I got an email yesterday from RealtyPilot about a class that would give me "special preference" for bpo orders. It is an "extensive and valuable course", for $59. And by the way, here is your discount code! Did anyone else get this? It sounds like another way to generate revenue to me. Any comments??
Thanks.
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I tried RealtyPilot's platform for about 8 months and I basically broke even with the cost to use the software and the number of BPO's I received. Green River was the only source that I ever received orders from. I actually think the overall idea of RealtyPilot is solid, it just does not currently have the client base to back up the number of BPOs that appears to be promoted when signing up. Over the past 15 years, I have taken these classes and I have passed on many. To date, it does not appear to have made any difference. I think "current or potential" with Realty Pilot could just reveiw a Broker's score card and see if they should trust you with an order. I hardly think someone with a poor rating is going to get work just because they have taken any class and to be honest, every one of those past classes were about the same in the overall premise. It is absolutely a revenue stream. I think the last class that I had taken was required by Keystone Asset Management and I think most of us know where that ended.
I also received the email. While BPOs have slowed, our regular business has picked up. I'm not paying for another course.
I would like to clarify just a few things. Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 and the BPO Traffic Controller environment are simply the software that our clients use to order, process, and review BPO's.
Realty Pilot does not order BPO's, our client's do.
Realty Pilot does not set the fees paid, our client's do.
Realty Pilot does not pay Brokers/Agents for their work, our client's do.
What we provide is a software system that makes BPO's easy to complete and interfaces automatically with nearly every major client platform. We give you a mechanism to track all of your BPO work in one place and we do not have any control on how our clients place and order BPO's through the system. We give them options of placing the BPO directly with a specific Broker/Agent or allow them to open the order to all serving the zip code of the property.
Also within our system is a way to contact just about every asset manager and company that is ordering BPO's. With that information, you can establish your own business relationship with those that order BPO's and make sure they are assigned to you.
Realty Pilot was created BY brokers to HELP brokers and agents. We provide a cloud-based software platform to make you more efficient, not to generate BPO orders for you. That is your job to generate your own income stream.
Yes, you will have more exposure to potential orders from many companies when you pay for the system vs. the free service that comes with the dedicated client company like Green River, but that is your choice.
We are not a non-profit service provider so, yes, we generate a very small fee when our BPO forms are used or Agents subscribe to our platform for their use, and yes, we generate a small income with training that has been requested by current or potential clients. We too, agree, that everyone should get paid for the work or service one provides.
We have never promised that using Realty Pilot will generate more business for you. It will EXPOSE you to more opportunity and give you some tools to help YOU increase your business, but we will not do it for you. And, it will ENHANCE your current working environment and make your more EFFICIENT at doing BPO's.
Long before I joined Realty Pilot, I had many broker/agents tell me about this platform and how much time and energy it saved them and it happens at conferences all the time. Those are the broker/agents who see the power of the platform and have used it to GROW their business while others only see things "drying up".
I'm tired of these BPO companies telling me I need to take their training and I need to pay for it. First of all letting everone and their brother into their systems doesn't assure quality agents. Secondly if they'd stop reducing fees and broadcasting the assignments out they'd get better quality reports. Giving it to whoever can accept the fastest for the cheapest doesn't work. You want cheap, fast and good? Let me tell you you can only get 2 of those 3.
Years ago when I started doing BPO's most companies sent orders to their top brokers first and if they declined or didn't accept within a few hours then they'd send to everyone else, now they just blast them out. I recently had a client call me to do an order for $5 less than my normal fee. I told them bump the fee up $5 and I'll do it. They declined but they called me 5 times in 3 days for this order. Instead of paying a proven, experienced agent $5 more they spent days calling everyone in the area trying to place it at a reduced fee.
I'll gladly take your training, it's likely redundant, but I'll take it. But my time should be investment enough. I'm not paying for it. It's just another way to milk us REO/BPO brokers for more money with the promise of more business that never comes. If we all stand up and refuse they'll stop, and if not let someone else have it. I'm not paying for training I don't need for the privaldge of working for less than minimum wage.
I totally agree
I wanted to add my two cents here as well. After getting into the BPO business in late 2006, I have seen the industry evolve so much. When I read this posting I thought of a few things, one being NABPOP and how their efforts have made such a positive impact to our industry with the BPO Standards and Guidelines and the other is how each company offers their own training on how they want you to do their BPO orders.
Spending time learning each companies criteria is invaluable and should be focused on, but if you need and want more training it should be available for free or have a track record and testimonials from folks that have invested their hard earned money into training and seen it give them a good return on their investment.
If you aren't learning something new and challenging yourself to be better in some way, every day, then why are we here!
Warmly,
Nicole Ocean
I agree, Nicole. Training should be for free. The problem I have is that I have been working for some of these companies for 10+ years and NOW they want me to pay for training on how to use their system? I am already well versed in their system so I feel taken at the end of the day. I have seen lots of companies decreasing their fees and now they want more money from us? I just don't see the value in it.
I agree. I've been doing BPOs in a very rural area since 2003. There are only a few of us still doing BPOs out here because they have become difficult to get through QC due to our very depressed, very rural market. I resent being asked to pay for classes from each company. Perhaps it's just my mood today, but I don't want to give out more money to "possibly" get more BPOs/
With so many people in the BPO and REO business, sometimes BPO mills see agents and brokers as disposable and insignificant, even if you have been working for them for years, have a high vendor rating and such. That's just par for the course, unfortunately. So, I think in order to thrive in this industry you have to roll with the punch, jump thru hoops when asked so that you keep business and enough work to make it worthwhile.
A lot of people I talk with say the same thing as Michelle, "I just don't see the value in it....." If I can offer some insight that may help out here, I want to point out that these big BPO Mills have had to fight to stay afloat in the last 5 years specifically. They all fight for clients because the BPO Mills themselves are seen as disposable and replaceable because another BPO Mills is waiting for their business at the drop of a hat.
This thinking has a trickle down effect, on the people doing the BPO and REO work.
As companies have cut their fees in the last 5 years specifically and as many companies have gone under, the ones left are the leaders. But keep in mind that they have pressure from their clients all the time from the fees the BPO Mills charge them, to the requirements that the clients ask for on the various forms that BPO and REO agents fill out on the BPO Mills platform, the list can go on and on.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it isn't entirely the fault of the BPO mill here, it comes from the top down!
Warmly,
Nicole Ocean
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