse survey to Labor, there wasn’t a single contractor whose owed balance was caught up in terms of contractual agreement. Moreover, though, a Senior Industry official was quite blunt when it came to warning about MSI in stating that Labor should ensure that they are caught up as MSI “…was on the way out.” Let that statement sink in for a moment as the source was not in competition with MSI and originated work orders as opposed to being the middleman as MSI is. And as many know, the problem with these order mills is that they rarely, if ever, file bankruptcy. Take National Field Network (NFN) whom was forced into involuntary bankruptcy and years later — even after the high speed wreck and death of their owner Shari Nott — still has not yielded a single penny.
Foreclosurepedia is seeing an uptick from Labor in coming to us and requesting assistance in getting paid. The problem today is with fewer and fewer order mills around, the massive shock to the system of those not getting paid is far more dramatic than during the 2008 Financial Crisis. Couple this with being asked by the national order mills to perform services upon the very properties that the regional order mills never paid, Labor has begun yet another exodus. Low volumes + tariffs increasing basic material pricing and operating expenses + lack of pay = No Labor. And with respect to the assistance rendered on the HUD M&M FSM contract above, with respect to 24 Asset Management refusing to pay Labor on federal contracts, maybe it is time that ISN, the mortgagee compliance manager, gets some extreme scrutiny for their refusal to perform their job! I mean it’s not like Sharon Washington or HUD Secretary Scott Turner are going to get involved. Maybe, just maybe, DOGE will take a long, hard look at how US taxpayer monies are being stolen in the aforementioned article.
