I lament being in an industry where agents find themselves so desperate they prostitute themselves before asset managers and others for NEXT TO NOTHING for the their services.  I used to get emails requesting BPOs and would review the information being requested and concluded that the Real Estate Agent or Broker is essentially providing all the information a appraiser would provide with the only difference being that the compensation offered is 1/10 th of the amount an appraiser earns.  YOU HEARD IT RIGHT: $40.00!

The true pity of it is I notice that these assigments are scooped up within MINUTES of being emailed.

To be fair, not all offers are that low. Some are offering in the $50 to $100.00 range.

Almost ALL the services that request BPOs will have you waiting 30 to 60 days for your check whereas  appraisers often receives them ON THE SPOT.

I just had a request emailed to me for a BPO and the offer is $50.00 but if you read the 4 pages of requirements you would conclude essentially what I state above: the Realtor© is performing essentially ALL the tasks of the appraiser.  This BPO order spedifies that if MLS pics are not available for comps that you provide -- that you must also TAKE PICTURES OF THE COMPS.  I estimate the working time on this BPO at no less than 2 hours and probably closer to 3 or 4 hours.  Why not just get a job at McDonalds and move up the ranks because they really are a good company and it wouldnt take long before you're making more money there than in this business doing BPOs.

I have to tell the story of a BPO request I responded to.  The offer of compensation seemed reasonable to me: $125.00. I took the pics and then entered in the info on the requesters page.  It did take me longer than I thought it  would and I probably spent 3 hours entering all the info.  I'm not sure if I am slow but I suspect even those that do this all the time would take 2 hours.  Anyway, when I was just about done, except for final comments, and went to take a break, I hit the save button and their system LOST EVERYTHING I HAD INPUTTED!

I emailed the company told them the problem asked them to remove me from their list and NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN.  They replied with an apology and said they worked on the system until 4:00 am to fix it.  Not enough to win me back. 

Well, I would be happy to hear the thoughts of agents who do BPOs.  I dont want to demean your source of income but I cant see how this can be profitable unless you're entirely devoted to this area of work and doing it on a full time basisi - in which case I would think it would be wiser to become and appraiser and do  1/10 th the work for the same amount of money.