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Why Would Bank of America Hire a BPO Agent Without the Tools to Work in Sacramento?

By Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker

Real Estate Agent with Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker DRE #00697006

July 09, 2011 03:34 AM

I will do just about anything to sell a Sacramento short sale. Some days, I feel like Cal Worthington. I would eat a bug. Did you know that Cal Worthington just got remarried for the third time? Ha. I thought he was dead. I would stand on my head to sell a Sacramento short sale. Whatever somebody needs, I'll do. I want the transaction to close. You can't be a Sacramento short sale agent without working extremely hard and doing unseemly things that you would never in a million years have to do in a regular real estate deal.

So, yesterday, a BPO agent called. He asked me how he could inspect the interior of a short sale listing just outside the city limits of Sacramento. I told him he was in luck because the home was vacant, and it had a lockbox. Well, he has no way to access the lockbox. This tells me he probably does not belong to our MLS. He says his company does not give appraisers / agents a display key or any way to access the SUPRA lockbox.

This is a Bank of America short sale. Why would Bank of America hire an appraisal company and / or real estate agent, I don't know which, who does not work in Sacramento? It is local custom in Sacramento for BPO agents and appraisers to subscribe to MetroList. That's how an agent can easily access recent sales, although other software companies sell their own programs. I generally use Realist and MetroList together to pull comparable sales. MetroList gives you information not available in Realist.

I cannot ask an agent in my office to drive over to this listing to let the BPO agent inside, nor do I really want an out-of-area agent doing a BPO on this short sale. It should be a local agent assessing the value. I have no idea how a BPO agent can expect to crack the highly competitive Sacramento real estate market without access to the proper tools.

I have asked the bank to hire a local real estate agent. I trust and respect my fellow real estate agents in Sacramento. I don't trust a BPO agent from Stockton, for example. I think we Sacramento short sale agents and other listing agents need to stand together on this issue to improve the quality of our appraisals and BPOs. We should not take the easy way out. The easy way out would be to drive over and put on a contractor's lockbox. But I subscribe to the theory that if you are not part of the solution, you are the problem. Please hire locally, Bank of America. And ask whether your appraisers / agents have the proper tools to do their job.

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Gabe Sanders

Real Estate of Florida specializing in Martin County Residential Homes, Condos and Land Sales - Stuart, FL

Stuart Florida Real Estate

Elizabeth, these banks in their efforts to find the lowest possible cost vendors are costing home sellers and the tax payers a lot of money, not to mention depressing prices more than need be. (And I couldn't believe that cal Worthington is still alive either!)

Jul 09, 2011 03:39 AM

Ben Benita

Ben Benita - Gainesville, VA

Speaker, Author, Game Changer, Coach

If you contact me off here, BBenita@Comcast.net, with the company that did, or is trying to do, the BPO, I can search our database.

I negotiate short sals for agents and I know we have a direct line in to B of A for gettign new BPO values completed (we do this when the BPO numbers come in high......and we all know THAT NEVER HAPPENS)!!!!

;-)

Jul 09, 2011 03:44 AM

Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker

Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA

Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Hi Gabe: I can't imagine an agent doing BPOs without a key for the lockbox. I know there are some situations in which an agent is required to be present for a BPO, but this is not one of those. Yeah, Cal Worthington, still alive.

Jul 09, 2011 03:47 AM

Paula Hathaway, REALTOR, LBA

Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Southampton, NY

...A Local Expert in all The Hamptons

Elizabeth: You must have been reading my mind--just had Chase send an appriaser to one of my listings--he came from Medford, way outside my area here in the Hamptons...he would not use my comps, even though I am a real estate agent and I KNOW my area better than he does. Nor would he take my in-contracts, with proof of pending sale on a house next door!! This is a real problem....Thanks for bringing it up!

Jul 09, 2011 03:54 AM

Chris Ann Cleland

Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA

Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Now this is not an issue I've found locally with our BOA Short Sales. That would infuriate me.

Jul 09, 2011 04:03 AM

Ken Barker Realtor® GRI, E-Pro Certified

Dilbeck Real Estate - Burbank, CA

Elizabeth - When the HVCC came out I was experiencing just what you have indicated. But months later I seem to get more from the local area. Hooray. That is apprasiers. And recently I have had some wonderful conversations with appraisers because they don't shut me out.

As to BPO agents, from what I can tell, they are local. No one has ever called me asking to get in. They are either drive-bys or have a key.

Jul 09, 2011 04:15 AM

Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can!

Red Rock Real Estate (435) 632-9374 - St. George, UT

St. George Utah Area Residential Sales Agent

What is the purpose of bringing in an out-of-area person to take care of something that is deemed local? $25 or $50 difference? I'd be on the phone with the negotiator Elizabeth.

