Anyone else seeing the BPO fees falling??

Has anyone else been seeing the fees falling? Yesterday I was asked to do a property inspection for $15.00. My gas would be a gallon (approx $4) at 16mpg in town, a 30-40 minute round trip in the height of our seasonal traffic. Receiving $15 minus gas at $4.00= $11.00 for an hour of my time. I told the rep I don't do these less than $25.00. She put a "note" in my file.

 

Same day, another BPO company wanted me to do a full interior BPO for $45.00, thats my exterior fee, yikes. I really enjoyed doing these for pocket money, but I refuse to do them at these prices. I feel our expertise, years of experience and education make us worth a decent fee, I hope everyone else feels the same. These are BPOs that don't even lead to listings.

 

*My favorite is RELS/Corelogic, they pay 25.00 property inspection, 45.00 exterior, and 65.00 interior and pay the following week. Maybe we should list the good paying ones and concentrate on working for those companies.

 

P.S Broker Price Opinion.com never called me back so they must have found someone to take the $15.00 property inspection without any problem.

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  • These companies are sacrificing quality when they get real estate agents who are willing to do it that cheap. (Reminds me of Asset Managers who use National Vendors.. who sometimes use local handymen who sometimes aren't even qualified to be messing with plumbing..who do Wet winterizations for less than what the products costs!). And then wonder why the majority of our listings suffer freeze damage??? I feel like crying when that happens because my feedback falls on deaf ears. Is it just me, or do I care more about the properties I list than the banks? I treat them like they are my own!

    I recently received a request to do an interior BPO on the cheap.. I declined, asking for more $$. They approved it. When I received the report, apparently another agent had previously had it but must have been very late (it was dated a week prior) and was completely filled out with comments & comps. It was pitiful.

    All of the comps were completely in appropriate. They were using comps in Excellent condition, when the subject property was a Rehab. The comments were one-liners. "good location" and even the final value was way off base.

    My mouth dropped to the floor after reviewing it, wondering if these are the kind of reports I'm competing against. If so, then that's probably why our fees keep dropping.. they don't think the reports are worth the $$.


    I won't bend. I put effort into my reports & will keep declining and asking for more money. So far, I've been lucky in getting approved. I even do simple property condition reports for $30 and still keep on getting them.... so they must find value in the ones i submit.

  • Definitely have seen a fall in fees in my area. I have discovered that if I email or call the REO companies and explain that I would be willing to help them but the fee would need to be raised 75% of the time they will increase their payment.

  • This has been the trend for some time now and the blame lies with the agents that kept and keep accepting these. That's why most brokers I know have BPO teams set up. The only way too make it worthwhile is to do bulk and sub the work out. To do the work yourself is counter productive and will keep you from the real opportunities out there.

    I stopped doing BPO's several years ago once I started to see that they were not conducive to getting listings. None of my brokers took any money from my bpo's and if one ever did it would definitely have made me look elsewhere. I have always got paid direct even though in NJ all checks must go through the broker also. Actually my brokers didn't want the additional headaches from them. I have actually been contacted by a company from India that gets you set up and does all the work for you. You give them your info and they sign you up with all the companies. You just provide them the comps and they do the report for $15. Funny thing is they can actually do the pictures also for an additional $8. They pump out over 2500 bpo's per week.

    Unfortunately this trend of declining prices will continue because a lot of agents live and die by that income and they cannot afford to stop doing them even with the lower fees.

  • I hope this doesn't irk anybody but I am seeing fees rising. SAM sent me an order for an exterior for $95. Cutting back on BPOs unless the company assigns listings and/or I am on their approved REO list. That way if Goodman Dean, Keystone, SAM, Equity Pointe, U.S. Res, 3PAM or another REO company sends me something I can get it in within 12-24 hours or so without worrying about BPO mill deadlines. Ocwen/AltiSource, PowerLink, and several others called offering increased fees for BPOs. I told them its not really an issue of money, put me on your approved REO list and I'll do them all day long!

  • we need to create a union of BPO providers! this is getting ridiculous!  We should all realize that doing a quality BPO takes time and an expenditure of mental energy, so this race to the bottom should be resisted. I do think our servicers want quality BPO's and they are under pressure too to provide a product at the lowest possible price. At some point we all have to start pushing back a little just as a matter of self respect. I won't do an ext. inspection for less than $50. Of course I live in a rural area with longer travel distances. If we could all try to hold a certain payment standard we could send a message. It's true that we are making a good point to our service providers when we resist this race to the bottom, we need to respect the value of our services. After all, those who will do a BPO for a below par price certainly cannot be counted on to do a job befitting of the term "fiduciary duty". I take that concept seriously. I want to be of service to those who request my services. But below a certain pay point the whole thing feels cheap and dishonest as a low fee does not reflect the amount of time and effort required to do a respectful job when completing BPO related activity.

  • Yes, I am seeing the fees drop as well.  

  • I started seeing these prices last year and stopped doing all BPO's unless they have 4 or more in the same order in the same subdivision. Just not worth my time after I give my broker his cut.

    • Carla,

      The dropped in fees started for me too last year where my biggest client took a $5 reduction out of our Ext and Int orders.  Anyone who called and asked me to do $20 - $25 Ext or $45 Int, I would politely tells them that that amount is not going to be sufficient for the gas I will have to pay, the insurance I will have to pay, the time I will have to spend doing it and ESPECIALLY(pressed it on them) the RISK that I will take while driving to and from the property.  I would apologize and tell me my minimal fees $45 Ext, $65 Int, if they still can't pay, I'll just respectfully say no.  That way, I won't get a "note" on my profile :)

       

      Steve,

      Your broker should've understand that these are not commission and they're too little to take a cut out of it.  Before I was a Broker/Owner, I used to work for 2 different offices and both of my brokers either turned a blind eye or just plainly tells me to get pay directly from the companies I worked for.  Did you know that the BPO companies will pay you directly if you tell them to?  Booo to your broker for being too greedy imo :)

      • In GA, the agent cannot be paid directly, only the broker. That is state license law. So there is no way around it. And in addition to this I work for a mega broker with over 2300 agents. So every check is treated the same, no exceptions.

        • Steve,

          I think thats state law for everything state :) 

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