I got an email from Consolidated Analytics today regarding a new service they are offering a client. It would require a "BPO agent" to go out to the property, place a sign/rider in the front yard, place a sign in the front window and two open house signs in the property, take a photo of the exterior to prove you went, and then send it to CA. They call the service marketing recognition.
The email asked agents to reply if they are interested. Does anyone have any idea what this might be all about? If it is a typical REO property, why not have the REO agent do these steps when the listing is assigned? Could this be some sort of listing without a local agent? Maybe there is a simple explanation and I am just being a bit slow on the uptake?
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The less you have to do with them the more isolated they are. Move on to a project that you feel you accomplished something.
I also received this letter and sent it straight to trash. To have a license, an education, pay thousands of dollars in membership fees to be used as an errant boy? I bet you even field service would sneer on this job. These companies have no shame. I also will not be helping the schemers such as auction.com who lie to buyers and steal our commissions.
They pay $15.00 in my area of Colorado. I think my time is more valuable than that.
Well I signed up with them towards the end of 2013 and I think I have been sent one BPO since then. The fee I negotiated for that BPO was reasonable if I recall, because they needed someone to get it done.
I got this email yesterday about doing this sign work etc, and was curious about it. They conveniently didn't mention the fee or the client.
If I were to do this, the fee would have to be significantly higher than $15, especially since I service quite a rural area, where the average drive from my house to any town is at least 7 miles. The way I see it the fee should be the cost of my gas + my hourly rate. Assuming I use a gallon of gas and spend and hour or two doing the order, the fee should be more like $40-$50. A bargain, considering the client is essentially selling the property on an auction site and saving by not hiring an agent.
Then there is the ethical concerns of whether I want to be a part of helping a process which is circumventing my own profession by assisting the listing of properties on sites which are essentially Ebay for properties. I was talking about this with the wife yesterday, and it seems to me as though these auction sites may start seeing a backlash from agents, who simply refuse to help a client buy or sell through such sites. If as a profession we are smart, we will make it difficult for these auction sites to try and muscle in on what is essentially our turf.
I might say thanks but no thanks to CA regarding this "service".
I still can't believe a licensed agent would even work for or with these types of companies. Talk about working for the competition ....for peanuts.
In many states their business model is questionable at best. You have to have a licensed realtor and a licensed auctioneer in that state. In some states signs can be only posted by realtors. Nationstar and Ocwen business model is designed all around them not the actual investor/loan owner.
As far as bpo's I won't do any that I know are being used to avoid a realtor where they are using my pics on their auction website. I also won't go out for bpo's unless I can get the amount I want. I did a spread sheet and found when I accepting more I was actually losing money on half or working below minimum wage. Not any more .My price or I will stay put.
So, I got this listing and its been a nightmare with alot of electrical issues. I told the asset manager this was keeping prospectors from wanting to buy even investors. Anyway, they sent an appraiser out who didn't even bring a truck or later to climb the roof to see the condition and he didn't even go inside the attic when we walked through the interior (I reported this to them). Turns out he was an appraiser about 6 hours away with no affiliated who told me he got paid $600. Then they recently ordered an interior BPO and the agent was out of town, I look them up and found their license status was "NBA" (NO BROKER AFFILIATION). I contacted the vendor again and made them aware of this situation that this agent should not be doing BPO's (1) no with a broker and was possibly not practicing local BPO guidelines (2) would not have access to any local MLS boards to even submit a factual report for the home and area. I was surprised they still wanted this agent to do the BPO...Go figure? Here we listing agents have to go 1 or twice a week to keep an eye on these properties, turn utilities on, open the doors for out of town agents and their clients etc..etc.. and at the end still end up with no commission when it goes to auction or gets reassign to an unethical agent.
You know what is equally frustrating? When you do a second opinion BPO and the first BPO agent was a complete moron and used ridiculous comps because they have no understanding of the market or property in that area. As you might guess, the report gets flagged and then they (the BPO company) expect you to justify why the other agent was an idiot. I try to be diplomatic as possible, giving the prior the benefit of the doubt because of the low number of comps available, but sometimes, stupid is just stupid.
I've done a couple BPOs for them, all were for properties going on Auction dot com, which seems to be their main client. I rarely accept because they offer $35 for a BPO (drive by), but sometimes if they can't find anyone I can get them to $65. As Douglas said they're only offering $15, not worth even starting my truck unless they have about 20 in a small area or they have one right next door to somewhere I'm going anyway. They probably can't even get a field service contractor to do this for that fee.
I guess now they are too cheap to even pay a listing broker 1% or 1/2% to handle auction properties.
I've gotten to the point that I only taken certain class's to keep up my education. (1) short sale course (1) REO course and the minimum that is required to keep you in NAR/CAR status. Right now it does not pay to keep taking all these extra courses everyone markets when more and more companies are closing shop and BPO's are not coming in as they use to. Unless your a BROWN NOSER/FAVORITE with your broker and get all those listings, your not making much. It's a shame because BPO's was always the extra way to have those extra funds to help keep up your household bills and other expenses and now that's gone. Besides most of those like Res.net, REO industry, REO world etc..etc...don't guarantee you anything and just rip you off on membership fee's. Anyway, again I've gotten to the point that I don't even care if I get anymore listings because dealing with these asset managers are just a pain in the (???). They abuse you to no end and disrespect you. I prefer to wait till the market turns and just go back to the way real estate was to be and that was KNOCKING ON DOORS. But you really can't do that today because the banks have already pre-contacted the homeowners in trouble and controlling the short sale assignments which again ends up on the BROWN NOSER/FAVORITE AGENTS desk to work on once the bank assigns to the broker office. It's really hard out their for newbies because they have to compete agents that already have a head start for many years and have all the connections, not to mention the additional unethical business from their brokers who steal your business too.
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