What are Mortgage Field Inspections?
What is this website for?
This website is created as a tool to help people starting in this industry. Most inspectors work as sub-contractors, not employees, which means the company giving you work limited on what they can provide you for training. You are self-employed, so making decisions for your business is your job. Make sure you know what to expect in your specific situation. Our advice is that you should not expect employee benefits like being reimbursed for mileage or other expenses, and you should plan to receive a 1099 at the end of the year and to pay the taxes on your income.
What Are Mortgage Field Services?
To summarize, the Mortgage Field Service industry provides services for mortgage companies. There are various parts to this industry, the only thing this website is going to talk about is inspections. For the most part companies that hire inspectors are not the bank directly, there are other companies that get contracts for these orders and so I will just refer to them as “the clients”. There are many reasons inspections are completed, but most inspections are completed are on occupied properties, and the most common reason is delinquent mortgage payments. You should never assume that is why you are at a property, but it is a common reason.
When completing inspections there are many types of inspections that get ordered. There are no contact orders where you do not approach the house, orders where you are asked to leave a door card for an occupant, properties that have had the locks changed where a walk through has been requested, and even orders where an appointment will be scheduled. More details on all types of inspections will be covered in a later video.
How Inspections Are Completed
This is another aspect that will depend on your specific situation, but almost all inspections are completed using a mobile app. This means you will need a smart phone or tablet to complete inspections. These apps are created to provide instructions and allow you to take photos and fill out questions all through the app. Clients want everything filled out while you are at the property, so the goal is to have inspections go very quickly.
When you receive inspections they will have due dates, some will also have start dates, but there is usually about a 5 day window where you will be able to plan to complete the order. The clients want 100% of work in on time, and the amount of work you get in by the due date affects how much work the clients issue. The percent of work you get in on time is your compliance score. Clients will also look at the quality of the work you are submitting. The details of goals for your area is something you should discuss with your clients.
How To Make Money
Obviously making a profit is the main goal of completing inspections. A lot of people are intimidated at first thinking the prices seem low, but when you understand how the process works you understand how to be profitable. When inspections are issued they tend to come in big groups of orders around the 1st of the month and the 15th of the month. There will always be orders between these times, but these are the busiest times. What typically happens is that inspectors have these groups of orders so that you can plan to complete many orders in one outing. How many you can get done in a day depends on your specific location and volume, but in bigger metro areas 60 or more per day is common, and in more rural areas 40 or more per day is average. The better you plan things to make less trips and less driving means more profit, so that is why being prepared and routing are important – tips for that are provided in some other videos. This is also another reason that compliance score is important, the more work that is on time the more volume clients are willing to give you and more orders means more done in the same areas and more profit.