# Msi?



## source1 (Oct 21, 2012)

Anyone ever dealt with MSI? I tried searching and couldn't come up with anything. Any input would be great. Thanks


----------



## BPWY (Apr 12, 2012)

I worked for them briefly.


They wanted me to do an occupancy inspection. 


I told them I was unable to make a determination. Took the photos and reported conditions.
Some prick at their office changed my undetermined to vacant and I got a secure w/o.
I go to do that and there is some one there claiming residency.

They back charged me the inspection fee AND didn't pay for the trip charge to go secure the property. 
I got double banged. 

I told them to have a nice life............... with out me.


----------



## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

We do work for them. It's mostly insurance repair stuff to properties we have with other nationals. It's weird we will be bidding a roof we have bid for LPS a 100 times then BOOM! MSI wants a price then IF the work gets done (1 out of every 50 bids) you can expect to grow old waiting on payment. They pay good but they pay slow.

I don't mind because we are used to it. I like their work it's usually a good size ticket.


----------



## JFMURFY (Sep 16, 2012)

Do some work for them... recently picked-up some new client(s)... used to be pre-forclosure, I see their getting into REO work. Hired some new admin's in the office that certainly could use some intital training in this industry.


----------



## STARBABY (Apr 12, 2012)

source1 said:


> Anyone ever dealt with MSI? I tried searching and couldn't come up with anything. Any input would be great. Thanks


 
Have been with them for years. Work slowed down when they changed hand a few years back. Have been getting some steady work from them lately.


----------



## foothillsco (Nov 8, 2012)

MSI is a good company to work for.

Nobody in this business is perfect but they are good communicators, pay well. You need to stay on top of them for timely payment.


----------



## STARBABY (Apr 12, 2012)

foothillsco said:


> MSI is a good company to work for.
> You need to stay on top of them for timely payment.


 
Need to get better at doing that with all of them!


----------



## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

Doberman Properties said:


> We do work for them. It's mostly insurance repair stuff to properties we have with other nationals. It's weird we will be bidding a roof we have bid for LPS a 100 times then BOOM! MSI wants a price then IF the work gets done (1 out of every 50 bids) you can expect to grow old waiting on payment. They pay good but they pay slow.
> 
> I don't mind because we are used to it. I like their work it's usually a good size ticket.


Doberman,

I just recieved a 350 + line item bid request from them. Looks like its straight out of Exactimate. Have you ever put it back into Exactimate and sent it to them? I know the insurance company is using Exactimate but I'm thinking MSI's cut comes from that and they are expecting us to work for less than those rates. Your thoughts? If you want, just PM me. 

I could spend 10 hours bidding this thing all for nothing. I've got better things to do with my time this weekend if its a waste or time...


----------



## thanohano44 (Aug 5, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> Doberman,
> 
> I just recieved a 350 + line item bid request from them. Looks like its straight out of Exactimate. Have you ever put it back into Exactimate and sent it to them? I know the insurance company is using Exactimate but I'm thinking MSI's cut comes from that and they are expecting us to work for less than those rates. Your thoughts? If you want, just PM me.
> 
> I could spend 10 hours bidding this thing all for nothing. I've got better things to do with my time this weekend if its a waste or time...


Run it through XactimatePRM


----------



## Craigslist Hack (Jun 14, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> Doberman,
> 
> I just recieved a 350 + line item bid request from them. Looks like its straight out of Exactimate. Have you ever put it back into Exactimate and sent it to them? I know the insurance company is using Exactimate but I'm thinking MSI's cut comes from that and they are expecting us to work for less than those rates. Your thoughts? If you want, just PM me.
> 
> I could spend 10 hours bidding this thing all for nothing. I've got better things to do with my time this weekend if its a waste or time...


I have never just fed it back because I don't trust ANYONE. If I am interested in the order I go through the bid item by item and often times it's for nothing. 

That is the rub in construction of any sort. Bidding and quoting work you know you will never get has plagued contractors since the days of Joseph and Mary.


----------



## mtmtnman (May 1, 2012)

Doberman Properties said:


> That is the rub in construction of any sort. Bidding and quoting work you know you will never get has plagued contractors since the days of Joseph and Mary.


Its 1,000 times worse with service companies. At least in the open market i can depend on 40-60% approvals. With bank owned properties it's more like .04- .06% approvals.......


----------



## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

mtmtnman said:


> Its 1,000 times worse with service companies. At least in the open market i can depend on 40-60% approvals. With bank owned properties it's more like .04- .06% approvals.......


Exactly!:thumbsup: On the open market, I land about 70% of the roofs that I bid. This year, I landed 1 preforeclosure garage roof and 1 Freddie house roof. I probably bid somewhere around 90 roofs for service companies....

I'm going to go with Troy's advice. They'll get a bid to hire a restoration company to come out and deal with it. Then I see how serious they are if that bid gets approved


----------



## BPWY (Apr 12, 2012)

Most of the service companies I dealt with the approval rate was at least that low if not lower.


----------



## thanohano44 (Aug 5, 2012)

BRADSConst said:


> Exactly!:thumbsup: On the open market, I land about 70% of the roofs that I bid. This year, I landed 1 preforeclosure garage roof and 1 Freddie house roof. I probably bid somewhere around 90 roofs for service companies....
> 
> I'm going to go with Troy's advice. They'll get a bid to hire a restoration company to come out and deal with it. Then I see how serious they are if that bid gets approved


In the past year, I've gotten around. 20-30 restoration bids on PPO properties. Some with bid fees of up to $1200. 

