I get asked this question daily. 8 years ago I asked the same question to a well known agent in my office who did high volume and was the father of a girl I played soccer in High school with. He knew who I was but I think he looked at me as an inferior and blew me off. His answer was " It's really hard unless you have a contact person already so don't spin your wheels cause you don't have enough experience." I walked away from him with my tail between my legs and I went to the internet. NADA!!! I found nothing. Well I take it back...I found 2 sites. One for HUD and one for Golden Feather. I was determined that just because I was young (at the time I am much more seasoned now ;) )to beat him not only on google but in the REO world.It didn't take me long to get my HUD key but the problem I was facing was an upswing in the market. There weren't very many HUD listings in my area. Golden Feather was good to me. They welcomed me with open arms. I sold a couple properties for them and this is how I was introduced to REO's. I loved it but just like I said before they were on and off the market so fast and so little were pooping up that I only had a small handful.Now, over the past 8 years I think every buyer I showed property to asked to see bank owned homes and they were virtually extinct. Until.......last year. I felt at the beginning of the year last year the market was staring to get soft in Orange County and I sat back and listened to all the talk about "The Bubble" and figured I wanted to stay a Realtor during the down time and how was I to do that??? Hmmmm....REO's!!! I headed straight for the internet. Guess what I saw. Something different then I had seen before. AM's!! Asset manager's. They had the same idea I had and there you have it. BPO's BPO's BPO's. This is pretty much all that the AM's were giving out at the time so to the streets I went. Now after doing BPO's and signing up for as many AM's (2-3 a week) I am REO busy!! Yay ME!! I still find that I am not signed up with all the AM's out there so I try to dedicate one day a week to searching and blogging cause people across the country want some of my info and they tend to share theirs!! Yay me!!So there you have it!! knock on that REO door by signing up with as many AM's as you can. Do your BPO's. Do them well (take a class Kim class or join NABPOP) Be patient and blog. Or at least read them!! Love & Light~Stacie
Thanks stacie for the encourage. I'm just getting started and this info is great. Right now I'm busy with BPO and hoping that more REO will follow. I will take your advice and take a class, Never can get enough education.
Thank you for your contribution! It is nice to see that you were sucessful with AM's. It gives me a little hope. I have run into a lot of deadends with this in the Seattle area and now I will keep trying. Thank you!
Kim~ well it depends on the company. Many want experience but.....some want education. Jesse has a blog on here about a designation you might want to read. Or....5 star, reomac, reo conferences that get your face in front of an AM would work too!!
It is great to hear your story. It is inspirational because what you share is what I hear on an almost daily basis ~ forget about getting an REO listing; you won't be able to do it; it is too hard or you need many years experience, etc. But, after reading your story I know that with a lot of persistance and commitment, it can be achieved!! Still haven't gotten an REO listing yet, but, I continue to chip away at it each day by making contact with AM's and BPO companies.
Question??? Is there anything that AM's want to specifically see on submitted resumes?
Stacie, great advice and I am going to expand on it just a bit.
AM's (Asset Manager's) are the key to your REO success however, some of you maybe wondering how you meet them or how do you get them to choose you above the rest, your not the only competing for their attention.
First of all, get some education about REO’s. Because we (REO Industry) don’t have a universally recognized designation, many people choose to go the BPO route, as described by Stacie, to get the valuable experience it’s going to take to get that elusive REO listing. Other go and get more formalized education through different programs like realestateeducate.com or fivestarinstitute.com. By the way, if you know of other places offering a REO designation, please share that.
Once you get some education under your belt, then it’s time to start putting together your office and team. You office should be as digital as possible. Cell phone, fax machine, digital camera, video camera, scanner, email, adobe acrobat, high speed internet, photo software, access to public records, local mls, car and anything else you can think of to make you mobile, fast and accurate.
As for the team, you need a good clean out crew, inspector, contractor, lock smith and you might want to get to know a local Police Officer or Sheriff, they may come in handy one day.
Now that the team is in place and, you got a solid education, now it’s time to get some experience and BPO’s are the best way to do that. Granted, it isn’t “property preservation” however, it proves to the AM’s that you have your finger on the pulse of the market. The thing to remember is that many places, especially the larger lenders and AM’s, have a grading scale on which you are compared to when determining what assignments you get. You are graded on everything from, how fast you turn a request to how accurate it is when the sale is completed. The biggest metric that I can think of is the list to sale ratio. Many lenders and AM’s like to see a 95% or higher. YEP! 95% or higher, I know that may seem insane but, that’s what it takes to prove yourself.
Last but not least, start sending out your resume to these AM’s your meeting through these BPO’s. Contact them regularly and make sure they know your available to help and work as a part of their team. I would even suggest that you attend both the REOMAC and 5Star conference’s because this is where you can meet and greet some of the nations biggest players in the REO Industry. What better way to prove you are capable by a one on one interview with a AM.
So, good luck and let’s keep it going. I hope this helps some of you.
Comments
Thanks
Sam Shueh, Cupertino, CA
shueh at yahoo dot com
It is great to hear your story. It is inspirational because what you share is what I hear on an almost daily basis ~ forget about getting an REO listing; you won't be able to do it; it is too hard or you need many years experience, etc. But, after reading your story I know that with a lot of persistance and commitment, it can be achieved!! Still haven't gotten an REO listing yet, but, I continue to chip away at it each day by making contact with AM's and BPO companies.
Question??? Is there anything that AM's want to specifically see on submitted resumes?
Thanks!
AM's (Asset Manager's) are the key to your REO success however, some of you maybe wondering how you meet them or how do you get them to choose you above the rest, your not the only competing for their attention.
First of all, get some education about REO’s. Because we (REO Industry) don’t have a universally recognized designation, many people choose to go the BPO route, as described by Stacie, to get the valuable experience it’s going to take to get that elusive REO listing. Other go and get more formalized education through different programs like realestateeducate.com or fivestarinstitute.com. By the way, if you know of other places offering a REO designation, please share that.
Once you get some education under your belt, then it’s time to start putting together your office and team. You office should be as digital as possible. Cell phone, fax machine, digital camera, video camera, scanner, email, adobe acrobat, high speed internet, photo software, access to public records, local mls, car and anything else you can think of to make you mobile, fast and accurate.
As for the team, you need a good clean out crew, inspector, contractor, lock smith and you might want to get to know a local Police Officer or Sheriff, they may come in handy one day.
Now that the team is in place and, you got a solid education, now it’s time to get some experience and BPO’s are the best way to do that. Granted, it isn’t “property preservation” however, it proves to the AM’s that you have your finger on the pulse of the market. The thing to remember is that many places, especially the larger lenders and AM’s, have a grading scale on which you are compared to when determining what assignments you get. You are graded on everything from, how fast you turn a request to how accurate it is when the sale is completed. The biggest metric that I can think of is the list to sale ratio. Many lenders and AM’s like to see a 95% or higher. YEP! 95% or higher, I know that may seem insane but, that’s what it takes to prove yourself.
Last but not least, start sending out your resume to these AM’s your meeting through these BPO’s. Contact them regularly and make sure they know your available to help and work as a part of their team. I would even suggest that you attend both the REOMAC and 5Star conference’s because this is where you can meet and greet some of the nations biggest players in the REO Industry. What better way to prove you are capable by a one on one interview with a AM.
So, good luck and let’s keep it going. I hope this helps some of you.