Does everyone do their own BPOs?

I have been doing BPOs for the last several years.

Sitting bleary eyed in front of a computer screen cranking out BPOs like a piece rate worker is not the best use of my time.

The certain steady money is sucking me in, even though as a broker/owner for many years I know that the big (but uncertain) money is in sales.

I am starting to feel like an employee and my tax return shows it.

Even when I get listings, after the smoke clears and I think of the time and effort I put into management, again I know I am not using my time wisely.

I would like to sub out the BPO work to a salesman, yet keep the listings for myself.

Does anyone sub out their BPO work? What arrangement do you have with your salesperson who does the BPO?

People do it all the time. I was thinking about that too, here are the factors that are stopping me:

- Some companies require you to drive out to property personally
- My name might end up on some subpar reports
- people are unreliable. I am waiting on list price on one fo my listings since december, because they have to order 3 BPO's, and getting comments like "Body: BPO agent assigned to the 3rd opinion has failed QC 3 times and is not getting any better... This has been reassigned for an ETA of tuesday morning 9 am PST... Sorry for the delay"
- Whats stopping your subcontractor from stealing your client list??

I do them all myself.

I am thinking of using a company to take photos of properties to far for me to drive.

You better check with your client... most of them ABSOLUTELY REQUIRE the agent signing the report is absolutely the one that does the drive-by. But there's no harm in training someone to do the data entry as long as you review the report. This subject was discussed at numerous forums at the Five Star Convention last fall, and it was pretty unanimous as a big no no and a good way to get on the "DO NOT USE" list.

I recently spoke with a top REO agent in my area. He does the comp research but has 1 person for data entry and another photo taker. He strongly believes that BPOs are the key to REOs and doesn't want to turn any of them down. However, he has over 100 properties. He can't perform drivebys and manage over 100 properties. As such, he outsources certain activities.

I do mine myself. I am too much of a control freak to put someone else in charge of me monies.

I do all of my own work including taking all of the pictures. If I got to the point that I couldn't do that any longer, I might think about hiring an assistant, but I would never hire anyone to take the pictures for me unless my clients ok'd it first.

Thanks for all the replies.

I do not mind driving and viewing the properties in person.

A couple of times I did the BPO from MLS pictures and then visited the property as a last step which was a big mistake.

The properties had drastically changed since the last sale and I had to revise the BPOs.

I noticed a local REO broker's website boasted that he had an agent to do all of his BPOs. I now see he removed that info from his website.

It looks like I need someone for data entry.