James DeBari - Property Preservation 101

PROPERTY
PRESERVATION 101

2ND EDITION

JAMES DEBARI

Copyright 2020 James Debari.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-9882-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-9885-1 (e)

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Trafford rev. 12/17/2019

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To my mother, first and foremost, who raised me most of my life as a single mother. She has stood behind me and has been my rock for all my life.

To my father who passed away way too early in my life but who remains a constant thread in the cloth of my everyday life.

To my wife and children who give me the inspiration and purpose to wake up every day and strive to make it a better day for all of us.

CONTENTS

M y name is James R. DeBari. I owned one of the largest property-preservation/inspection companies in the five boroughs of New York. I started my company with a partner in the summer of 2008. At that time, I owned a pest-control company, I was a REO (real-estate-owned) realtor, and I was investing in real estate as well. When I got a call to do a termite inspection on a house, I would offer a full home inspection. When a potential buyer agreed to have the full home inspection, I called Rob, a home inspector I always used.

One night when I was thinking of new ways to increase my business, I thought, if I could combine my REO real estate sales with my termite-inspection company, I could generate a lot of new business. At the time, the banks were foreclosing on a lot of properties and owned a great deal of them as well. In order for a property to sell in New York, it must have been inspected by a licensed termite inspector.

When I inquired about doing termite inspections for real estate owned by the banks at the REO sales company I worked for, I was directed to an agency that provided this service for the banks. When I contacted them, they asked if I could complete a full home inspection as well. I then called my home inspector, Rob, and asked if he would be interested.

During my phone call with Rob on doing the home inspections, he explained to me that he was performing what were called occupancy inspections , and asked if I would be interested in doing them with him. As I was looking to expand my company at the time, I told him that I could do a few a day in the beginning.

After the first week, Rob called me to do about twenty-five a day. After the second week it went up to thirty-five to forty-five a day, and by the end of the month, we were doing six hundred occupancy inspections for this company. By the end of the second month, we were doing nine hundred inspections a month and needed to open up a small office for a receptionist to upload all the info from the inspections over to this company. Within three months, we needed a bigger office as we were completing over twenty-five hundred inspections a month. Each inspection earned us six dollars, and certain inspections (interior inspections) paid upward of fifteen to twenty-five dollars.

After a while, these companies asked us to install a lock here and shovel some snow there. As we obliged them, they asked for more and more property-preservation services. We then looked into signing up to a national bank asset-management company, Safeguard. Once we started doing work for Safeguard doing the actual property-preservation work, we needed to expand again. We hired five-to-eight guys and purchased some used vans, and before long, we had to move into a bigger office/warehouse. After doing business with Safeguard for a while, we then started applying to more national bank asset-management companies. Soon, we grew our small one desk office into a million-dollar company. At the beginning of 2010, my company was named contractor of the month for Fidelity LPS in the entire continental United States.

This just proves that with hard work and determination in this industry, you can own a million-dollar preservation/inspection company almost overnight. I did it with the help of my partner and with the right personnel, and you can too, if you have the drive and ambition. The mortgage-default industry is booming, and ripe for the picking. If you choose to open a company catering to this industry, be prepared. Its a lot of work and a lot of reward. Its been good to me, and I hope it will be good for you as well. I hope this book will help you in your business venture to avoid the mistakes I made and reap the rewards Ive been able to.

Good luck to you in all of your future endeavors.

Who Is HUD? And What Does HU D Do?

T he Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the federal agency responsible for national policy and programs that address Americas housing needs, improve and develop the nations communities, and enforce fair housing laws. HUDs business is helping to create a decent home and suitable living environment for all Americans, and it has given Americas cities a strong national voice at the cabinet level. HUDs programs include the following:

providing mortgage insurance to help individuals and families become homeowners;

development, rehabilitation and modernization of the nations public and Indian housing stock;

development of HUD-insured multifamily housing;

development, improvement and revitalization of Americas urban centers and neighborhoods;

providing rental subsidies to lower-income families to help them obtain affordable housing; and

enforcement of Federal Fair Housing laws.

HUD is assisted in carrying out these various programs and in managing its own operations by a variety of independent contractors and vendors. HUD also sets requirements, procedures, and pricing guidelines for property preservation, maintenance, and inspections.

Its imperative that you read all of HUDs requirements and guidelines before even attempting to perform an inspection or any property-preservation work. If you dont perform the work according to HUDs specifications, you most likely wont get paid for it.

In this book, Ill refer to bank maintenance companies as vendors, national asset-management companies, landlords, or maintenance companies. Please take into consideration that this book gives a general description of how to perform some property-preservation services and pictures that need to be taken. Keep in mind that every state has its own laws and regulations, and HUDs pricing and specifications are state specific. You should always check your states HUD pricing and guidelines before doing any work on any property.

The property-preservation industry is always changing, and the HUD pricing and guidelines quoted in this book shouldnt be construed as up to date and accurate as of the time the reader reads it. I can only stress the reader consult their states HUD manual for policies, procedures, and pricing. The author and publisher cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies or omissions in this book. This book is only a general discussion of my perception of the business I have owned and operated and not a step-by-step manual, nor is it a guideline on how to perform certain services.