Property Preservation Track
For every Narqix team member who joins a property preservation campaign. After this page you will understand how the industry works, who pays whom, which side of the desk you sit on, and which pages to study in which order.
Track: Property Preservation · Role: All Work Order Desk roles · Time to complete: 20 min
Welcome to the Work Order Desk
When a homeowner in the United States stops paying the mortgage and leaves the house, the house does not look after itself. Grass grows. Pipes freeze. Windows get broken. Trash builds up. The company that holds the loan is required to protect that empty house until it is sold or handed over. That work is called property preservation.
Thousands of houses need this work every day. Every job starts as a work order: a digital instruction that says which house, which tasks, which photos, and which due date. The Work Order Desk is the Narqix team that keeps those work orders moving, clean and correct, from the moment they arrive until the money is paid.
You will not visit a single house. Field crews do that. Your job is to make sure their work is proven, accepted and paid. In this industry, work without proof is work that did not happen.
Coach's note: the best desk people think like an auditor and act like a teammate. You check every photo as if a stranger will try to find a mistake in it, because a stranger will. Then you help the field crew fix it fast and kindly, because you need them tomorrow.
The chain: who is who
Money and rules flow down the chain. Work and proof flow back up.
INVESTOR or INSURER
Owns the risk on the loan. Writes the rules, the price limits
(allowables) and the deadlines for preservation work.
│
▼
SERVICER
Manages the loan for the investor. Must protect empty houses.
Buys preservation services and gets reimbursed by the investor.
│
▼
NATIONAL PRESERVATION COMPANY
Receives orders from many servicers. Sends work orders to local
vendors. Checks quality. Bills the servicer.
│
▼ (sometimes a REGIONAL COMPANY sits here as an extra layer)
│
LOCAL VENDOR and FIELD CREWS
Small and mid-size contractors in each county. Do the actual work.
Take before, during and after photos. Write bids. Send invoices.
▲
│
NARQIX WORK ORDER DESK
The offshore back office. Works for a local vendor (Side A)
or for a preservation company (Side B).What each layer cares about
| Layer | Their biggest worry | What makes them happy |
|---|---|---|
| Investor | Paying for work that was not needed or not done | Clean proof, prices inside limits, deadlines met |
| Servicer | Losing reimbursement because a vendor broke a rule | Orders completed on time with full photo proof |
| Preservation company | Rejections, late orders, and a bad score with the servicer | Vendors who update correctly the first time |
| Local vendor | Not getting paid, or getting paid late or short | Fast approvals, clean invoices, steady order volume |
Simple way to remember it: the investor makes the rules, the servicer pays for the work, the preservation company manages the work, the vendor does the work, and the Narqix desk proves the work.
The two kinds of Narqix clients
Narqix serves both sides of this industry. The skills overlap a lot, but your point of view changes.
Side A: Vendor Desk
Client: a local vendor or contractor who receives work orders from one or more preservation companies.
Narqix runs their back office:
- Pull and accept new orders from each client's portal
- Prepare crew packets and route support
- Photo intake, sorting, labeling and QC
- Complete updates in the client's portal
- Write bids from crew notes and photos
- Build invoices and chase payment
You protect: the vendor's approval rate, score and cash flow.
Side B: Network Desk
Client: a regional or national preservation company that manages a network of local vendors.
Narqix runs their vendor operations:
- Recruit and onboard vendors county by county
- Collect and track documents and insurance
- Assign orders and follow up on due dates
- QC vendor submissions before the servicer sees them
- Review bids against limits
- Keep vendors informed and compliant
You protect: the company's quality score with servicers and its vendor coverage.
Coach's note: on Side A you are the last check before a preservation company sees the work. On Side B you are that preservation company's check. Same checklist, other side of the table. Learn to see the work through both sets of eyes and you will be twice as valuable.
Never do this: never share one client's orders, prices, photos, vendor lists or scores with another client. If Narqix serves a vendor and also a company that sends that vendor work, the two campaigns are separate teams with separate logins and separate files. If you notice an overlap, tell your Team Lead the same day.
