Replies

  • It is pretty frustrating with all the fees and low pay these BPO companies are trying to pass off on us. Without us they would have no business.  Who else are they going to find to run around all over this country and have the skill to place an accurate value on their asset.  There is to much BS in the BPO business for my liking.  I started doing BPO's to get REO listings and I can say after over five years of completing 1000's of BPO's not one of them ever led me to a REO listing.  That's not to say I haven't received any REO listing assignments, I have had a few but none of them came directly from completing a BPO.

    With all the fees and non-paying companies it just isn't worth it anymore. There doesn't seem to be as much volume anymore and more and more agents are willing to pay the $50 here for a background check and the $75 there for the certification and the $100 there for some BS registration, all for the measly $35 dollar order that they have to drive an hour one way to get to.   There is all of that and then once you have finally completed the order a couple of days later you receive an email from some person from India saying they don't like the value you placed on the subject because they have a prior that has a different value, they will challenge your comp. selection all while treating you like your some sort of second class citizen.

     All that for a drive-by BPO that isn't really an accurate value conclusion anyway when you think about it.  How can we really provide a true value of the house unless we have seen the inside of it?  Even then it is hard to really place an accurate value on something if all the systems are not functioning, plumbing, HVAC, electrical.  Many times these systems are shut off and the home is winterized when we do interior valuations so it is assumed that these systems function.  

    Anyway, it is frustrating how deep these BPO companies hands are in our pockets.

    • Amen to all of that.  I wholeheartedly agree.  I got a $50 offer for a property about 40 miles one way and on some way out farm road I'd probably never find.  I just ignored it

    • the low pay asset management companies are getting old as well. you get an incompetent asset manager who will attack you and act like you are awful, but yet they are Teflon coated.

    • Welcome to my world. It's why I'm no longer appraising.

      Management companies have the magic formula: find a profession where most people work independently (i.e. not organizationally protected), contact largest clients of that profession and offer cheaper prices based on volume and exclusivity, make bank off other people's efforts while ruining their formerly profitable practices.

      Sound about right?

      • some of these management companies are awful. they are very pushy, quick to attack you, but yet when you need something from them you cannot get a hold of them. I am getting so sick of it.

    • You're right on the mark, John.

      I've pretty much stopped, primarily because of all the BS and new fees. I contacted Clear Capital after they recently told me I had to pay $50 for background check. Said I'd been with them for close to 20 years and another company had just done BG check (for free) would they accept their results in lieu of having to do another at cost?

      They had no interest. Said if I didn't? too bad, they'd find someone else. Which I'm sure they did.

      Play by their rules, the rules THEY make, or else...they feel they have more to offer us than we have to them.

      As I've said in previous posts, they know that there are hundreds of other hungry Realtors behind you, so they don't really care. Too bad our weak National Assoc can't/couldn't do something to improve the process.

      • Clear Capital is one of my favorite companies. Have never had payment problems, few returns and fair payment

  • It seems to me after reevaluating the bpo/reo business for the last 2 years that more f us have been cheated out of money than have been paid and when we do get paid it is well below minimum wage.  With us trying to collect unpaid reimbursements, having to pay for bpo platforms, bpo kickback fees, membership fees in non existent forums for gaining work, background checks, training fees,  certificatin fees, & more.  It does not pay to be in the bpo/reo business anymore.  Most of the asset managers have no idea how to do their jobs or how to treat their realtors. 

    Today I got an email from  Asset Management Consulting Firm, LLC. stating that they help with bpo orders and REO assignments, their owner is a fomer asset manager & his mother worked for Citi.  I replied asking for their pricing.  It seems as if everyone has a gimmick/scheme to get money out of us.   Once I find out more about this company I will post again.

  • I certainly do not plan to pay for it. It is getting quite ridiculous. We got in this Business and Career to make money, not constantly be giving it away to The Board, Mls, Designations, Associations, Advertising, Broker, Franchise Fee's ETC>>>>

    So they pay you a minimal fee, than expect you to pay them. Its like RES.NET taking away there cheaper memberships and only leaving the most expensive one which is way over than 500.00, 

  • After 7 or 8 years doing BPO's SAM is requesting $50 from me for signing up under their program, taking a test and having to pass 20 out orf 25 questions.  What do you all think of this.  Just when my heating bills are astronomical from this awful winter, they want $50 from me which at this time is a hardship.  What should I do?

This reply was deleted.