Here's What You Can Do With Your "Drive by" BPO!

I've done them for five years, and used to average 120/month.  My average over the last year is $54/order.  I would still do that many but I simply burned out.  I still do 30-40 a month and they are still worth it. 

If it took me that long to do a form, it wouldn't be, but I can generally do the form in 20-30 minutes, and I usually have 8-10 sets of pictures to take each time I go out.  It doesn't pay at all to do one at a time.  You have to do lots, or none at all.

Ive been told that the road to REO listings is to do BPO's If thats true I would do them for free, If its not true, I wouldnt do them unless i could count on enough to earn $1000 per month. As someone already said: unless you can do a lot, dont do ant at all

Does anyone know...If you do enough BPOs will you work your way to becoming an REO listing agent??

As long as starving agents are willing to do these type of value for $50 the banks will keep on requesting them.  If the industry as a whole is unhappy the a line in the sand must be drawn and a fair value needs to be paid for the service or no service will be given.

I'd do it for selected companies. BPOs opened up doors for me to REO listings, and I would consider it more of an investment than an income stream (although, it isn't that bad, when there are bulk orders).

Jane Pacheco

I didn't realize this was such a point of contention in real estate.  Are there other equally-provoking yet little-known situations like this in today's real estate practice?  Thank you.

I feel your pain on the BPO's.  They sure aren't for everyone.

I live in a small area so it barely cost me a gallon of gas to drive around and get pictures.  I only do them for one company because they do pay and they have never rejected a BPO.  When I first started doing them they did take awhile to do, now I can get the form done in about 45 minutes if I have all my pics and information in front of me.  For me they were a great way to learn the market and know what's out there with the constant comp searches. 

I will accept BPO assignments from companies whose input system is easy to use and a great amount of detail is not required (don't want to be confused with providing an appraisal since I am not a licensed appraiser). 

I make a quick check of public records and the MLS to see if the difficulty of the assignment and the time required to give a decent report is worth the price, and I see if the location is within a reasonable distance of other business I may have before accepting an assignment.

If it meets my requirements and can be completed quickly, I'll accept it for the $50-60 being offered in my area.  I don't have any illlusions of getting listings from it, but I do find it helps me keep up on values in some areas of town that I may not normally work.

I don't do BPO's, basically because my children are not starving yet.  I guess if they start looking mal-nutritioned, I'll have to re-think my attitude.  ;-)

Vowed to not accept another until I was paid and did my last one in March and have not yet received payment.  Every time I call they have lost(claim they did not receive) some form which I promptly resend.  Hopeless.

Seems like a great way to cover our day to day costs, until I read some of the comments. I'm gonna have to re-think doing BPO's.

I haven't seen Renee jump into this yet.  I know there are some agents who have done well doing BPOs.  It's not really a direction I have taken.

Thanks for this post. First for confirmation they don't lead to REO's, not to say a very small % of agents may luck into a listing. Second, I'm not a moron because I thought I was the only agent it took hours to complete one. I started doing bpo's about a 11/2 ago. A fellow agent, REO agent told me it was the way to get into REO's. Although I never seen her do a bpo on any other properties but her listings? Oh well I fell for it. I thought I was the only one that took 6+ hours to do a bpo. I have never got a solicitation for a REO. I have noticed the bpo companies have reduced the fees to mostly $40. I have also realized it takes away a lot of time from my family and life to do these things. I have stopped accepting them. Too bad we don't all band together and refuse to do them for less than a $100. But I too realize someone will always jump at the chance and I'm not jumping any more!

Real Estate is my second career and most of my colleagues look down their nose at my first 31 years of work, I was a laborer.

In polite conversation they will talk about how overpaid American workers are and then whine about other agents cutting commissions to get listings.  While they remark that assembly line work is easy, overpaid and unskilled, I would challenge any of them to do it 8 to 10 hours a day 5 to 7 days a week (often weekends off were not optional).  Now to have read all the comments in the discussion above about a 25 dollar per hour snap shot and paper work just amuses me.  

Whether you do a BPO or not is your choice.  But a job, like a house, is worth what someone will pay and someone will accept.  It is that simple.  If one feels the work load is too great, say no thank you.  

Reduced fees are a fact of life in every other line of work (this side of investment banking).  We expect it of city employees, teachers, factory workers, fire fighters, and even public safety workers.  Then we complain about suffering the indignities of a down market.

Next time we shop at Wal Mart, let's remember that an American worker didn't want to accept what they are paying in China to make that product.   People here are paying our commissions because they haven't figured out how to export our jobs, YET.  Pretty soon they will use Google Earth to do BPO's from a call center in Asia.

Wow, sorry for the rant.

Would anyone be willing to email me the contact information for the companies they do BPOs for?  I am looking to pick up some extra work, but I am not sure how to break in to this portion of the industry.  Thanks!

Outsourcers aren't handing out REOs to BPO agents, like they used to. That said, I recommend that agents do a fair number of BPOs to hone their valuation skills.

I've been a "vendor" for about 30 different evaluation companies, or BPO MILLS.  I now work almost exclusively for 2 of them.  I do them only intermittently now, and I make as much with these 2 as I could for the other 48 combined!!  

These 2, their fees are fair for the area, and have 5 day lead times.  I am able to trip chain these visits into my regular day and it really "just works out" nicely for me.

I still receive emails though from different mills asking me for a NEXT DAY order and offering 30% less than the other guys that want it in 5 days.  WTH???

Plus the two I still work with, their forms are really simple and literally take me 15 minutes of data entry to complete and submit.

Pays the phone bill when times are slow....and pays for dinner out when times are better :)

Each to his own though.