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I read an old forum thread from a REOPro member from back on 1/8/2012 titled, "What is the best REO Certification to have?" and based on what I know about REO Training, I stopped to read. She goes on to ask more specifically, which "training" actually gets people business or a return on the investment.

As expected, many people stood up, and answered her question and for the most part, the respondents were either looking for an answer themselves or just simply said they got their first REO and didn't have a lick of training to boot.

This plays right in line with everything I have been saying about REO training for years now and that is, REO training doesn't equal ROI (Return on Investment).....at least directly, that is. Well, this maybe a bit confusing since, everyone out there offers training. Conferences have their training, banks have their training, outsourcers have their training and in fact, independent 3rd party real estate trainers have even come up with their own training. Everyone has training so, it has to have some value, right? Maybe not.

First thing to know about REO training is, everyone has a training program and they are a dime a dozen. Or at least $399.00 your first year and $199.00 every year after that....lol. Seriously, it seems like you can go down the street to the local bakery, pick yourself up a dozen donuts, get your taxes done and oh...why not go ahead and pick up that REO designation you always wanted. With the hodgepodge of REO training out there, it seems everyone has one. It's more than an assumption, it's a fact, everyone has one so, how do you choose?

Now choosing a REO training program seems more the appropriate question here and I think, this is really at the heart of what Bonita wanted to know. This can be a bit tricky, so much REO training out there, the general agent who isn't in the know isn't going to know which ones to stay far away from. My point is, the question it's self tells me exactly what I need to know about your REO experience...not much? An experienced agent isn't going to ask about training because he will be so involved in the community, he is going to know which ones to steer clear from. If you have been paying attention to that last sentence, you will have noticed a key word, "involved". Involvement in this community of professionals is more than a couple forum threads and a blog or two. It's about knowing how this community works and who we have black balled. A lack of involvement is going to leave many people without any ROI and that is to be deserved. Trust me, some of us have paved the path before you where we have attended so and so's training just to write about it later to tell the world...DON'T GO! Staying involved in this network, know about how to query a search, becoming a regular reader......all of these things keep you in the know, keep you involved and as such, you can also steer clear from unscrupulous business solicitations.

Ok....so, I guess I will jump off the soap box here and give you a bit more of a technical answer to the question, which certification gets you business.....direct business.

Well, the short of the answer is, none of them do. You see, business in this business is obtained by developing relationships and getting to know people. In my time as a REO agent, I have worked for at least 4 different outsources and not a single time did I get my business by simply putting in an application and waiting to hear back. Yes, I put in an application, yes, I uploaded my E&O and all that stuff but, by doing that I wasn't granted a REO. In fact, I had to work harder and smarter. I got involved. I went to conferences, I shook a lot of hands, I had a few drinks, I told some dirty tasteless jokes (yes...I really did) I bought a few dinners.....I did the "conference" thing, I got involved. From there, people learned my story, the got an idea of who I was, how I worked, what type of dedication I had and that is exactly where education came into play.

Before I got my first REO, I had no REO experience so, the only thing I knew to do was to get an education. Like Bonita, I got on a local network and asked, "What is the best REO certification out there" and someone who would later become a colleague of mine wrote back, something to the effect that no "best" certification exist however, I have these 4 certifications myself. I thought to myself, 4 certifications....DAMN, that's a lot of money, money I didn't have at the time. So, sacrificing I did, coming up with the money, getting the certifications and boom, I had them. Oh, I felt so proud of myself, I was on top of the world, I just knew I was going to get some REO business now. Back at the conference, I was at a bar with some vendor managers for a major outsourcer who was surrounded by desperate agents like myself. The question, what training do we need to have came up and the answer was surprising to me. This gentleman stood up and said, "we don't care, just as long as you either have training or experience."

Training or experience....well, I had 4 certifications while most everyone else I was around had none or one. I pushed myself up to the front, told the man about the INVESTMENT, I had made in my education and impressed he was. I remember him saying to me, "are you sure you haven't worked for Fannie before".  I said no, I really don't have any experience and he said something like, I couldn't tell from talking to you. The point here is, yes....REO training is a dime a dozen and yes, REO isn't going to be booming forever but, it will always be here. No specific training is going to lead directly to a specific asset....well, it's highly unlikely however, it shows people one thing and that is, you are invested.

So, if I had to leave you with one thing to remember about training. It shows you are invested. If you remember nothing else, if you take training that sucks, if you pay too much, if you feel you got nothing in return, just remember, it shows the world, you are invested and that is worth something.....maybe much more than you will ever know.

