Having completed Default School and earning the RDCPro designation, I thought I would share my experience with you all. On the topic of certifications, designations and education, I am of mixed mind. You may ask...Why? And the answer is simply because some of these programs are too much 'fluff,' just trying to suck a quick couple hundred dollars out of Realtors and thin on material. Some on the other hand are put together by honorable people, truly trying to offer value and improve their industry. You never really know for sure until you take the course(s).I am all for continuing your education throughout your career, but I am also leary of some programs and try to research them before jumping on board. Everything I could find about RDCPro and Default School pointed toward it being a good designation and the required courses being valuable, so I went for it.After completing it, I felt that the courses required for the RDCPro designation (taken through Default School and administered by RealEstateEducate.com) were both very legitimate courses. Almost everything in it was, in my opinion, quality material and meaningful. The designation requires the completion of 2 courses: REO Best Practices (formerly Learning the REO Ropes) and Advanced Evaluations.The REO Best Practices portion covered REO's from start to finish. Filled with information crucial to understanding the REO process and to keeping Asset Managers happy! The presentation was good and the information was legitimate, current and useful. I appreciated that there wasn't a bunch of what I would call 'filler' material in it.Advanced Evaluations was also done well. On this one I felt it did stretch the material a bit, but this is somewhat understandable in that it there is just less to doing BPO's than there it to REO's. While I personally got much more out of the Best Practices portion, the Advanced Evaluations portion did act as a good refresher.All in all, I think the RDCPro designation is wothwhile and definitely adds value. While it has not directly led to any additional REO listings, I think it will and even if it didn't I still would be glad I completed it. Expanding your knowledge and learning new things about your profession will never be a bad thing.I can't speak on any of the other REO designations, but I would say that I give the RDCPro a thumbs up for providing good, useful and current training.Best of luck and let me know your thoughts on any other training/designations you know about or have completed.
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I don't know if you've been hearing the rumors, but there's a gathering consensus that the sub-prime mortgage market was just the beginning of the REO wave, that next up we're going to see more "prime" mortgage defaults and foreclosures. Check out this article from the New York Times, for example.That's my sense of it, surely. Most of the REO listings I've been getting have been in Watsonville, and most of them, I'd guess, were sub-prime borrowers stuffed into loans they couldn't really afford.Now, I think we're going to be seeing lots more prime-borrowers, stuffed into loans that they could barely afford, but with with Americans being profligate spenders and abusers of debt, they have now borrowed themselves into a hole from which the only escape is foreclosure and/or bankruptcy.I kind of went through a blessed dry spell where I was not really getting many BPOs, maybe just 2-3 a week. I have kind of cut back, anyway, ignoring all broadcast requests and accepting just the BPOs from my bread-and-butter companies who also give me listings.This week, though, I have had as many orders as I've ever had - and, interestingly, many of these are higher-end properties. Some of them are very high-end: estate type properties on acreage, or beach properties with ocean views, etc.Time to wax my surf board and get ready for that next wave, I guess.
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Ok, so, I got to thinking, what if we (REOPro) created our own designation? Sounds great and all however, I want it to be the kind of designation that makes a difference. When people say they are a REOPro, I really want it to stand for something. With as much experience as we have on this site, maybe we can do it. Of course, right now, it’s just a pipe dream however, I am no Amy Winehouse, my pipe dreams come true…...occasionally.
So, what ya think, could we do something like that? Would you be willing to help and add content or material? Better yet, do you have a contact that would be willing to sponsor a training program and in return, use our members, who have passed training as their dedicated REOPro Agents?
Before any of you start biting at the bit…..bear with me here. Take a deep breathe, wait 10 seconds, then exhale…….this is just a thought at the moment. I am taking the temperature of our membership to see if this would even be a possibility. Obviously, it gives you a big clue as to where I want this whole “Social Network” to go but, baby steps first.
