SET OF DEFINITIONS OF PROPERTY CONDITION RATINGS (POOR, FAIR, AVERAGE, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

POOR: Property has obvious signs of neglect including boarded/broken windows, peeling/missing siding, roof at the end of its useful life, considerable interior damage and/or extensive water damage/mold. These properties are generally vacant and typically uninhabitable.


FAIR: Subject will appear occupied, but ignored. Beginning stages of neglect, such as older windows and roof yet still functional. Exterior may need to be painted, but it is primarily intact.


AVERAGE: No apparent recent updates and no signs of significant neglect either. The exterior features of the property appear generally maintained.


GOOD: There are recent improvements observed, such as newer siding, windows or roof. Subject is typically well-maintained and is usually a younger home. Thus the features are newer, yet no obvious signs of deferred maintenance.


EXCELLENT: All major features appear to be recently replaced or the subject property is less than 5 years old and very well-maintained. Visually it should show as having been remodeled in a professional workmanship-like manner.

Along these same lines I just made folders for each REO properties on my desktop. Inside I have listing packet, pdf of tax recs, pdf of bpo listings and solds, all addenda, list price reduxes, you get the idea. Just building on a theme. If desktop gets too cluttered, put all folders in one master folder called REO listings.

I just came up with a new one for occupancy checks when you just can't tell for sure if anyone lives there. Leave a 'tell marker' on the door, like your card or a note taped to the window next to the door. When you return days later you will learn that it has been removed or that it remains. Either is a great clue to share with your AM. It makes O-check trips more meainingful.

Most digital cameras allow you to reduce the resolution to the point that you do not have to resize the photos even for ResNet.
The photos are of good enough quality for MLS and it save the time of resizing. You only need 8 meg resolution for high quality magazine work of if you want to blow it up to poster size or larger. 0.2 meg resolution is fine for BPO's and MLS and most cameras can be set to it. It also allows more photos on a smaller memory chip.

I have made a folder in my pics for BPO and then list each by address when downloading to keep them off the desktop and separated from listings, periodically dumping old ones to free up space. I also lowered the resolution and photo size on my digi cam as LSI changed their photo size requirements. The best thing I ever did was buy a big snazzy widescreen monitor and wireless mouse and keyboard. Made an old inefficient comp good as new and turned me into a superhuman BPO machine!

I'm not sure what you are referring to by "all this crap," but if you are referring to a way to organize your files on your computer, I find it essential. I have one folder for each company, subfolders for each address, all docs and photos for that order in that file. Not only can I find everything together while I am doing the order, but I can refer back to it again in the future if, say, I get another order on the same address.

From reading the Tips & Tricks suggestions, I have incorporated GPS Visualizer, an image resizer, and a calendar calculator for days on market. I also have set up excel files for bpo tracking. It's all good, in my opinion.

I also taught myself how to pick locks, and rekey locks. But probably the most useful and easiest item I have is a set of bump keys. They are fairly easy to use, the best ones i found were at www.probumpkeys.com We do PP and they always come in handy and I can skip the locksmith altogether. :D
Plus I don't have to drill many locks.

I've tried variations from 1 to 6 monitors on my desk.

My favorite is 3 monitors. I'm not a graphics enthusiast but I need 3 screens so I bought 2 cheap PCI Express Graphics cards and threw them in my box.

My workflow is way up!

Also use this filing system:

BPO, Company, City, Street, St Number - Date

I find I can remember the city and street but can't remember the street number. This works well for finding things.

My favorite calendar sites:
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/ - for a quick calendar
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html - for adding or subtracting dates
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/house.php - visual dictionary

https://www.yousendit.com/?home=true - for sending huge files

http://www.geocode.com/ - to locate addresses that aren't mapped

http://www2.dre.ca.gov/PublicASP/pplinfo.asp - keep link handy for looking up agents

bizmore.com - Resource for Answers and Advice

Definitely the most important "trick" for me which allowed me to start getting tons of BPOs was to assign an alert sound on my Blackberry for emails, and vibrate for when that is necessary. If you don't get to those blast solicitations within a minute at most, they are gone. Most of the BPO companies do not allow you to change your password and some of the passwords they assign as so stupid! So you have to keep your passwords with you at all times as well. There is a thing called Password Keeper on the Blackberry which works just fine.

A nifty way to get BPO's without having to set your Blackberry to alert you is to use the Auto Accepter software that BPO Automation provides. Basically what it does is takes your login info and logs in over and over again, checking for new orders, which it then accepts for you.

This is a reiteration of a topic covered earlier, but I recently have gone to copy and paste data entry. It saves time and lowers supply costs. It does take getting used to if you are used to having paper to work with, but once I got used to it, I can't see why I did it the other way.

here in south florida, many realtors do not enter their listings with the right mls area # or even worse spell the subdivision name wrong. I now do a general search under the city, always finding many more comps. Don't assume that there are few to no comps where you are searching.

In Atlanta with FMLS; I use a map search, which I can set the radius to; it will pick up the misspelt and misscategorized; usually I get 1 or 2 I would not have had otherwise.

If you do work for FARVV then try this to save some time on every order you do....Skip city and state. Go straight from address to Zip and you auto calc will kick in. Oh good.

For those setting up utilities, I have an master account with my electric company, it is linked to my home account in that way I don't have to leave a deposit on each property (which is 2 months of the average monthly bill).... ask you electric company if you will qualify for that option. This had worked for water in a few cities where I already had a past account and they waived my deposit. I hope this info helps someone.
And for the photo resizing, some cameras needs to be set at VGA format which set the photo for email and no need of resizing