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Pay to Play? Show me the listings! 

I've been selling REOs since 2004.  Since the very first one, I have never signed up to sell for companies that have given me listings.  Somehow, they managed to find me out of the 100s of Realtors in my community.  I've always found that fascinating.

As the market trended down in 2007 I noticed another trend emerging.  I guess the best way to describe it is "Pay to Play."  Companies started coming out of the woodwork with grand promises of REO listings and BPOs if you would only pay $99, $199, $299 to $499 to be listed on their high octane websites.  Along with the promise of listings and BPO exposure was the promise to put your name in front of 1000s of REO companies and asset managers.

With a declining economy, who wouldn't want to be listed amongst the Nation's top REO agents?  One company promised that "they" were the primary source of information for asset managers, and for a measly $1200 your name would be at the fingertips of every important REO company.  Another more recent offer promised even more exsposure for $3500.  All you had to do was sign up, and BANG, your real estate sales would skyrocket!

Some of these companies will send an unsuspecting agent an email stating that they have a BPO in their area, but in order to receive future assignments they would need to sign up.  The agent signs up, does the BPO, collects a $50 check and pays the $199 for the privilege.   Now, I have an MBA, but I'm not a mathematician.  That really looks like the agent just paid $149 for a $50 BPO.  Once the fee is paid, the company disappears until renewal time.  No additional work shows up in between.

Well, I've turned over a new leaf for 2011.  No more pay to play.  I had a company contact me last week asking why I didn't renew.  I told them, "I don't pay for non-performance."  They immediately rolled out all the media reports of how their website was an REO generating machine, but my experience had been "Company $199 / Me $0."

I would encourage you to think before you plop down your money.  Do a little research.  See what kind of experience other agents have had with these companies.  I've never had a single company that I work with, and it's around 25, ask me for money.  On the other side, I've never had a single assignment from a company who asked for money up front.

If you would like to do REOs and BPOs you can sign up with 100s of companies that don't ask for cash up front.  Jesse Gonzales of REOPro, and Nicole Ocean, of the BPO Automation Group, offer a list of REO and BPO providers, and they include ratings of agent experiences.  You can find that link at http://bpo-companies.com/ .  Kim Knox has also made a list available on "Real Estate Community" at http://www.aareaforum.com/reo-bpo/. 

These lists are good solid roads to more work.  I spent one Saturday morning signing up with many of these providers.  At the first of the week I received 12 BPO orders from companies I had never worked with before.  It didn't cost me a dime to get the new work.  For me, I say, "SHOW ME THE LISTINGS," and then I'll show you the money.

That brings me back to my point.  I will not pay to play in 2011.  One hundred percent of the REO / BPO work I've done in the past seven years has not cost me one cent up front.  There are a lot of companies getting rich off of struggling Realtors, and I think it's time we close our checkbooks, hide the cash and say, "No More!"