It's Not Just A BPO!!!

Many agents rush through BPOs and don't take the time to do a good job on the comps and give a proper value recommendation. However, the BPO is an important tool for an AM to do his strategy and submit to the committee for approval. Once a strategy is approved the asset is listed and becomes part of the AM's portfolio. AM's are compensated and rated on many factors. One of those is the percentage of FMV the property sold for. AMs get pretty ticked off when a property sells far below the BPO he took into consideration to get his strategy approved. Not only does it throw of their required % to meet goals but also makes them look incompetent in front of superiors. Some agents brag about how many BPOs they do and wonder why they don't get any REO listings. It's about quality and not quantity if you're looking for REO listings!
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Comments

  • George-The strategy you wrote about your previous comment is a good one. Just try to avoid letting AMs persuade you to take listings at much higher price than they should be. Citi lists their assets aggressively and as a consequence the listings sell fast and most at highest & best offer.
  • What do you mean Carlos? Please let me know because I definitely don't want to hurt my business. What strategy are you referring to? Thanks.
  • George-Good luck with your strategy and hope it does not cause you business from others in the long run.
  • I think one of the reasons that happens to me, in regards to the AM's trying to sway my value slightly, is because my team is fairly new. We only have about 40 listings and it's with about 10 different AM's. I just think there wasn't enough time between us yet to build up that trust. I don't mind going over every comp the 2nd bpo agent used. I see it as a way to build that trust and soon he/she will see that we know our markets well. Most will just say that my bpo came in at xxx and the appraisal came in at xxx and could I just doble check my figures.
  • Carlos, You're 100% correct. I think if you're too busy to do a great job, don't do it. AMs need our help since they can't be in our marketplace. They rely on our expertise. I have had to fire an AM that tried to force me to change my value. That asset was assigned to a different agent and sat on the market over 200 days.
  • Denise & Billie-A listing agent valuation is extremely important because they are believed to know the market they are going to sell the REO listing. Most AMs rely heavily on the listing agent BPO for the reasons you both pointed out.

    Jesse-Those are the same agents who complain about the lack of REO listings.

    Genaro-Yes, it is also crucial for the agent to know the market the particular asset is going to be introduced into.

    George-REO listing agents should be prepared to defend their BPO and not be railroaded into modifying their expert opinion. That being said the agent better know the market and provide a good reason for their value. If your AM does not take into consideration your knowledge of the market and you are being given values that do not sell perhaps you should consider firing that AM.

    We are now in a situation were an agent was persuaded to raise her BPO value and is in a pickle because she has only received one offer much lower than FMV. If that property does not sell for list price it will throw off the AMs percentages and his whole REO team will not meet their goals. I cannot emphasize enough how important the BPO is to all!!!

    Debbie-That's a good strategy to have in regards to BPOs.
  • Any and all BPO's should be accurate. You should be able to back up your work. I'm more concerned with the accuracy of BPO's than the number I can do each week. What if you end up with the listing and you did poor job with the BPO, how do you explain that to AM?
  • It's a two way street though. Plenty of times I have done my bpo and the AM doesn't seem to agree with the price I came up with and lists it much higher only for it to sit on the market until several price reductions. One obstacle in my area is that our MLS systems very rarely provide square footage which can cause problems for the AM because the bpo's come in with very different square footage sometimes. More than once I had to go over another agents bpo with my AM and explain to him comp by comp why the other agents value is off. It amazes me to see what some of those other agents submit to the bank and their hoping to get listings from that!! I learned the hard way that us listing agents also get graded on our bpo value vs sale price. Now I take the extra time and take everything into consideration when doing my reports. It's always in the back of my mind that there's a possible loss of business if I take the bpo's for granted or try to sway them so it's easier for me to sell. Part of the issue is these bpo companies dropped their pay rate so much that, for the most part, only newer agents are willing to do them. I know I wouldn't be kin a rush to do a bpo for $40-50 dollars.
  • Carlos- you are 100% correct. A well done BPO is the key to proper pricing. As a Broker that was also licensed as an Appraiser for 15 years, I would say that a BPO done by a local agent is oftentimes more accurate than a full appraisal done by a non-local appraiser. The agent knows the nuance's of an area. An appraiser may define a neighborhood by looking at a map i.e. North by XYZ River, East by I highway etc, whereas an agent will know which particular streets command higher prices.
  • Analizing the condition and location are the two most important elements to provide an accurate price opinion on any property.
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