# Dear HUD



## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

Dear HUD,

For the past two years I have been engaged with you on a distant level bringing the properties of your custody to market. My connection with you was with CooperCiti-West, whose property managers were proficient and a delight to deal with. Today I can open up the Hud homes for sale website and see amidst all the counties I've serviced the properties listed for sale that have my signature on them. I can scroll through the listing photographs and see a property that has been meticulously cleaned with an attention to detail and all HUD hazards addressed. These are my children, the Phoenixes I helped to become reborn from their ashes. The places I helped to become the homes of new families.
I conducted my work with a commitment to honesty and integrity. I ride for the brand. I never left a property I needed to return to. The listings I see on your for sale portal is testament to my work.
You paid me fairly for the efforts I put forth, and the results were marketable assets. 
Yet now the efforts I once put forth have been cast aside for avarice and incompetence. I am a dedicated professional preservation contractor, adhering to all insurance requirements and other such professional practices. Yet I am now asked to prostitute my business to your low bidders who would demand I place your assets at risk by engaging in testing techniques that no sane custodian would attempt. (My company being one of them)
I will be very interested to watch the HUD Homes For Sale website to see how quickly the NJ homes reach marketable condition in the near future. AS I have jumped ship on your BLMCO/MarketReady alliance of Villians, Thieves, and Scoundrels (Local12 VTSU )
Good luck on seeing the quality workmanship delivered here in NJ by my company and a few others,.as Im sure most have bailed as well.

When the poo hits the fan,.. and the properties are languishing in limbo due to unqualified vendors,.. look me up. But you'll have to pay me for what I'm worth. 
Is a few hundred dollars extra in preservation work worth a ten thousand dollar difference in increased retail value due to good work in pre-market efforts by contractors such as myself? You tell me. Get rid of the clowns like BLM.

See you when the walls crumble.


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## bigdaddy (Mar 3, 2013)

Words, meet deaf ears!


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

It would seem you have mistaken them for someone who cares.


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

_No illusions here. Merely venting._


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## lpntac (Jul 2, 2013)

*Reply*

We hear you. Used to do HUD properties in Ohio for years. This new contract is a joke.


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

HUD sold their soul to the devil,..I do not choose to do so,.. at least not to their devil. 
If I'm going to sell my soul,.. I'm gonna choose another devil a few floors above the current level. Perhaps it's time to adjust the sails and steer towards other headings more appreciative.


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

APPSLLC said:


> _No illusions here. Merely venting._


I had a serious conversation with a high up at a national today. I was told in very specific language that they expect the big regionals to maintain a 35-50% late average and they are aware of quality concerns but turn around is their focus.


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## newreo (May 30, 2014)

HUD should have gone local long time ago. 
they have local representation, that would be cheaper for them and less issues. 
Also we have new rules here that Banks has to sell their properties in 6 weeks or else. Then city takes over and investors will buy them. So, foreclosure in many areas of WI will go to null completely soon


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## Integrityfieldservices (Jul 28, 2014)

From direct conversation with a very "connected" HUD employee (no details to keep his identity anonymous) HUD will more than likely come back full circle and locally contract due to an extreme down swing in national performance in the not so distant future. Even HUD has limits it seems.


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

I've no doubt this home made video will shortly be yanked off youtube.. but for now... I'm there..


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## IPS (May 24, 2015)

APPSLLC said:


> I've no doubt this home made video will shortly be yanked off youtube.. but for now... I'm there..
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpydQuy2zuc



Oh man, I just grabbed soda and popcorn! Where did the video go?:vs_smile:


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## Integrityfieldservices (Jul 28, 2014)

Video is down.....:vs_frown: Any way to host somewhere else?


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

(Re-edited to remove a few typos)


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## newreo (May 30, 2014)

Good video, but what is with handrails? 
Man, looking at them from the code compliance and just from the consumer end, can't HUD come up with normal guidelines or something?


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## madxtreme01 (Mar 5, 2015)

APPSLLC - have you found anything worth while in NJ? We are only about 20 min away from each other. I know we are competition but I'd be interested in sitting down and discussing this shi**y industry.


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## G 3 (May 3, 2015)

Is it just me, or are others thinking that there is something up with this? Joined in 03.2016, posted several times, included a video, then took it down? My P&P senses are tingling...Something just isn't right.


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## newreo (May 30, 2014)

G 3 said:


> Is it just me, or are others thinking that there is something up with this? Joined in 03.2016, posted several times, included a video, then took it down? My P&P senses are tingling...Something just isn't right.


Guardrails are killing me. Just from that point of view he is legit, who will do handrails like that if not for HUD? what is with missing railings and then post this in the video as proof of good workmanship?


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

newreo said:


> Guardrails are killing me. Just from that point of view he is legit, who will do handrails like that if not for HUD? what is with missing railings and then post this in the video as proof of good workmanship?


My apologies,.. I agree,..the 'handrails" or "safety rails" depicted in the video were thrown up hastily without the best materials - not the best representation of our normal work. We were out far with limited resources and this was an un-noted problem. My property manager was satisfied the "fall hazard" was addressed. We were not asked to return due to unsatisfactory results. 

The video was taken down and re-edited to remove those images and correct some typos in the copy. You can not re-load an edited video to it's former link.

If your spider sense in tingling, it is not due to any misrepresentation of my business. 
Like many, my venture into strange universe this began a few years back where I carefully researched and prepared myself to undertake this challenge. I acquired my FEIN,along with my state tax #, insured my business through York-Jersey and sigend with Lib Mut. for my W/C. I cut no corners. I am a former Marine and I do things carefully and thoroughly. 
I was not going to operate without being fully legal.
I began my career soliciting the nationals. My first company was Cityside Management, where I realized I did not wish to be a property inspector visiting occupied homes interviewing tenants and owners facing eviction, and recording every fekkin appliance serial #, etc. Then I worked with NFR and Cooper Citi-West. I found NFR to be a pain with their cost estimators who saw fit to chisel down every bill I submitted for services. Cooper Citi-West kept us quite busy for the last two years. And my experience with HUD work was really quite profitable and CCW never threatened me or demanded I do things beyond my limits and expertise. 