We landed the work on 2 of those PPO bids. The percentage of approvals isn't high. However, this keeps the restoration contractors willing and ready to give me bids when I need them. We all know how time consuming it is to get a line by line damage report. We replaced around 8 PPO roof jobs this year so far. Those should always be approved. I remember when they used to be approved. Not so much in the last 3 years. 

Hope this works for you. If the restoration companies aren't already charging for bids on bank owned homes, they soon will.


----------



## wmhlc (Oct 8, 2012)

I have never paid for a bid and never will. I would 75% of restoration compaines don't charge for bids in my area.

That weird you guys don't get many approvals for bank owned I run about 90% approval on them. Reo I'm close to 98%.

You using a bid software?

Every bid that I send it with software backing it up I get approved, doesn't take long maybe 45mins to do a complete rehab bid, roofs bids I can do in under 5 mins


----------



## wmhlc (Oct 8, 2012)

Should also add it can take up to 2 years to get approval. I had a super high up at pnc tell me they are required to get 3 bids on everything and they usually approve the bid of the person that they have worked well in the past with regardless of price


----------



## BRADSConst (Oct 2, 2012)

wmhlc said:


> I have never paid for a bid and never will. I would 75% of restoration compaines don't charge for bids in my area.
> 
> That weird you guys don't get many approvals for bank owned I run about 90% approval on them. Reo I'm close to 98%.
> 
> ...


Most restoration companies around here won't bid for free if they know its bank owned. Way too low of an approval rate. It seems like the only bids that I get approved are the ones that are backed up with a city violation. Otherwise the places just sit.

As for software it depends, on rehabs, yes. Roofs no, I have a spreadsheet perfected that I can run a roof quote in 5 minutes. 

I talked with a preservation contractor in Minnesota that works for the same National I do. He says his bids get approved all the time. The only thing I can figure is it has something to do with local laws, fines, violations or something. I have a buddy in the biz locally that believes its because the brokers around here are lazy and just sell them as is. It is amazing to see the amount of tarped roofs and boarded windows that never get fixed. Likewise, its amazing to see hacks and FNG's just throw a 3rd or 4th layer on a roof that I bid to tear off to comply with state building codes. As a licensed contractor, when I bid items, I bid per code. I don't slap up a 2x4 for a guardrail and I won't ever put more than 2 layers on a roof. Tough to compete when the cubicle jockeys at a national or regional don't know or care about building codes.


----------



## thanohano44 (Aug 5, 2012)

wmhlc said:


> I have never paid for a bid and never will. I would 75% of restoration compaines don't charge for bids in my area.
> 
> That weird you guys don't get many approvals for bank owned I run about 90% approval on them. Reo I'm close to 98%.
> 
> ...


You're lucky so far. I know of contractors in CA, NV, UT, HI, WY, MT, AZ, NM, WA etc. they all say them same thing. Once we mention its a foreclosure or abandoned and bank maintained, free bids go away. 

Depending on the scope of the work needing to be done, we are charged $150-$1200 just to get bids. Every once In awhile when a bid is approved, they'll throw in a few free bids. They all use xactimate, SimSol etc. you've got a great turn around rate. Keep up the good work!! We have a pretty good bid approval rate as well. Just not on big $ items.


----------



## HollandPPC (Sep 22, 2012)

What is the bid approval you speak of on here? Lately it seems like submit bid to company XYZ, bid gets denied, XYZ counters with their price 10 times less. I used to get a few approvals now and then but this is insane lately. 


mtmtnman said:


> Its 1,000 times worse with service companies. At least in the open market i can depend on 40-60% approvals. With bank owned properties it's more like .04- .06% approvals.......


----------



## Splinterpicker (Apr 18, 2012)

BPWY said:


> I worked for them briefly.
> 
> 
> They wanted me to do an occupancy inspection.
> ...


We are ina BAD place. I did a inspection on a property that had been cleaned out. NO key in the lock box and I go to open the garage poeople door it is locked NOT a standard key code. I try hte ft door it unlocks but my key wont come out finally get the key out and try a different one in the deadbolt it works. try another one in the dead bolt it works too and the knob set. every key I had worked. I report an unsecure condition and the realtor comes UNGLUEd. I call the inspection assigning company and tey say well if the door was not open upon it is ok ??? WTH?? I am NOT going to report it as such it is MY neck in the noose if a transient opens it and lights it on fire !!
WEIRD


----------



## Wannabe (Oct 1, 2012)

Splinterpicker said:


> We are ina BAD place. I did a inspection on a property that had been cleaned out. NO key in the lock box and I go to open the garage poeople door it is locked NOT a standard key code. I try hte ft door it unlocks but my key wont come out finally get the key out and try a different one in the deadbolt it works. try another one in the dead bolt it works too and the knob set. every key I had worked. I report an unsecure condition and the realtor comes UNGLUEd. I call the inspection assigning company and tey say well if the door was not open upon it is ok ??? WTH?? I am NOT going to report it as such it is MY neck in the noose if a transient opens it and lights it on fire !!
> WEIRD


LOL!!! You just found a contractor that removed the pins OR as what happened to me once (maybe 100x dunno) I discovered totally accidentally that the box of locks from MtMtnMns favorite Country was packed and bagged without any pins so ANY Nuset type key would work the doors. 

Heck there has been times when I was "way out" of our area and.....uhm..... well you know what happened :whistling2:


----------



## GTX63 (Apr 12, 2012)

You seemed mostly concerned from a liability standpoint, so I'll speak to that. Once there were no keys discovered in the lockbox and the locksets were mismatched, you need to notify the client that you cannot access the interior of the house. Reporting that you went as far as you did only sticks you neck out for someone to lop off. I know it sounds ridiculous but it isn't a nice guy biz. If you got in but the next guy can't and there is no key, then your counting too much on the intellegence and honesty of the National.


----------

