“Mortgage field services” is the highfalutin term for going into foreclosed properties and preparing them to be resold by the lender. For This Industry, Rising Foreclosures Are Good for Business:
Mr. McFalls owned and operated a gas station before he got into this business in 1999. He had heard about field services from a friend and saw more opportunity there — for someone with a strong stomach. For one thing, people sometimes leave pets behind. ‘We found a beautiful Great Dane, starved to death,’ Mr. McFalls says. Dirty needles and clogged toilets are other occupational hazards. In some homes, says Robert Preston, who runs a field-services business in Grand Rapids, Mich., his crews have found decomposed bodies. About a decade ago, while Mr. Preston was helping with an eviction in Indiana, a man being forced from his home shot himself to death, Mr. Preston says.‘After a time, you just become desensitized,’ says D. Scott Smith, who ran a field-services business in Baltimore for about eight years before changing careers. He now invests in real estate.
Mr. McFalls says he feels sorry for some of the people whose belongings his crews cart away. But he thinks many people get into trouble simply because they have made bad choices, buying expensive cars and other luxuries instead of paying off their mortgages. ‘The majority of them are just living far beyond their means and putting themselves in that position,’ he says.