How do you manage BPO's?

[Tim Jenkins]

Im a broker and own a small RE company with just a couple agents under me.  I have recently started doing BPO's and am curious how people are managing to do so many a month.  I have two agents that are interested in doing them and im wondering if i should take a cut of the BPO's they are doing since i pay for the E & O insurance.  I give them a 70 -30 split, but am wondering what i should do for the BPO's.  Some of them are only paying like $40 so if i take 30% then the agent is only getting $28. 

 

If there are any other agents or Brokers that could possibly help me out to get going that would be great.  Im just getting into the BPO game and would like to get set up to list REO's.  I would like to talk to or email with someone that could guide me. 

 

Thanks,

Tim Jenkins

Jenkins Realty LLC

[Mark Allen]

Hi Tim, a couple things, 80 would be a slow month for me. Once you become really familiar with a companies form your time spent on them should decrease quite a bit, I went from 3-4 hours per bpo about 2 years ago, to 16 minutes for 1 companies form and about 50 minutes for my most tedious form(Pro Teck), not including pulling comps. Difficult jobs to comp will add a lot of time to your bpo. I pull comps as jobs come in in the morning, and autofill the mls data, I wait till early afternoon to take pics which normally takes about 1-2 hours as most of my work is in about a ten mile radius, then head back to load  forms.

One of the best products I can recommend to help cut time off typing is Bpo Automation form filling. It saves me at least 15 minutes per form of redundunt typing, letting me do several more bpos per day. You need to do more than 2-3 per day to make the automation worth it.

On charging your agents, we have a few brokers that charge a flat $25 per month and let their agents keep all the bpo proceeds. They wouldn't be worth doing with a % taken out of each bpo.

 

Good luck

[Tim Jenkins]

Let me clarify that at this point im just letting them do them and keep the money.  But i have heard of brokers taking a cut.  My main concern is i have heard of people doing 80-150 per month.  How is this possible?

[Jose Rivas (DGRA) CDPE, SFR]

I get up at 6 AM and I am taking pictures until 10 or 11 AM, then I do my sales from then till 6 PM, then bpo from 6 to 11 PM, I use automation and I type really fast, Also with practice and market knowledge I can get comps in few minutes, most of the time I know the price range in the area as soon as I get the assignment, even before the pictures, the pictures just get me a better idea of the property condition. but I have been doing bpos for 5 years and I can proudly say that I know my neighborhoods really good, actually so good that I don't use gps anymore.

[Lee Frank]

At $28, the agent is only making $7 per hour, minus the cost of gas to get out and back.  If you are the procuring cause, change the name to the BPO company with the agents.  Let them deal direct.  Also allow them to be paid directly and save yourself the paperwork at tax time. E&O has no effect since they are not dealing with a buyer. For the few dollars you are giving up, you are making a happy camper and a better educated agent.  They could get a listing out of their hard work.  Your contract with them should only be via home sales transactions.  In doing BPO's they are working for wages, not commission, and you shouldn't take a cut of that.  

[Tim Jenkins]

Yeah, thats basically what im doing now.  I just wanted to know if anyone else out there was taking a cut.  I agree that taking a piece of it really wont work well.  There almost not worth the time as it is.  I just wanted to check because i have heard of brokers taking a cut. 

My main concern is how do i manage to do a large quantity of them myself.  I usually do a handful each week and that even takes a decent amount of time.  Im hearing of people doing 80- 150 per month.  How is that possible?