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This year I have been completing numerous BPO's for homes in my area. BPO is an acronym for Broker Price Opinion.  Broker price opinions are a valuation service that real estate brokers can offer to banks.  Performing these BPO's has only strengthened my ability to properly assess how much a property/home is worth in today's market conditions.  Completing BPO's in local cities like Janesville, Milton, Beloit, Evansville, Elkorn and Madison has given me a unique view into the intricacies related to each market.  I also have a better understanding of how the banks determine their home values when it comes to short sales, pre-foreclosure decisions and REO properties.  The article below explains in greater detail what a broker price opinion is.

Regards,
Michael Collins - Broker
Short Sale & Foreclosure Resource

What is a Broker Price Opinion?

When a bank or asset manager obtains a new foreclosed listing to sell, they immediately need to know the home's value. Typically a bank will assign one to three agents to evaluate the approximate selling value of a home. These banks expect each agent to submit three comparable sold listings and three comparable active listings as well as an estimate of what the agent thinks the home will sell for.

A Broker Price Opinion is not as detailed as an appraisal and does not entail as much work. BPOs differ from Appraisals in a number of ways:

• Appraisals typically cost over $300. Most BPOs pay brokers between $50 and $100.
• Appraisals require detailed square footage measurements. BPOs rely on county assessors' recorded measurements.
• Appraisals use a standard format recognized and used by lenders and mortgage professionals for precise property valuations. BPO's are prepared in different formats and are used simply as decision making tools for asset managers of each bank.
• Appraisals are typically 15-20 pages long with detailed information on each aspect of a property. BPO's are usually 2 pages long with information pertaining only to a final selling price.

Why Do Banks need Broker Price Opinions?

Asset managers and bank personnel make decisions on several properties every day. Reading through a lengthy 20 page appraisal and filtering out the critical information is a waste of their time. These asset managers need concise, financial documents that make their choices easier. That's why BPOs are so critical to their job. In addition, a BPO saves the bank over $200 per property compared with a standard appraisal. That money adds up quickly and saves the bank thousands and thousands of dollars a year.

Another reason BPOs are preferred by banks is that the turnaround time is much quicker than appraisals. BPOs can usually be performed by agents in under 48 hours. Many appraisers visit the property within 48 hours, but then require another day or two to process the information and create the full report.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1844386
Author: Brian Anthony

Hi there everybody,

As a certified real estate instructor that specializes strictly in broker price opinion education, I try to stay on top of industry trends. As such, I have been following a company for the last few months called, StreetLinks. They are a major AMC provider and soon to be provider of BPO orders nationwide.

I have had the great fortune of connecting with a fantastic representative from their company and have gain a lot of valuable information to help you guys save time and to assist you in being able to make an informed about if you should sign up with this company.

I would HIGHLY recommend taking the 15-20 minutes it takes to register to be a BPO agent or broker for them right away! And no I am not affiliated with them or getting paid by them to endorse their organization! It isn't every day that a new company pops up that is not only credible, but I think will quickly be a force to be reckoned with when compared to the top major BPO mills. From my research, Streetlinks should be able to offer decent volume across the U.S. right out of the gate, and if everything goes well I foresee that they will see huge growth in order volume because of having an already solid client base.

So, as BPO order volume is down across the nation, smart BPO agents and brokers branch out and sign up with more quality companies to increase their likelihood of receiving more work. Do yourself a favor and click on the link below to sign up with them, I strongly believe that you will thank me in a few months!

Today I spent about 15 minutes signing myself up at their website, here's a link for you to do the same: https://www.streetlinks.com/solutions/agents_brokers

Also, feel free to pass along this info to others in the business that you think will benefit from it!

Lastly, to wrap up this blog post I want to point out some important points of how this company operates, what you can expect from them and what requirements they have of their new BPO agents and brokers. Please take a few minutes to read through the short list below:

StreetLinks Price Opinion Panel members benefit from:

• Rapid Payment - Payment direct deposited to your account with 72 hours of report completion
• No Cost to You- No fees for signup, membership or marketing!
• Fast Order Submission - Get a free and easy to use online account to complete and submit orders
• Fair Order Assignment - Assignment based on proximity and your historical performance
• Exemplary Support- Full support services and training from our BPO support team
• NABPOP Membership Discount- Join NABPOP at a special discounted rate! StreetLinks offers preferred assignment status to NABPOP certified members.

(The above paragraph was taken from StreetLinks website. All Rights Reserved © 2011 StreetLinks LLC.)

Let me know if you have any questions too! Email me at: nicole@bpo-university.com

Warmly,

Nicole Ocean

Certified R.E. Instructor (WA State)

www.bpo-university.com

360-224-6988

According to Royal Bank of Scotland analysts, using data from corelogic, "The month-over-month price decline in November was the largest in 2010."

The most recent CoreLogic (CLGX: 19.11 -0.21%) Housing Price Index, scheduled for public release next week, will show home prices dipped 3.35% nationally from November 2009 to November 2010.

(http://www.housingwire.com/2011/01/06/home-prices-go-haywire-coast-to-coast)

I have found that being in the BPO and REO business is much like playing a competitive sport when you were a youngster. Whether your favorite sport is football, basketball, baseball, soccer or any other sport, one of the first things you were taught was offensive skills, which of course was soon followed by defensive skills. The better you were at both, the more likely that you would be successful at beating your opponent, right?

The same scenario and expectations applies within anyone's BPO and REO business, the only difference is that we are now all grown up and more is on the line and at stake.

When I got started in the BPO business in Sept. of 2006 the phrase, 'Broker Price Opinions' was something that a very select group of people in the real estate business knew about. I'm guessing that the percentage was very low at the time.

