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    • Congratulations on your retirement . Like you, I have a fee sale, if not acceptable to them , then find someone else. I too,laugh at the $30.00 "Bottom feeders". ....it is cash flow but the forget to take out expenses, you can't drive out of your garage for 30 bucks.. Enjoy life, do what you want, be sure to "smell all the flowers"
    • I am with you Donald! I won't do an exterior for less than $50 and it has to be under 10 miles from me or it goes up. Interior I won't do for less than $65 if it is under 10 miles. I would never do a BPO for $30. Even if your broker does not take money out you still make nothing after you time, gas and expenses. If we all stand together and refuse to take those orders the prices will go back up.

      • interiors 75.00 local 100.00 up for any distance over 15 miles
  • So I have been on this website almost since the beginning, I found it way back, when I got stiffed by some un-ethical and unscrupulous BPO companies. I have followed this thread since then and have made comments from time to time.  It has been quite awhile since I have commented, but now feel compelled after reading the last few comments about the volume slowing and fees for completion dropping.  

    I have made several comments here about not taking BPO's for unbelievable low fees.  I refuse, pretty much any order that I receive, I decline and state it is due to the low fee and state the fee that I am willing to complete the order for.  Sometimes I get a reply back approving my requested fee, most of the time I don't.   The ones that I do receive I am ok with because they are for the negotiated price I set.

    The last few years I have noticed that most of the BPO companies I was working for required us to complete background checks.  An additional cost for us to do business.  One company last year required BPO agents to have General Liability to work their BPO's.  I already had a policy for my REO work so it wasn't a big deal at the time.  It has been several months since I received an REO and I decided to not renew the Gen. Liabilty policy. It isn't required to sell real estate in Tennessee. I didn't think it was worth the cost to maybe go the whole year and not get another REO assignment. And it certainly wasn't worth the cost for the few BPO's I was receiving from this company that required it.

    My point for bring up the background check and General Liability is this, these companies are requiring more and more from us while continually dropping the fees paid to do the work. I personally made a business decision to not comply and not complete orders for such low fees. Unfortunately, there are agents out there who are taking these orders for low fees providing incentive for these companies to continue lowering the fees.

    Interesting side note, despite not complying with the background check, I am still getting offers and have refused them for the fee and explain that I don't have the required background check and have still received the order to complete. One last item, most of the orders I do receive for my quoted price are very rural that no one else is willing to accept. Or they don't know they can request a higher fee.

    • John and Sharon,

      More and more of these companies are requiring background checks with companies that I presume they are in bed with. I did one back in 2013 for Clear Capital and have been successful in having some companies accept that, with others still insisting that I use their recommended company. I have dropped a majority of the companies that I use to do a lot of BPO orders for. Even many that were great companies to do work for have dropped their rates on how much they will pay. I had one just a couple of days ago, that use to pay $50 for a drive by, have an available exterior order that they were only paying $48 for. Valuation Vision only pays $15 for a desktop order. Then you need to wait 3 months to get paid. If you are lucky! Twice I have had to threaten legal action to get paid.  

      I haven't done a BPO in several months because 1. the amount that companies are paying is way too low that unless the property is within walking distance that when I take my dogs on a walk that I could do the exterior photos I wouldn't even consider the order & 2. I feel that my time would be better spent working on getting listings, which would pay off way better than the very limited number of available BPO's I am currently being emailed.  

      • Other than the low fees it is the rejection of BPO orders that is getting me. Obvioulsy you know your market and you would use the best compst available but yet some reviewer sitting in their kitchen is reviewing your order send out comps the find that they want you to look at. Most of the time these are not good comps at all due to distance, different room counts, different styles, closing dates over a year ago etc. but yet you have to look these up and waste more time. These reviewers who are states away from you know more about your market than you do ! The because your order was rejected you drop down the list and now you don't get reports as often cause you have dropped down in stnadings. I have spoken with some of these reviewers on the phone trying to explain why I used the comps I did and there just is not a perfect BPO that adjustments have to be made for items sometimes. Do they care ? No they have it in their head you did not do a good report. It is like talking into a phone with no one on the other end. I have done the background checks and all I did was spend the money. The companies that require them I hardly get any information. I use to get alot of Clear Capital orders but I have not had one this year and I am told by Clear Capital there are alot of agents in my area available to get orders. I tell them I have been with you all for ten years so why is someone who just got a license a year ago getting orders while I am not and they have no answer but yet they want that background check.  I don't get nearly as many of the BPO business I use to get, I have been doing this for thirty years, auto accept has really taken alot of BPO's away and I just won't pay for a person to "capture" BPO's for me. I mention this to some companies about auto accept, they say they don't approve it and cut off agents who use it but we all know that is not true. The BPO companies don't care who accepts an offer they just want the BPO done. They do not care about us and in reality it is just business but it use to be more personal and professional but that was then and this is now.  There is no faithfulness for REO and BPO's anymore.  Anyone work with Xome on REO's or BPO's ? I would like to hear your thoughts on them

        • I agree on the rejections. I did BPOs for 10 years before I got one and now I get them all the time. I an sure it is because my value does not match what they want to hear. It is a waste of my time to go back and look up the properties they "suggest" I use but I do it just to prove to the that my report should stand as it is. I think I have only conceded a couple of times because one comp was actually better and I had missed it. It did not change the values I had estimated. I worry about  taking any suggestions that affect value because we are not supposed to take any outside influence on our reports so I feel that includes the company that hires us. 

          I also remember when I had a respectful relationship with the BPO companies that we worked for. They paid me on time and called me when I did not respond to an order in the normal time frame. Now you are not even important enough for some of them to bother paying in a timely fashion. 

        • I think that eventually they will go back to paying more for a bpo and using good agents. It annoys me when new agents get work that I used to get.

        • So I'm struggling after 35 years in the business and I'm asking if there is a place on this site where I can promote a building with two businesses included plus living quarters that I own.  I have it listed in our MLS and on Loopnet,but nothing so far.  I need help in selling this because at nearly 70 years old, I'm getting to wonder when I can really retire, lol. With barely any good paying BPOs coming my way and now that I have hooked up with another agency, I have to pay 20% and rightly so to my broker so that a $50 BPO gives me $40.  Not worth the time.

          Thanks for any help and suggestions.  I have a neat video from circlepix.com that I can share and inform any potential buyers of the big benefits of owning this property.  Just looking at them may not give lookers  the  great benefits of this property. It's an awesome place for any type of buffet especially that locals love Chinese food and there isn't any buffets of any kind in Anderson, close to Joplin and Bentonville, AR, headquarters of WalMart.  Good referral fee to those agents not licensed in MO or shared commission with MO agents.

          • WHY is your broker taking 20% (greedy *&^%). My broker takes 0 and I have the fees direct deposit to my account.. You need to change real estate brokerages
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