Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Field Service Business

Types Of Services Performed By A Field Service Company

One of the first decisions you will have to make is what type of inspections you want to do. It really will not be an easy decision. I am quite sure there are many people doing some type of field services work that I don’t yet know about. However, once you see what the business is all about – and it’s very simple – you can see the need 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 VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card

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

You may find a more focused definition of The Field Services Business as the on-site performance of a task requiring the use of one or more senses such as sight, sound, touch taste or smell for another interested party that does not have the ability or desire to do the task for them. 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 defined here are the categories which are covered in this manual:

1. 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.

2. Mortgage Field Service Companies provide services primarily to mortgage companies, banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions and other real estate lenders.

These Field Service Companies in turn contract with independent field inspectors who conduct the field work.

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 would in reality be 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 requires 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 myself 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

mobile home inspections

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

environmental inspections

face-to-face interviews

floor plan inventory inspection

insurance loss inspection

mystery shopper survey

neighborhood information

and more.

4. Property Preservation (property preservation is covered in its own manual) – 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 (real estate services are not covered in this manual) – 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.

broker opinion of value

broker price opinion

comparative market analysis

estimated market value

flood hazard inspection