OK - we currently have the attention of several Asset Management Companies - so let's help ourselves out by providing them with what we need in an orderly easy to fill out bpo form. We need a form that will let us better place data in a logical fashion with the least amount of scrolling and going back and forth from tax sites, MLS sites and bpo the form.

One thing I hate - is moving data from a tax or mls site that contains commas - then having to remove them so the form doesn't delete the entry.

Also - this may be different by mls - but having the form require information from the mls site - then tax site - then back to the mls site slows input down - can we build it better?

Lets see if we can do something to help ourselves, by helping all our clients at the same time. Win/Win/Win


Let's call this project..................... "The Perfect Form"

Perfect timing Pine! We've been looking at all the forms and deciding which ones have the info we need the most...bring it on, we're watching.

1. Forms should be tab-able in both horizontal and vertical fashions. We all work differently.

2. Photo uploads should be done in bulk - not one by one!

3. Distances should be auto-calculated, and we shouldn't be asked to re-enter the data for verification (attention M2M!).

4. If the subject property cannot be mapped, then don't make us go through the "Find Proximity" dance. Just let us go directly to the drop down menu (attention Mindbrix, LA, eML).

5. Don't make me type 75-100 characters on the subject's "habitability." Either it is, or it isn't. Now the level of comfort may be in question, but not habitability.

I'll definitely be back for more - this was just off the top of my head!

All the info input from tax records should be entered in more or less the same place on the form. Not "land value" at the end. Put "land value" right next to "tax id number." It always makes me unhappy to get to page 2 or 3 of a form, when I've long since closed out of the subject tax record, to have to look this up again. When I'm thinking I write this down in anticipation.

There's one form I fill out that wants 50 word comment...and allows about 200 characters. Yeah, right.

Make website compatible with Firefox...this really speeds data entry for me, as Firefox remembers what I did last time. I use it for one company only, but it's a breeze to do data entry with it.

The entire form should be tabbable....no radio buttons....no cutesy calendars...minimal use of the mouse.

Forms I have enjoyed working are the older AVM, many of the Clear Capital (ones without adjustments for each item), Brokerpriceopinion.

Auto pop my info, since you know it is me doing the order and have my info on file.

Photo uploads are best when they can be done all at once, such as on MSV, RRR, AVM, Emortgage. Best is when you can see the pics. Least favorite pic uploads are Clear Capital and irepvm, and single source because they must be done in stages or groups of 4 or 5.

I have found RRR to be less easy to input going from page to page. Ias does this too. Proteck has a page to page system as well and it is clunky. Conceptually, I am weighing all 6 comps and the subject throughout the input process, so it helps me to have them all in one place.

The ability to easily upload supporting pdfs is very helpful and not an option for many forms.

Thanks for listening!

I just did my first for LSI, they have a beautiful site. Super user friendly.

6. On MSV forms, why do the QC questions at the end always duplicate the lot size question for every comp? It asks for explanation twice for each comp - once at the top of the page, and once at the very end.

7. Also for MSV, in this instance - age parameters should be variable based on age. A 100 year old house doesn't vary that much from a 90 year old house, but your parameters ask for a 5 year variance. Seriously. Refer to FARVV's parameters. They rock.

Be consistent from the sold comps to the list comps (eML). If you have fields for address, city, state zip lumped together in one order on the solds, put it in the same order on the listeds.

Amen on the bulk upload. You're wasting my time if I have to upload one by one(and ultimately yours because I can produce more and get more in on time if you don't make it painful). And only 10 damage photos? Give me a break! Now you have me using "Other" for damage and "Damage" for damage.

I'll shoot for the stars and ask for the ability to correct your bad addresses in the form so all my proximities will calculate. You usually come back to me after the fact anyway and it's usually because you had a type-o.

Amen to not letting me keep my hands on the keyboard and not get thrown off by the calendars.

The whole minimum character/maximum character issue is very irritating. I can't just put "FHA" because it requires more than three characters so I have to type "FHA financing?" What's the point of a character min/max on that? I can't put "none" for functional or economic obsolescence? Do you gain more knowledge when it says "there is no functional or economic obsolescence" rather than "none?" Some things require more explanation and some less. I can be VERY wordy as people on here will attest. Forcing me to type more words won't get you any more in depth information if it isn't relevant. It will just get you more words. Trust me, "conforms well with neighborhood" means the same darn thing as "subject is located in a neighborhood of like age, size, style and condition homes."

I'm not working on any BPOs today or you would get a lot more feedback. I'll supply more when I'm back in BPO mode and out of REO bill pay mode.

PLEASE don't make me complete a whole darn page before I can save. I encounter 10,000 interruptions while I'm doing a BPO, some are lengthy. So if I can't finish a page I have start all over? That's just crazy talk!

Disappearing data, FARVV? Seriously. This is not a major programming challenge to get it to save the data the first go-round.

And maybe be consistent. If you ask for all comps within a mile on your order instructions and at the ponit of data entry, don't show me an error on the QC page because they're not all within 1/2 mile.

I agree with this and would add wider % variences for lower valued properties. 20% is not much when the values dip below 80 or 90K. So you end up with a slew of explantions at the end. And sometimes they double up the explanations. I try to answer each unquie one thoughtfully and then copy and paste as appropriate.

Have an automatic photo resizer within the site, so this doesn't have to be done by the agent as a separate step. Prepopulate the Active/Sold addresses next to S1,S2, etc.

Amen, sister! Especially the one where they make you fill out every little field before you can save. We just don't work that way, dear ol' BPO companies!

Oh yeah (geez, you really opened the flood gates Pine), I understand that you have your "rules of thumb" like 90 day as-is value must be within 22% of current list price of active comps (or whatever...). But seriously, when I'm valuing some POS at $35K or something ridiculously low because it is TRASH, percentages aren't very meaningful anymore. Really. The dollar amounts just become negligible. So go ahead and use your little QC checklist, but don't disregard THINKING before you send that QC fail and PRETTY PLEASE don't prevent me from submitting with that "flaw" in my BPO. And understand I will have already spent MORE time completing the BPO on this lovely little slice of heaven by explaining each of these percentage variances than should be necessary. Adding to it through the "clarification" process just gets irritating.