I started this business with the idea that the experiences of my life gave me a set of skills that could be useful in this venture, and they proved to be so. But the underlying motivation was to ( I realize now how ludicrous this notion appears.) try and build a business that I could grow and perhaps pass on to my son. When my father passed away he left my sisters and I a bit from the thirty year career he held in a job he hated. I have no such pension to leave my kids, but maybe I could leave a business behind. The real challenge was not learning how to approach this business wisely and earnestly, but to figure out if I could build it with the son I'd been estranged from for the last ten years since my divorce. It meant living together working together. We not only grew my business several 100% working together, we repaired a lot of scars from our past and he came to realize his father was not the a-hole he had been brainwashed into believing. 

Whatever happens to my business from this point forward is uncertain. I know I can not be the lap dog BLM wants me to be where I am expected to sit-up, beg and roll-over on command. I worked too hard to get here to sell my soul to the devil.
But sink or swim, I did what I set out to do. I built a business based on hard work and a commitment to quality workmanship ( two letters of recommendation from Cooper Citi-West) and I re-connected with my son. I'm proud of what we made together. 

And I am grateful for the comments and critiques as all come from voices far more knowledgeable than I. 
"Improvidus, Apto quod Victum" - Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome 
Semper Fi.


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

APPSLLC said:


> My apologies,.. I agree,..the 'handrails" or "safety rails" depicted in the video were thrown up hastily without the best materials - not the best representation of our normal work. We were out far with limited resources and this was an un-noted problem. My property manager was satisfied the "fall hazard" was addressed. We were not asked to return due to unsatisfactory results.
> 
> The video was taken down and re-edited to remove those images and correct some typos in the copy. You can not re-load an edited video to it's former link.
> 
> ...


Great post! Thanks for sharing.


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## APPSLLC (Mar 9, 2016)

Craigslist Hack said:


> Great post! Thanks for sharing.


thank you CLH. 

for my critics,.. the arm chair quarterbacks who can pontificate on one image depicting a bit of MacGuyvering to solve a problem,...Bless them for they've apparently never faced an "oh **** what do we do with this?" scenario.
Improvise, Adapt and overcome. 
I'm just tryin to do some innovative marketing for my business. It may not be perfect,.. but it's out there.
and btw.. 
where's your video? 
Eat my dust.


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## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

APPSLLC said:


> thank you CLH.
> 
> for my critics,.. the arm chair quarterbacks who can pontificate on one image depicting a bit of MacGuyvering to solve a problem,...Bless them for they've apparently never faced an "oh **** what do we do with this?" scenario.
> Improvise, Adapt and overcome.
> ...


Too many guys around here obsess ove quality when the banks do not care. If it looks good in pictures, gets them paid, and no one is going to get hurt it's usually good enough.

We as a company have never done a single job in this business the way I would want it done on my own house. The work we do in the private sector is far better than what we do in preservation. I have had multiple conversations with other contractors and with Asset Managers regarding quality and the orders of the day are generally fast, cheap, and functional.

The guy spending extra money on materials, and labor, spending that extra 15 mins on a lawn edging and raking clippings, etc. He is hitting less jobs in a day than the guy doing the bare minimum to get paid. 

I'm not advocating shoddy work. I am saying if you want to do top shelf work, go be a contractor. Become a craftsman, take your craft to the next level. You won't do that with an XYZ work order in your hand at a vacant home where no one even sees your work.

I know a guy who did this work for 5 years without a weedeater and for 3 years without a push mower. He just didn't cut the back yards if his rider didn't fit. Would I do that? NO WAY! but I don't really care to cut grass period. Grass cuts are time I could be spending making real money.


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## newreo (May 30, 2014)

Craigslist Hack said:


> Too many guys around here obsess ove quality when the banks do not care. If it looks good in pictures, gets them paid, and no one is going to get hurt it's usually good enough.
> 
> We as a company have never done a single job in this business the way I would want it done on my own house. The work we do in the private sector is far better than what we do in preservation. I have had multiple conversations with other contractors and with Asset Managers regarding quality and the orders of the day are generally fast, cheap, and functional.
> 
> ...


That is a point. HUD Work is low pay low quality work and HUD is ok with it for the most part. Middle feeders make it worse for everyone on top of it. 
I never advocated for top notch work in P&P and sadly there is no place for it. But when I see the guardrails are missing and it's not done per code, yes we still have to respect the local codes I start questioning. If HUD can't pay for it, don't do it. Sadly, I think the issue is with not knowing local codes. We sent many orders to reassign for being modified or cut, actually that reminds me why we don't miss this line, it's full of bs, most of which comes from regional or nationals that never spent a day on the field and come up with guidelines and prices and have no clue what construction business is. 
The good thing is that our local government is now making banks sell foreclosures within few weeks, so we should see decrease in foreclosures in our area close to 0


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## madxtreme01 (Mar 5, 2015)

during grass cut season we cut around 300 lawns a week with 3 crews working 5 days a week. I have never once edged in the 7 years I have been in this biz, weed wacking is done maybe 2x a season, and my blower rarely comes off the truck. I have 2 mowers, a 61" rider and a 36" stand on. If both don't fit, I turn back in the order that it is not possible to complete. That rarely happens as most gates can fit a 36". I carry ramps in case there is some sort of retaining wall, but that's about it.


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