This is a short story of a property in a neighborhood where I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin. For the past 15 years 1833 N. Palmer St. was owned and occupied by a family, now it is part of the foreclosure “mill” which has plagued thousands of neighborhoods across our country. I first noticed the property about 4 or 5 months ago when I saw somebody stapling a notice on the front door, it read “property owner notified to contact the XYZ lending group.” I knew that the foreclosure process had proceeded to the point that the lender was going to take the property back unless the property owner could come up with the funds to reverse the legal action already started. Another dilemma for this family but an opportunity for a field inspector!
In January of 2011 after the legal posting, I saw a guy walking around the house taking pictures, I knew who he was, a field inspector. I stopped in and introduced myself and yes he was doing a drive-by field inspection for the lender. His name was Dave; I asked him how business was? “More than I can keep up with, this is my third this morning!” (It was about 9:15am). He told me he is averaging over 75-80 drive-by inspections per week, double the volume he did in 2009. He said the next step on this property was to contact the lender and have them arrange to have it boarded up along with correcting a few other items he was noting in his report. I asked him if he would be doing that, “No but I have a good friend who I will refer to the lender” The boarding up of a property and keeping an eye on it’s condition is another type of work that field inspectors can do. It’s called property preservation. Learn more here: http://www.getpaidfromfieldinspections.com
Well as this short story ends the foreclosure crisis continues. Dave and I and thousands of field inspectors across our country have found an opportunity to build our businesses on. This financial mess is going to take 3-5 years to correct itself according all of the so-called housing experts. In the meantime if you would like to learn more about how you can get paid from field inspections, review my e-book: An Inspectors Guide to Field Inspections.
See my field inspection videos at this link. http://www.youtube.com/inspection007
