What's Your Opinion on the Broker's Price Opininons?

What's Your  Opinion on the Broker's Price Opininons?

Many agents and brokers today take the assignments from the banks, loan servicers or some third parties on providing the BPOs. In most cases it's so called "drive-by BPO". In most cases there is a penny payment offered for not so easy job. At least, it's not easy if you take your job seriously. As many of us remember, it used to be $200-$300 job. Now more and more often I see in my mail offers to do the same job for $40-$50, which I respectfully reject.

However I've recently accepted BPO assignment. It was drive by BPO on the home in Twinsburg, OH , in Eaton's Green neighborhood which I know and love very much. It was more or less decent payment offered. The main reason why I accepted it was that I work with few buyers and have a prospective listing in this neighborhood. I obviously want to know everything about this market. I also wanted to know what my agents do when they accept BPO assignments today.

When I counted all the time which was needed to do this job, I realized that I made less than $20/hour. Gosh, wasn't that stupid! I fooled myself into unnecessary job but at least I did it with quality and knowledge. After all, that was my choice not to argue about the payment, I had my reasons and I don't write this post to complaint about the low fee.

I decided to ask your opinion on BPOs because I see how Real Estate agents catastrophically lower the quality of Broker's opinion on pricing; how low pricing becomes the only selling instrument for the banks and for the agents who represent them; how value of this one of the most demanded and most valuable services for our selling clients is being diminished by the agents themselves.

According to the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers (2011) two major reasons why sellers hire Real Estate agents still are:

• Help seller market home to potential buyers (24%)
• Help price home competively (20%).

Everyone knows how critical is the right pricing for the successful sale of any Real Estate. Not just Real Estate agents but also IT and web marketing companies started offering these services to savvy sellers who may go online today and get the Price opinion not only from epically lousy Zestimate but also from the brokers themselves! And all for free or for just $99!

Despite all the affordable technologies, many home sellers understand that right pricing is only the part of marketing strategy, and that sold price may be significantly better for the sellers whose agents utilize sophisticated marketing, which also includes, besides pricing,  staging, preparation the property for photo session and for showings, availability for showings, targeted exposure and right negotiations . Yes, these services are worth much more than $99 for Broker's Price Opinion or few hundred dollars for including information about the property into MLS. Hiring the knowledgeable agent, who offers a real expertise in local market is one of the best investments any home seller can make. Sellers understand this. Do the agents have a clear vision of this?

Isn't it strange that many Real Estate agents instead keep begging "bank-like" third parties for a penny BPOs. Shall Broker's professional opinion on right pricing become a commodity? Is it good? What do you think?