In other words, share your thoughts with me, let me know what you think, I would greatly appreciate it.
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www.NRBA.com or National REO Brokers’ Association of America is a new site to me. I just came across it from a fellow REO Broker who gave NRBA some high marks. I have to be honest, when first viewing the website, it didn’t instill any confidence at all. It appeared to me as if they were some awkward knock off of Shop at Home.com. All those little boxes, solid white background, red writing, I swear I thought I was about to buy a gold electro plated magnetized wrist joint amplifier for 3 easy payments of only 19.99. Either way, I am glad to see they are “renovating” the site, hopefully it helps.
Once I got passed the strange exterior, I decided to dig a bit deeper and see what this site is all about so, I did what any red or blue (depending on what part of the country your from) blooded REO Broker would do and that was click on “Real Estate Professionals Start Here”. Ok, I may have been a bit hard on NRBA in paragraph 1 of this commentary however, now I am truly being as serious as I can be. After clicking the link, I am taken to a black background with red and white writing power point flash presentation of how I can make 6 figures by becoming a member of NRBA! By this time, I am now truly turned off, to me, this whole thing has come off as a rainy day garage sale on the wrong side of town. Truly, I tell you, this whole website has just come off as if they went into Goodwill and asked the marketing person to design a website. So, 2nd class…… (by the way, I like Goodwill, when I was kid, it was the only place we shopped, we didn’t have much back then. In fact, sometimes I still go, now it’s a bit different obviously but, I do like the store and donate maybe once or twice a year.) As I suspected, it was fairly predictable where this screen shot presentation was leading, I was asked the 20,000.00 question, “Join Now!” My first thought was, are they serious? Then I quickly realized, oh hell yeah they are serious…….lol.
So I pressed the button, not because I was impressed by the presentation or marketing ploy but, because my REOPro Agent colleague gave this group of people a huge thumbs up and said I should join. Once you hit the button, you’re taken to a 2nd screen where you can read some of the FAQ’s, it’s small so you have to be determined to look for them but, you can find them and read them over. The first question is, “Can anyone be a REO Broker?” ultimately the answer was No! but, not for the obvious reasons like, commitment, dedication, work load, long hours, etc….., they said it was because they all wanted to protect their 6+ figure income. ROFLMAO! Are you serious, by now I really felt this was an exercise in the absurd but, I went along with it. After reading over all the FAQ’s I felt as if I had just finished reading a bad version of the Top 10 List with David Letterman. Granted, I found some useful information like cost, which my REOPro Agent Colleague forgot to mention but, overall the FAQ’s almost seemed a waste of web space and band width.
Speaking of cost, it isn’t cheap, it’s 1999.00 a year paid monthly or annually. That wasn’t cheap for me, I am a bit of a tight ass hence, I still visit Goodwill occasionally however, I didn’t think 1999.00 wasn’t going to be a cost that many Realtors would be interested in paying in the first place, I am sure it’s going to protect some bodies 6+ figure income. I read a little further because I still had this overwhelming almost nagging voice of my REOPro colleague saying, “you should try it, I did and it is working for me” screatch across my forehead like a Mack truck applying the brakes on a downhill 9% grade highway. So, I got ready to hit the Join Now button and, then BANG! A flash of lightning hits my neighbors tree and we loose power. Ok, I will be honest, no flash of lightning however, I did loose my power because my dog’s tail wagged and somehow turned off the power strip. So, here I am now, not sure if I should join or not, I don’t really know much about this organization other than what my REOPro colleague said about it. I figure I should get some more insight so, if you are a NRBA member or a holder of the CREO Designation they offer please, leave a comment and convince me either way, should I join, or should I steer clear!
Thanks in advance for the help!
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As you may guess, the number 1 question I get asked is, how can I start listing REO’s? Well, if it was as simple as a “one line” answer, then everybody would be doing it however, it isn’t that simple. In this blog, I will try to break it down for you.
