2014 Business outlook of the Property Preservation Industry

There remains a great demand within the mortgage default servicing industry for property preservation/field services across the nation.

Regular property inspections to determine occupancy status, property condition, neighborhood trends and other factors provide vital information for lenders, servicers and investors to protect their assets while in many cases helping with community revitalization efforts. Vacant property registration services and building relationships with code enforcement officers enhance these efforts.

In addition, today’s advanced mobile technologies are improving real-time reporting and tracking by field services providers to their clients. More accurate discovery of damages and bidding on needed repairs, on-site QC inspections and advanced internal quality control inspections, score-carding, and other process improvements help field services providers to better serve their clients.

Of course, beyond the typical deferred maintenance and poor condition often found on properties in default—especially if they are vacant—wildfires, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and even severe drought negatively impact properties in large numbers across the country. At our Property Preservation our nationwide in-field insurance adjusters gain access to disaster areas faster than many field services company representatives can—in many cases faster than the homeowners themselves.

Access to the impacted areas and the properties therein, of course, is vitally important for field services providers in assessing the extent of any damage, securing bids, communicating with their lender/servicer clients, beginning the process of filing claims, then initiating and completing necessary repairs. It is critical for property preservation companies to have such “boots on the ground.”

In fact, advances in geo-coding technologies are making it easier for best-in-class field services providers and their clients to better establish what collateral may be affected.

Defaulted loans, however, continue to generate the largest number of work orders for field services providers. Depending on whose predictions you choose to believe, the outlook for the remainder of 2013 and early 2014 would seem to portend the potential for continued slow growth and possibly another rise in foreclosures in many parts of the country—this would be particularly true if we were to enter into another recession, which, of course, very few economists are predicting.

Continued unemployment rates above 7%, low consumer confidence, higher taxes/fees for many Americans (including those connected with the Affordable Healthcare Act), the aforementioned slow economic recovery, inevitable disasters and so forth could all conspire to keep property preservation/field service providers quite busy in the foreseeable future.