Jul 09, 2011 04:40 AM

Melanie Ross

Coldwell Banker Solano Pacific - Benicia, CA

Benicia CA & Vallejo CA Real Estate, 707-319-2828

Elizabeth, ARGGGHHHH I hate this too. We had someone the other day go out to one of our listings and needed access. We did have a combo on the home but it still pissed me off. I try to get my two cents in when speaking with the banks about using local agents for evaluations.

Jul 09, 2011 04:44 AM

Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL

Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL

Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Elizabeth,

This maybe the problem because of the the company that takes the jobs and then finds agents to do them. Like appraisal management companies. They do sign for MLS, but do not have keys in different areas. And because they have no clue where properties are, they give it to the wrong agent.

BTW, I mentined you in my last post

Jul 09, 2011 05:23 AM

Donne Knudsen

Los Angeles & Ventura Counties in CA - Simi Valley, CA

CalState Realty Services

Elizabeth - BRAVO!!! Good for you!!! I've had that happen a couple of times on properties that my borrowers were buying - listing agent refused access when they found out the appraiser wasn't local. It usually takes a little longer to get the appraisal back because the AMC has to re-assign the appraisal order to a local appraiser (which they should have done the first time) but I don't care. At least I know the property is being appraised by a local appraiser.

Jul 09, 2011 05:42 AM

C Tann-Starr

Tann Starr & Associates, Inc. - Palm Bay, FL

Featured @ Club Chaos

Jul 09, 2011 06:06 AM

Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker

Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA

Put 40 years of experience to work for you

I have not been receiving emails from ActiveRain today so I did not know all these responses were here.

Hey Ben: I do not have the name of the company. He called me when I was in the middle of getting a pedicure. Oh, why did I answer my phone, LOL.

Hi Paula: See, if you had refused to let him in and called the bank, they probably would have had to send another appraiser.

Hi Chris Ann: You're lucky. I get too high of BPOs and too low of appraisals. I suspect in some cases the BPO agents hope the bank will hire them to list the property after foreclosure. The message is the short sale agent is ripping off the bank by listing the property too low, so if they give assign a high number, the short sale will fall apart, the home will go to foreclosure, and they'll get the listing because they promised a higher number. But that's not what happens.

The low appraisal problem is inexperience, cluelessness and fear.

Hi Ken: I am like you. If an appraiser calls me to ask about one of my sold listings as a comp, I always respond quickly and give them the information they need. Besides, some day the appraiser might be working on one of my listings. We all need to help each other.

Hi Wanda: The bank might not know the appraiser is out of area. I regularly see Stockton appraisers claim to work the Sacramento area. It is a 45-minute to an hour drive to Sacramento, and completely foreign to Stockton.

Hi Melanie: If an appraiser is holding himself or herself out to be an expert in an area, that appraiser should cough up the $10 monthly fee for lockbox access and join the MLS, network, get out on tours, study the data, act like a pro.

Hi Jon: Not having that key is a dead giveaway. Pros get the tools they need to do the job right, and they don't try to nickel and dime. Nice blog you wrote -- short sale restless feet syndrome.

Hi Donne: I wonder what they tell the bank? Do they cry and weep about how the listing agent won't play ball with them? How do they explain that they are not ready to play in the major leagues?

Hi C: I love your butterflies. Thank you.

Jul 09, 2011 06:37 AM

Gary Woltal

Keller Williams Realty - Flower Mound, TX

Assoc. Broker Realtor SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

Now if there were a combo box and you could verify the identity he could get in with the combo, but I agree, they need the tools for the area. We are not high paid door openers.

Jul 09, 2011 08:23 AM

Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker

Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA

Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Well, perhaps my email to the negotiator at Bank of America might have stirred some action. I just received a phone call from Clear Capital Appraisal who says the agent they are sending to do this BPO is a member of our Board. I looked up the agent's name in MLS, and there are 2 agents with the same name. One works in San Francisco and the other works in Cupertino. I wonder if Clear Capital does not know where Sacramento is located on the map. I guess we'll see how the appraisal works out.

Jul 09, 2011 08:45 AM

Myrl Jeffcoat

Sacramento, CA

Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

Elizabeth - You are absolutely right! In a world where tools are everything, it simply doesn't make sense for a BPO agent to hobble around not packing the proper equipment. I also agree with Gabe's comments 100%.

Jul 09, 2011 01:55 PM

Steve Mun

Keller Williams Silicon Valley - Santa Clara, CA

Silicon Valley Realtor

Elizabeth, it would sound like a no-brainer. Yet, happens all the time. In their efforts to cut costs, the lenders are not even checking to see if the BPO agents who are doing interior BPOs or "appraisers" even belong to the local MLS in which the property is located. This is neglegence on the lender's part, I believe.

Jul 10, 2011 07:17 AM