Normally there are two ways most REO agents handle their utility bills but wait, there is a third:

1. Pay each bill with a check and set the check aside for several weeks until it is due to minimize the leverage of funds

2. Pay by bill-pay through your banking website which only takes daunting hours of your time due to hundreds of accounts that are no longer used or require deletion

3. Use Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 to create the record of the check file and print one check for each utility company at the end of the month

Let's face it banks don't pay a management fee for properties as an REO and the longer the hold time of a property the more free labor the banks are squeezing out of you. One of the most important things to know is where your break even number with days to hold a property is. Is it based on the number of tasks that are involved, is it due to the price of the home or is it the amount of time the home stays in your inventory? All of these are concerns but the one most important is hold time. The longer the hold time the more chance the REO asset will cost you money rather than make you money. So what do you do? First, pin point what costs you money then find a way to minimize those costs. Since this blog is about utilities I am going to let you in on a little secret.

Utilities will cost you money by the amount of time spent paying the bill-pay through your bank and takes money out of your pocket immediately. They will also cost you money printing numerous amounts of checks every month only to release them strategically hoping not to miss one and you still have to scan a copy of that check for the invoice record. Additionally there could be deposits and bonds involved to support the volume of bills under your own name. So what do you do?

Realty Pilot's Concourse 360 has come up with a very unique check writing system that allows you create the check file within their system right from the expense record that looks just like your check without printing and scanning. This check file stays with the expense that is tracked for each property. This allows the agent to pay all bills for a utility company on one check at the end of the month. So now you only have to print one check for each utility company and your money is not immediately dispersed allowing you to reduce the amount of time your funds are leveraged for the bank or asset company.

Anyone remember MLS books? I remember when I first got into the business, we had to pay our Board of Realtors for this HUGE ass book that double the size of a telephone book that showed every active listing in our market.  I'm probably aging myself, but this was before the internet and even before computers were a standard staple of any office. Back then, the way we kept track of our clients and leads were by post-it notes and handwritten notebooks.

Good news - The times have changed! There is a plethora of great realtor software programs that now exist and are fairly cheap in the scheme of things, BUT...walk into any real estate office and your guaranteed to find at least a few agents still stuck in the last millennium using post-it notes and index cards as their best means of organizing leads and follow up.  I with I could report that the "post-it note agents" that are using this method were high producing agents that have stuck with a system that has worked well for them through the years.... but in my experience that is rarely the reality.

What's the best lead follow-up systems you've seen? What the worst/most embarrassing ones you've run across?

http://wp.me/p1yiuo-2l

No joke, I was actually told, “no thank you” by a Agent who I offered a lead to.

So, here is what happened.

As many of you know, I have been looking for some agents to work some leads we got in from our investor.

These leads are as hot as they come. Basically a buyer / seller searching online comes across the investor website and ask to be referred to a local agent who will provide them a FREE CMA on a home they want to buy or sell. REOPro then turns around, and distributes the lead, manages the lead and helps it get to closing. We don’t get paid otherwise.

Well, we had no one in RealtyPilot (the REOPro platform) that worked this zip code so I searched the REOPro.NING sit. I found an agent, called him up, offered him the lead and he actually said that he was tired of paying for things he would never use and declined to take the lead.

Just so you know, the lead wrote in the comments section of her application for assistance, “I want to list and sell my home”

Now, here is what chaps my cheeks. To get the lead, all he will be out is the $30.00 a month from RealtyPilot…that’s it. In fact, once he is done working the lead, he can cancel his subscription, it’s not like RealtyPilot has long term contract but, he was so oblivious to who I was, to who REOPro was, to who RealtyPilot was, to the nature of the REOPro / RealtyPilot alliance, he complete lost a great opportunity.

Now, here I am, with a lead….a seller, which is as hot as they come and no one from my network to work the lead. Now I have to go to REORedbook, search through the database and hopefully get myself a agent for a handout!

Honestly, I should have known better to call this guy. He had zero blogs, zero forums, zero comments and his profile didn’t even have his website, phone number or contact information.

Why is it, I have to go and find agents when I have leads to give out? Don’t tell me it’s because you have to pay for the technology platform. If its that much of a cost for you, cancel when you don’t want to use it. This way, you’re only out the $30.00 a month when you actually have a lead to work however, understand…….I am not going to go out looking for you each time I have a lead, I provide those people in RealtyPilot the first opportunity.