July 17th, 2007 → 9:05 pm @ terry
Yesterday and today I worked areas I have nicknamed “The Land of The Shiny Wheels”. I love working these areas, it’s so easy to do a high number of inspections. Yesterday’s secret code is (46•6.50) and today’s secret code is (3•25)+(36•6.50)
I’ve had a lot of calls lately from reps asking about the variety of work that is available. I have spent quite a bit of time going over a lot of it with them and I thought you might be interested in some info on the subject. Here is an excerpt from one of the chapters in my manual:
One of the many decisions you have to make in this business is what type of inspections you want to do. It really will not be an easy decision.
I know there has to be many people doing some type of field services work that I don’t yet know about. However, as I have mentioned before, the need for field service reps is practically everywhere.
The Field Services Business offers a huge assortment of services. Basically, any type of service which involves being on location to use your five senses – see, hear, feel, smell, taste – and report what you find can be called a field service.
Field services, also called field inspections, can be performed for:
- Mortgage bankers
- Commercial bankers
- Vehicle and equipment leasing firms
- Other field service firms
- Banks and financial firms that provide debit and credit cards
- Merchant credit card accounts
- Mystery shopper organizations
- Insurance underwriters
- Software companies
- Medical equipment leasing
- Floor planning creditors
- Real estate investors
- Practically any other type of business
If you would like to narrow the definition of the field services business you could pretty much narrow it down as you please since there are no hard and fast rules or central authority to dictate the definitions. There are however, some commonly accepted defining terms that those in the business understand. The two categories here are where I spend most of my time:
Financial Field Service Companies provide inspections and other field services for mortgage companies, banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, insurance companies, consumer finance and many other types of real estate lenders and non-real estate lenders.
Mortgage Field Service Companies provide services primarily to mortgage companies, banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions and other real estate lenders.
You will notice the only difference between the two categories is the inclusion of services for insurance companies and consumer finance under the Financial Field Service Companies.
The Mortgage Field Service Companies category is actually a more narrowly defined sub-category of the Financial Field Services Companies. Let’s say you elect to do services only for insurance companies. In that case you could properly identify your business as an Insurance Field Service Company which in reality is another sub-category of the Financial Field Services Companies.
You will be acting as an independent field inspector or independent contractor, serving as the eyes and ears of the company requesting the inspection. The services you offer are called field services or field inspections both of which are a visual inspection of property or other collateral such as boats, motorcycles, computers, etc. The service may include interviewing people and taking pictures and normally will always include a written report or uploading your results on a website form.
Independent contractors (independent field inspectors) are sent to do the task for any number of reasons depending on the circumstances and the type of inspection. Field Inspectors are required primarily because the interested party has a need for information about their collateral which can be property, vehicles, etc.
As a small business owner of a local field service company, you will find other income producing business opportunities to perform along with the field inspection assignments. Businesses in every city have needs that require someone from their office going “out in the field”. They may prefer to keep their people “in-house” and let you do the field work.
I have broken the mortgage field services business into five main areas with the various service types falling under one of these five main areas. The five areas and the services falling under each of the five main areas were determined from my own experience but follow a generally accepted view of the industry services. You will notice that some types of services are performed under more than one of the main areas. The definitions of each service are quite simple but they are logical and work for me as well as others.
The five main areas I have identified are:
1. Residential Inspections – any type of inspection of property used as a residence. This normally includes mobile home inspections even though in most states mobile homes are classified as personal property instead of real property.
- Bankruptcy inspections
- Construction funding reports
- Delinquency inspections
- Face-to-face interviews
- Flood hazard inspection
- Foreclosure inspection
- Insurance loss inspection
- Neighborhood information
- Occupancy inspections
- Sale date inspections
2. Commercial Inspections – any type of inspection of property used to produce income. This includes apartment buildings.
- Construction funding
- Construction progress
- Dealer inspections
- Delinquency inspections
- Face-to-face interviews
- Flood hazard inspection
- Floor plan inventory inspection
- Income property inspection
- Insurance loss inspection
- Merchant site inspection
- Neighborhood information
- Occupancy inspections
- Retail outlet verification
3. Miscellaneous Inspections – any inspection that may fall into residential or commercial or be unique. Examples are:
- Boat inspections
- Leased equipment inspections
- Home improvement inspections
- Dealer inspections
- Delinquency inspections
- Face-to-face interviews
- Floor plan inventory inspection
- Insurance loss inspection
- Mystery shopper survey
- Neighborhood information
4. Property Preservation – action taken at any property to protect, preserve or alleviate any damaging condition that may exist. Property Preservation is not an inspection type but it closely tied to the inspection process. Many Mortgage Field Services businesses do both inspections and property preservation. Field inspectors are often asked to report on the quality of the work performed by property preservation companies.
5. Real Estate Services – these services fall outside the category of inspection types most field inspectors will perform. These services are normally performed by licensed real estate brokers, therefore when I have a request for these services I hand them off to real estate broker friends.
If you have any questions about the info, give me a call. I will be on the road at daylight tomorrow. I have a telephone training session that I must attend to so I have to back home by 10:00 am. Feel free to call before 10 or after about 1:00 central time.
July 12th, 2007 → 11:08 pm @ terry
When I get new information, I am very much like a starving man at a free buffet. I will gorge myself on every tidbit of knowledge and return to the information until I am more than satisfied. I’ve been stuffing myself on new information all week; information that will help expand my business.
I know I probably have an advantage that you do not have – my web sites supply me with a continuous stream of new people to talk with and learn from. I’m also very pro-active about learning more and more about the field services business and I’m a big believer in networking. I’ll e-mail or call just to chat and share info.
I decided to talk a bit about the subject of knowledge because I want to stress how important it is that you understand the need for knowledge of the industry.
I have experienced events this week that showed me that I am far from being as knowledgeable about the field services business as I need to be. I have acquired more income producing information this week than I normally get in months.
Here are a few of the things that have happened this week:
These are all very good things. These are the kind of things I would like to see happen to you.
Take every opportunity you can to meet and talk with other field reps – nowadays this is usually by e-mail. Try contacting new companies and contact some that specialize in field services that you may not yet perform and ask for a few assignments to see if you might want to add this type of inspection to your services.
I will not be available tomorrow but I may have time to answer e-mail sometime tomorrow night. My day: (3•25)+(1•35)+(37•6.50)
July 10th, 2007 → 10:30 pm @ terry
The plan for the day went extremely well. In fact, I stayed a little ahead of schedule all day. I did leave early as I said I would. I was out the door at 6:00 am and completed twenty two occupancy inspections and three interior inspections and made the 11:00 am insurance loss inspection with time to spare. (22•7.50)+(3•10)+35.
I did a little work on TheRepReport Ââ„¢ and helped in the office for a while. We have to keep up or stay ahead this week since we have a personal project scheduled for Friday.
My little internet robots turned up two sites that you might be interested in. I do not know anything about the companies but check them out. You might get lined up for some additional field service work.
I will be out the door early again tomorrow. Give me a call.