First of all, get an education. If you have no experience what so ever, you need to at least get an education. Many different companies out there offer many different “certification / designations” however, be careful because you don’t always get what you pay for. I got my RCDPro (REO Certified Default Professional) designation through www.realestateeducate.com. I found them to be professional, organized and the information they provided was precise and accurate. They seem to be a bit expensive however, once you are certified, you are placed in their system and shopped out to their clients for consideration. I know they have some big clients, of which one is WellsFargo. You can also get educated through 1 of the 2 major Default Industry Conferences, 5 Star. They have a online course you can take as well however, I haven’t taken it myself. 5 Star has a lot of credibility in the industry so I am sure anything they offer is going to be reputable and recognized. You can get to their website by going to www.fivestarinstitute.com.
Now that you have an education, it’s now time to get the office ready. Through your education process, you were most likely told about what a REOPRO Agent is going to need, make no mistake, you are going to need to have your office ready. Things like high speed internet, digital camera, scanner, email, cell phone with sms and email capability, adobe acrobat, fax, access to public records, mls, organized filling system and a reliable car are essential. Other things you will need to consider are, some Asset Managers require you add them to your E&O Insurance and have a minimum of 2 million in coverage. Some even require that you carry specific liability on your automobile as well. You will want to dedicate a credit card to your business and be prepared to spend money to preserve the property. You will be reimbursed later however, some companies take 2-3 months to reimburse and you can rack up thousand of dollar per property in maintenance, utilities, vandalism remediation, etc….. In other words, be prepared to spend, you might need to.
Once the education and office are out of the way, next you need to get some experience. A lot of the older more seasoned agents tell stories about how they had to do BPO’s for years before they got their first REO. This is still true through a large part of our Industry so, you most likely are going to need to sign up with every bank you can find and offer to do BPO’s. Our industry does offer a BPO certification through NABPOP (National Association of Buyer Price Opinion Professionals) and you can access their website at www.NABPOP.com. This is a nationally recognized certification and can help significantly on your way to a REO business.
Now if you have been doing BPO’s for years and still the REO seems to be elusive, then several things may be against you. First of all, keep in mind that most AM’s (Asset Managers) grade your BPO’s on a variety of metrics like, turn around speed, accuracy of information and list to sale price ratio’s. These metrics minimum standards are typically very high, for example, most lenders require a 95% or higher list to sale ratio for new agents before they will ever get a REO. It may seem a bit unfair however, it is what it is. The lesson here is to ask and you shall receive. Ask the people sending you the BPO’s and ensure you are qualified to receive a REO. If not, ask why and or what you can do to improve. If you find out all is ok and, you still haven’t gotten a REO, then more drastic steps may be in order.
For those of you who have been doing BPO’s for some time and still can’t get the REO even though you are “qualified” then you may need to go the conference’s and meet the Asset Managers in person. The annual conference’s held by REOMAC and 5 Star are our nation’s largest default servicing events. This is the place where everyone comes together and networks. Here you can get one on one with these AM’s and essentially interview for the next REO. Competition is tough, every agent there is doing the same thing you are, so being the tip of the spear is critical to your success. Dress to impress, pop in a tic tac and, get ready to schmooze. If you can convince the AM to take a chance on you due to your incredible skills interviewing, then you will have succeeded where many others will fail.
So there it is, part 1 of a continuing series on how to get started in the REO business. Look for more blogs in the near future. Hope it helps.
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Not to long ago, I got a RCDPro (REO Certified Default Professional) Designation from a place that advertises clients such as Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae. I can't say the certification has done much in the way of providing me new business however, it has furthered my ever expanding horizons of the REO industry. I personally feel the designation is worth it due to nothing more than proof of my commitment to my specialty and continuing desire to stay ahead by furthering my education.
So here is the question........
As a REO Professional Agent, do you have any designations and if so, have they been worth the time, effort and money? If yes, elaborate as to why, please.
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