MCS expands into property services for government facilities

One of the main vendors providing field services for the mortgage industry announced the addition of a new business line for federal government facilities on Wednesday.

The new government-services division at MCS aims to serve agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of the Interior. It also seeks to  tend to other public land, government housing, military bases, research facilities, and parks.

John Haederle and Shawn Schumacher, both of whom have careers spanning more than a decade in government contracting services, are heading up the new division as senior vice presidents.

Haederle worked for over 25 years in business development and federal contracting.

Schumacher has been in operational and business development roles supporting the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security for over 10 years.

The move into services for government facilities further leverages diversification at a company working to grow beyond its roots in what recently has been a small — but possibly expanding — single-family distressed mortgage market.

The services MCS provides to commercial and private sector real-estate assets across the country are "also in high demand at federal government agency properties," CEO Craig Torrance said in a press release.

Government services offered include exterior maintenance such as landscaping, grounds work, snow/ice management and parking lots. Interior government services include remodeling, renovations, painting, janitorial, handyman, pest control, lighting, electrical and plumbing. The division also is providing occupancy verifications, and inspection services needed after disasters.

Other diversification efforts MCS has recently engaged include the purchase of another properties services firm called Five Brothers. That acquisition recently solidified the company's position in the market and allowed it to add reverse mortgage services as a business line.

Reverse mortgages constitute a small, niche market that many mortgage companies diversified into amid high rates that made originations more challenging. This has created demand for outsourced services, including distressed property management, within it.

The company's other acquisitions over time have included the purchases of Chain Store Maintenance in 2023, M&M Mortgage in 2019, and Carrington's property preservation unit in 2017.

Diversification has allowed MCS to do things such as ask local service providers it works with to tend to or inspect commercial properties to also handle single-family residential in some cases in older to create efficiencies of scale.

The expansion into government facilities could help support and complement the services MCS traditionally has offered at a crucial time.

While historically low origination volumes and delinquencies have limited demand for distressed mortgage services, late payments on government loans have been escalating and tend to be the first to signal a broader market turn.

Mainstream mortgage companies generally struggle with some of the intricacies of the government loan servicing and the number of providers is limited.

That makes it important to the mortgage market that a sufficient number of field services providers like MCS remain profitable and active in case delinquencies rise further.

MCS's name reflects the company's tagline, "making communities shine." It originally was known as Mortgage Contracting Services, but rebranded in 2021 after a recapitalization with new owners in order to bring its name in line with the diversification of its business model.