I was able to put together a BPO Manual for others (in Jan 2008) who wondered what a BPO was, what it involved and every possible question under the sun as it applied to broker price opinions. Sales of my BPO Manual really took off in early to mid 2007. I had to presume that at this point the 'secret' was out of the bag. So, it had to be a matter of time before everyone jumped on the bandwagon. I was right!

For those that heard about and saw the tremendous opportunity they benefited greatly if they dove into doing BPO's. For many REO listing became the next logical product of the vast amount of BPO work they did. For the next two years, I saw more and more people jumping into the BPO and REO business.

During this time I also talked to lots and lots of people in the business. They came from all walks of life, backgrounds, time in the real estate business and everyone had own their opinions about the BPO business. I appreciated each and every phone call, email and letter that I shared with my fellow peers. They helped me understand so much about the business that I would never have been able to figure out on my own. I owe a lot to these countless number of fine folks. If you are one of them, thank you very much for everything! :-)

I guess a good secret can't stay hidden for long though, huh! Thank goodness. This business is filled to the brim with open-ended possibilities.

And in the end, if you have found or are finding that many in this business stay very guarded and extremely secretive about their own BPO and REO business (I can respect and understand the need behind this) there are a few others that will share their knowledge and expertise with you. Me being one!

Feel free to drop me a line sometime, I'd be more than happy to help in anyway I can!

Keep your chin up and keep shooting for the stars!

Warmly,

Nicole Ocean

As you can imagine the answer to this question depends on who you talk to. For me, I have personally experienced doing BPO's in a rural setting and talked with numerous agents all over the U.S. who work in very urban settings.

My experience leads me to believe that doing BPO work in a rural setting is much more limiting. It is difficult to find comps that just aren't there, even after going out up to 10 miles from the subject property. If you go further than this than it is likely that your vendor rating goes down and your QC issues go up.

One thing that has really helped me was to not guess at what I was supposed to do or assume what I was expected to do when given a challenging rural BPO. Instead, I had absolutely no hesitation in calling up the company that gave me the BPO order. I'd ask for their advise and guidance on what to do in the situation that I was up against. Someone in their QC (Quality Control/Quality Review) department would likely get on the phone and walk me through which parameters I should use as to avoid getting my order kicked back because of inappropriate comps.

Another thing that was extremely beneficial to me was to seek out each companies 'Guidelines' or their set of 'rules' that they wanted for me to adhere to when doing BPO work for them. Most times I found this information was listed somewhere on their website. If for some reason I couldn't find it easily then I would give them a call and ask where I could find it. By doing this, it makes you look good and helps build a rapport with the rep that you talked to.

Who doesn't want to do their job to the best of their ability? Sometimes we just need a small compass to help guide us safely and confidently to our destination.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this too. What are your experiences with this?

Warmly,

Nicole Ocean

Certified Real Estate Instructor/Founder of BPO University

The key to mainstreaming green homes is to make sure that consumers understand the value of green upgrades — how cost-effective energy efficiency can be in the long run. Consumers want homes that are environmentally friendly and home values should reflect the increased savings.

Better Homes and Gardens

• 2% of consumers are planning to have high-efficiency heating and cooling in their next home
• 3% are planning to have high-efficiency appliances
• 3% will have geo-thermal heat
• 5% said energy-efficient heating and cooling will be more important to them
• 6% said Energy Star appliances will be more important
  

Appraising Green

Most state energy and public utilities offer incentives, rebates and tax breaks for energy efficient upgrades. Realtors should suggest that sellers take advantage of these incentives. Consumers clearly want greener homes and agencies offering rebates can document the projected savings. This can be a powerful sales incentive in a market where value
is king.

REsourced from www.yourpropertypath.com
You may republish this article, as long as you do not edit and you agree to preserve all links to the author and www.yourpropertypath.com

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BPO MILLS, ARE VALUABLE TO THE REO AGENT/BOKER?

More often then not, I hear agents and brokers say that BPO mills are a waste of time because they don’t lead to listings. I, at one time felt the very same way. However as my business has flourished and Reo Listings are more abundant for me than they were a few years ago when I was breaking into this business, my views have changed.

BPO mills are extremely valuable to my operation and will continue to be a intricate part of the success of my business. They are valuable because they provide a training ground for agents within in my team, and those looking to be added to my team. The agents also get paid for the training.(For Example 50 drive by, my agents get 40 if the bpo is turned in on time and not rejected, for each rejection 5 bucks is taken off.) As the experienced REO Broker will tell you, as well as any Asset manager, REO begins and ends with a Good BPO. As REO agents, and Brokers, we are as strong as our weakest link. Your link starts with the BPO, therefore the more agents on your team that can do quality BPO’s, the better off you are for taking your business to the next level.

BPO mills are great because the have their own built in quality control and QA. What better training could one provide for agents looking to join their REO team? Further more this also allows you to determine when your team member or agent is ready to complete BPO’s related to listings.

My concept is simple, get your BPO’s done ahead of time, and on time at the very least, without rejections and your on your way to being added to my team of REO agents. Well, it not as easy as that. I require my agents to complete a min number of BPO’s per month from BPO mills. This allows me to continuously monitor and evaluate agents on my team. It also gives the ability to assign co-listing agents to those that have proven themselves worthy, just as all of us have as REO agents.

The more agents on your team you have trained, the better off you will be to effectively handle the massive volume that many of us will see. So, the next time you get that email from a bpo mill, consider accepting it to train another. After all, like I said earlier, your as strong as your weakest link. How many REO’s can one persons effectively handle, vs. a team of trained agents? I’m ready for the volume and to take on more. Are you ready?

Very Truly Yours

Jonathan Burgess

Code 3 Real Estate CEO