Words you will hear on day one
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Work order (WO) | The instruction for one property: address, tasks, due date, special notes |
| Client's portal | The preservation company's website or app where orders arrive and updates go back |
| Work order platform | The vendor's own system that collects orders from many clients in one place |
| Update | The completed report you submit: answers, photos and comments |
| Before, during, after | The three photo stages that prove each task |
| Bid | A price request for work that was not ordered or that costs more than the limit |
| Allowable | The maximum price the investor will reimburse for a task |
| Kickback or rejection | The client returns your update because something is wrong or missing |
| Due date | The date by which the update must be submitted, not just the date work is done |
The full list of more than 60 terms is in the Glossary page.
How the desk is organised
| Role | Main job | Side |
|---|---|---|
| Work Order Processor | Accept orders, prepare crews, submit updates, fix rejections | A (also B for order review) |
| Photo QC Specialist | Sort, label and check every photo before it leaves the desk | A and B |
| Bid Writer | Turn crew notes and photos into clear, priced, approvable bids | A and B |
| Invoice and Accounts Receivable Assistant | Invoice approved work and make sure every payment arrives in full | A (B for vendor payables) |
| Vendor Network Coordinator | Recruit, onboard, track and manage vendors for a preservation company | B |
Every role reports to a Team Lead, who owns the queue, the shift plan and the client relationship.
Learning paths
Study in this order. Do not skip the core path, even if you already know your role.
Core path (everyone, week 1)
- This page
- The Order Lifecycle
- Order Types Guide
- Photo QC Standard
- Glossary
- Daily Desk SOP
Role paths (week 2)
| If you are a... | Read next | Then practise with |
|---|---|---|
| Work Order Processor | Role guide: Work Order Processor, then Bids and Estimating | Field crew follow-up for missing photos, Order status update to client, Past-due order escalation, Email pack |
| Photo QC Specialist | Role guide: Photo QC Specialist | Field crew follow-up for missing photos |
| Bid Writer | Bids and Estimating, then Role guide: Bid Writer | Bid approval follow-up |
| Invoice and AR Assistant | Role guide: Invoice and Accounts Receivable Assistant | Invoice follow-up, Email pack |
| Vendor Network Coordinator | Role guide: Vendor Network Coordinator, then Vendor Onboarding Checklist | Vendor recruiting call, Vendor onboarding follow-up, Past-due order escalation |
Certification
You are ready to work live orders when you can:
- Explain the chain above in your own words in under two minutes.
- Pass the Photo QC scorecard on five practice orders with no critical fails.
- Name the photo set for a grass cut, a lock change and a winterization without notes.
- Calculate cubic yards and united inches correctly.
The three rules of the desk
- Never submit a photo that was not taken at that property, on that visit, for that order. Reusing, borrowing or editing photos is fraud. It ends vendor relationships and can lead to legal action.
- Never mark a task as completed unless the photos prove it was completed.
- Never invoice work that was not ordered or not approved.
The work order instructions and the client's current guidelines always win. This Academy teaches the common standard. When the client says something different, follow the client and tell your Team Lead so the campaign notes are updated.
Check yourself
1. Who writes the rules and price limits for preservation work?
The investor or insurer that owns the risk on the loan. The servicer and the preservation company pass those rules down to the vendor.
2. On a Side A campaign, whose approval rate and cash flow are you protecting?
The local vendor's. You work for the vendor and make sure their updates pass the preservation company's review and their invoices get paid.
3. What does a Vendor Network Coordinator do that a Side A processor usually does not?
Recruits and onboards vendors, tracks their insurance and documents, assigns orders to them and follows up on their due dates for a preservation company.
4. A field crew offers you last month's photos of the same house because "nothing changed". What do you do?
Refuse. Photos must come from this visit for this order. Reusing photos is fraud. Ask the crew to return, and tell your Team Lead if the due date is at risk.
© Narqix Academy
See the full Property Preservation learning path
Pages in this section
- The Order Lifecycle
- Order Types Guide
- Photo QC Standard
- Bids and Estimating
- Role Guide: Work Order Processor
- Role Guide: Photo QC Specialist
- Role Guide: Bid Writer
- Role Guide: Invoice and Accounts Receivable Assistant
- Role Guide: Vendor Network Coordinator
- Vendor Onboarding Checklist
- Daily Desk SOP
- Work Order Desk Glossary