Get a call from a BPO mill on an order submitted earlier today.

Caller tells me there's a big disparity between our submission and one done in October. He gives me the properties used.

The property is rural, single family detached, about 4 miles from town.

First agent used townhouses in town as comps. Gave me a good laugh. I suggested they bill first agent back and pay it to me, since I saved them a ton of follow up (I really did).

That just goes to show that some people doing this kind of work should be bagging groceries or manning the drive thru

I did an interior on a condo for a short sale. The listing agent just happened to be there for the appointment and had a packet of comps. What's the odds? He gave me single family houses as comps to use!

think only 10% of agents know what they're doing... or is my %age too high

10% sounds like a fair number to me!

I think that just dropped to 9% in my area.......

I got hit from QC, this afternoon......said there was a major difference in values from previous BPO......asked me to review the comps from other agent......subject was 1,157 GLA......comps ranged from 1,750 to 1,900 GLA.....I wonder what the problem is?
......lol.......I'm surprised this one got past QC, in the first place....

Nothing worse then cleaning up after prior BPO's and I have the biggest problem with f**vv and sometimes 2 or 3 priors in depreciating markets. I think about 5% literacy is more accurate.

We had a similar F%$#V issue a while ago. Without the remembering the details; we did it mid 2008 at say $195, someone else did it later in 2008 at say $125, we did it early 2009 at $192.

The sent the usual (we have a prior) - of course they never looked to see they had a prior we did consistent with the current.

I wanted to send the response in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and English, but cooler heads prevailed.

Well speaking of inflated BPOs, I have a good very recent true story. Someone I know was going to list an REO w/ a certian well know company that I prefer not to mention. This guy did the eviction, rekey, the whole 9 yards. He submits his BPO to the AM. The AM comes back at him saying that they are going to assign the REO to someone else, because his BPO is far off in value of three other recent BPOs that are much more uniform in value. His was way off on the high side.

That has to hurt........

Just did a BPO for a major company. The subject was built in 2006. The BPO company wrote to me and "suggested" I use their three comps: One had incorrect/false sales info and the other two were built in the 1950s!! (Needless to say, I refused to change my figures. Wonder if I'll ever get another assignment from this company....)

^ Was that me? I had a bpo like that the other day- on a street where the 1950's homes were next to junky boarded up homes which were next to newer homes and it was all jumbled up like that in a good block/bad block mess.

save that written document from the BPO company. it can be used as evidence in public hearings concerning the improper influencing of licensed agents and appraisers that pervades the real estate industry.

Great idea, Shana. I've still got the email.

I say stick to your evaluation if it is based on comps and similar to subject. I have had standoffs with F**vv several times and still get plenty of work from them. There biggest flaw is that they don't read the comments you send with original submission. Could be English is a second language for them....who knows.

I had an assignment to where they wanted a value to come in at the contract $ that was way way too low. The Realtor that had it listed had under contract. She reduced it just over $200k & got a contract pretty quickly. I told them there is no way I can bring the value in so low using legit comps. They were demanding of it & then the manager came on line screaming that if I wouldn't bring in the value at WHAT THEY NEEDED I would not get paid & they will find someone else that will do it. I said I am sure you will find some poor soul that will lie on a BPO just to get it inm but I just wont do that. Well, after that I wasn't getting any orders from them. I called a few weeks later asking if they were slow or if anything is wrong w/my acct just to see what they had to say & there were notes in that I couldn't find comps on an order. It was a bit unprofessional if you ask me and this was a manager! Wonder why values are dropping the way they are?

I'm waiting for the HelpHelpHelp to come any minute now . . . I see that one in queue says "QA Issue Identified". When I finished it the other day, I saw where the previous BPO (last fall) had priced the place at $38; but I had almost identical comps that led me to price it at $70. I knew there'd be a problem, but I hit submit anyway. My comment was "Maybe previous Realtor had other comps available."

lol We'll see how this goes.

I'll give you a hint on this one.......Play stupid......ask them if they could email their requirements to you.
....you'd be surprised how stupid they can be on the other end.......if you get the email with the same facts, bingo....paper trail......collect enough of these puppies and then send to your congressman.....could prove to be interesting........

Wish you had this conversation on tape! Wonder what it would take to get a class action suit against some of these companies?

I like your idea even better. Wouldn't it be fun to help clean up some of this mess?

Austin

I rarely will move off my comps......if I get a threat of "no more work", I set the stage for the paper trail......one way or another, I'll have my day........

Better yet, let me catch them changing my order on their own...I keep copies of all work and BPO's...kind of like how we handle listing and purchase contracts....lots of extra work.....just cya.

I generally tell them...

"I cannot comment or substantiate the work of others. This BPO is based on the most similar and proximate comparables found on MLS today."

They always accept that.

I wanted to send the response in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and English

Are you serious?

Last week I had similar issues with EML. The QC person called me to justify how did I stated that subject is an two units when previuos BPOs show a SFH. Long story short, I always attached copy of Tax records to the order and now more than ever, after the last Mindbrix updates all forms ask for source of info. Here on NJ with 8 MLS and where on three of then you can list the same property some agents are saving few bucks by non be a member of the major North Jersey MLS and just making poor reports. The bad thing about all this is that since the order did pass QC at the first time I loss my Bonus.

I did a BPO for IM in early March, got paid for it late April, then 2 days later got an addendum that the original appraisal didn't match mine for the interior info. This home was purchased late 2006 for $1M. My original BPO came in at $665K. I knew we hadn't had that great of depreciation, but wrote it off to the lack of high end sales.

When I did the BPO it showed 6 beds 4.1 baths and 4953 SF on 2 levels in the MLS when it was sold. The tax records showed same SF but 4/3.1. Our tax records are notoriously inaccurate, so figured the listing agent counted properly. I originally used the MLS data, so changed to the tax data and resubmitted it.

The next day I got the same QC addendum. I called and asked and they said it still didn't match the original appraisal. They sent me the first page of the appraisal.

The appraiser used over 6200 SF on the appraisal. After reporting this they called back to be sure I sent in both the tax and MLS records. It appears someone fudged the appraisal to make the deal work. I don't want to be in his shoes!