I am excited! I just got in for the REO Cert class being held thru my association in Sept. I missed the last one cause it was full. I will learn how to do BPO's & the full transaction for closing an REO from start to finish. I've already closed one but it was a smooth one, I am hungry to learn more. Then I will get my certification. It's a two day class. Yippeeee! I will also sign up for one on short sales, even though I am not too interested in working these, but I am sure the class will help.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but these "certifications" everyone keeps talking about are worthless until backed by and industry giant, such as NAR or REOMAC.

There are countless "certifications" being offered and it's akin to going to Weeza's Beauty School for 8 months only to find out it is not accredited or accepted by the State Cosmetology Board for credit.

While you may want to take the classes for education's sake, if it is a certification you are looking for, I will bestow one on you myself and it may be just as valuable as any of the 356 out there already. Enjoy the class, but don't look for it to do much more than entertain or enlighten.

Hey TB - I'll certify you if you will certify me!!

Your certified, I'm certified, we're all certified. Er, that could be certifiable...I get confused.

Oh Oh Oh! I wanna be certified tooooooo.

She said she was hungry to learn more. If I can say one good thing about that, atleast she is willing to learn and take some classes. There are quite a few people out there doing bpo's and don't know what the heck they doing. You should see a couple of re-dos I did recently for fiserv. The comps were WAY off and the report was so jumbled I had to start from scratch.

Yes, I am sure, but I am taking it for educational purposes. Also, I do think is a plus to tell your buyers that are looking for foreclosures that you are REO certified. In my area that is all you see "foreclosures & short sales", this will give me an advantage. At least I will feel more confident when I give out information.

Thanks for the input.

Zoila - Good for you for wanting to learn more. Let me know how the class is. I think they are offering a similiar one at my board.

Kind of harsh guys...zpcs didn't say she was going to be the next REO queen - and she wasn't asking you for a list of contacts. Just excited she's going to be learning more.

I'm with FLBeachbum....good for you Zoila...certainly can't hurt.

good luck!

Awww.....we were just teasing.

You're all a mess! haha! Education is the key. Especially in the short sale department. I see a lot of agents/brokers out there working preforeclosures who are causing more harm to the homeowner than good because they don't have a clue what they're doing.

Good luck and keep learning!

We are all have to be certifiable to be in the REO world

I took the short sale class. I am glad I did because now I know the steps of a short sale. The instructor mentioned when representing the buyer once the seller has accepted the offer to meet w/the listing agent & make sure that the original package was submitted w/all the proper paperwork to the bank so there are no delays. He says a lot of agents are not submitting the package correctly. In my area there are so many agents that don't even speak the language that I don't know how they are working all these deals. Everytime I call an agent reference a short sale they say they have several offers but never that an offer has been submitted. He also said, as you all know, that it takes approx three months for an approval. The REO class will be next month.

I know exactly what you mean. No offense to anyone but these newbies are what gave short sales a bad name to all the buyers out there and to the banks. I do short sales and BPOs, and man I can't tell you how many idiots I've ran into that I was doing an interior bpo on their short sale listings.

The worse I've had recently is a guy that could barely speak 2 words of english (how he talked with the banks I have no clue), long story short everytime I called him saying I need to do a interior BPO he said he can't get me in the property because theres tenants and he has no key and there working for the next 3 days.... I think he thought I wanted to show the property and he had a contract and it was pending so he didn't care to let me in. Called CC and they called him and had to have someone in SPANISH translate what the hell I was calling for. After that a key appeared out of nowhere and the tenants were home and I got in.

How does someone do a short sale and not know what a BPO/appraisal is, even if you don't speak english.... B P O.... lol sorry for the long rant.

As long as you learn something from the classes (especially the Short sale class) then go for it. Hopefully what you pay for "Certification" carries over to the state mandated CE credits. I would be careful throwing around that "certification" title though to other REO agents that have been in the business.

This stuff is not learned in the classroom, its learned from gaining entry into a property that has been left abandoned for months, in the sweltering heat, rotting meat in the non working freezer, full of maggots, dog crap everywhere, fleas jumping on you, every crackpot investor wanting to make an offer but the only pot they have to [censored] in is the crack pipe. Then you have to advance your funds to trash the joint out, turn on some utils, keep the place secured to try and salvage any copper remaining. Then trying to get reimbursed for your BPO's, vendor expenses, etc, thats another course in its own right.

lol ReoDayton... that sounds like the one I had the other day except it was not DOG crap everywhere, but a more disguisting variety.....Yeah seriously I had someone ask me the other day (again), how did you break into the REO business, you did classes right? Uhhhh right, sure..... -Renee

Can you imagine if the REO and BPO classes really taught AND advertised that they would learn how to spot a flea infested home and how to wear flea collars around your ankles... that you would have to front major dollars upfront? That you'd have to stay up till 2:00am to get everything done and then do it all over again the next day?

I really do love REO's and I find the above stuff just par the course, but whenever I'm asked how to get into REO's I chuckle in my head and control myself from really "sharing".

My view on classes are that they can be really worth while if it is taught by a true professional and as long as you learn something, even if it has nothing to do with the subject and you take something away from the experience than you got what you paid for. I just hate to see people waste time and money on the scam of the day!

Hey guys,
I finally took the REO class! It was very informative, two days of learning BPO's, being an REO listing agent & representing the buyer among other info. Wow, those of you that list the REO's do a lot of work. I am glad that I took this class cause now I know all the steps.

LOL... yes the class give you allot of information... but like getting your RE license... there is nothing like actually listing and selling REO's.