If you have all of your ducks in a row, you can appeal the value.

Is the BPO agent from out of the area? Does she belong to the local MLS? Is she a Realtor? You can find all of that online.

Do you have other comparables (both sold and active/pending) that support your price? How far away are the comps the other agent used from the subject? Will they order a 2nd BPO from a different mill?

Heck, I've refused interior orders because the listing agent is a PIA. It's a two way street,

I'd rather not have to appeal the value which is why I'd like to see the BPO come in accurate to begin with. I have comps and a solid listing history to support my price. I almost always do. Doesn't mean it always goes my way.
I expect a problem if it has sold it in two days on market at a low price but when I have listed for weeks or months with a history of reasonable price reductions I think thats a pretty good piece of evidence that I am at market and not screaming fire sale or something.
In fact I find that in anticipation of the BPO I frequently overprice a bit to start ( if I have the time) and then reduce simply to be able to prove a point with my listing history and avoid a too high BPO.
I did not realize the servicer asks for the type of value they want. Once I had an agent ask me whether this was a refi, reo or what - I was rather surprised since I though a simple look at the mls would provide the answer or perhaps they should know what
they were dealing with before showing up.
I have had a BPO agent tell me "I have no idea how to value this" and I have heard "what value do you want on this?" so...it's kind of a crapshoot what I end up getting.
Maybe I'm not giving the BPO agents enough credit, maybe I am giving them too much, I dont know.
I just know that when a value is way off it KILLS my sale and it is difficult to get a lender to reevaluate.
I just spent 6 months on getting a servicer to do an interior for a property with no copper and severe interior damage because the servicer would only fork over for a drive by and that value was through the roof.
I dont really blame the BPO agent - they gave what they were asked for, but why a real appraisal is not done is beyond me. Youd think the lenders would pay the extra to get that done right when making a decision that will cost them sometimes hundreds of thousands in losses, but hey - I cant change the servicers. All I can do is work with what they give me.

I have a question actually - when I run comps I like to go 1/2mile out and 3 months back and I would suppose that is what the banks ask for the BPO's.
Some of my areas are not populated enough to satisfy.
When you run into that problem doing BPO's do you prefer to go further out, or further back? I assume further out? Would make more sense to me long as its in the same town and that is what I would do, but curious as to what ends up going back to the lender from the BPO side.

I go up to a mile and back 6 months for all my BPOs. Lately I'm having up to 2 miles though. Especially on the actives. I'm in a largly suburban/rural market though.

As for listings that are lower then market value. It's always the short sales that are lower then market value or REO value. In my area because if a short sale is priced at market or even REO values they won't get looked at.

There are plenty of foreclosures and owner occupied homes to buy and not have to wait 4 months or more.

I just make a comment that the subject is most likely priced below market due to it's short sale status to most likely obtain offers. Works every time.

I have a particular Building Inspector that I like to avoid;

I also have a certain Appraiser that I dread having come out to my Pending Sales;

I think a certain Surveyor has prices that are way out of line for simple sub-divisions;

And then there's a Lender who always screws things up when they try to process a Loan Application; but

The absolute worst is when Buyers choose to use a certain nit-picking Attorney.

I find it hard to believe, but rumor has it that certain other Agents dislike it when I'm the Broker representing a Buyer on their Listings.

That's simply ridiculous!

I just tell them that this is America, and people get to choose who they want. Then I accept what I can't change, and change what I can.

I had 3 instances in the last 1-2 months where I did interiors.
1 was for a neighboring property listed by a neighbor, an interior for someone I know through my son, and a random interior.
1. the neighboring property foreclosed after my bpo.
2. the property of the son's friend's mother foreclosed after my bpo
3. the woman that owned the house of the 3rd called me to tell me immediately after my bpo they said the loan mod was off and they were going to foreclosure and won't speak to her.

EVERY one of these bpo's was done with respect to the market-
respect to all involved. My prices came in lining up with the list prices ( we've had huge declines in prices in recent past )
and these are just 3 that I know of. The loan mod was hundreds of thousands under water and the bpo reflected this with neighboring properties.

I really want to see people get their short sales done and loan mods worked out. My pricing is aggressive to the market place and supported by comps, etc.

I can't help but feel badly that the above and others I don't even know, might think my bpo had something to do with losing their house when I know it didn't.

The bank is dotting I's and crossing T's (imho) to move to the foreclosure they intend on and bpo's are part of it, sooo...

I guess I might find a sleazy guy waiting to let me in, or a loose snake on the property :):) but after finding out about the recent foreclosures and loan mod turn down, immediately after I was sent out to do a bpo- jumping to conclusions about the person doing the bpo might be hasty..unless they told you what the bpo was valued at. I told the people I did the bpo's for I couldn't discuss the pricing with them and to get that info from the bank but I'm starting to regret that stance, especially with the recent happenings..

I think you're wrong on that the banks intend to foreclose anyway..I think they are trying to avoid foreclosure as much as possible nowadays. They really want to do workouts because they are cheaper. Not only do I witness this, but negotiators at banks have confirmed this several times. In fact the last one told me when I was asking for a postponement recently, that the VERY LAST thing they want is to own the property.
I have yet to lose one of mine to a foreclosure, but I do know others where a high BPO has in fact sent a property to foreclosure....despite a workable solution existing if the BPO had been accurate. So it does happen.
I myself have spent months fighting for new BPO's to keep properties from foreclosing.
A bad BPO can surely send a property to foreclosure. Not to imply that you are sending yours to foreclosure - just that it does in fact happen.

I did interior BPO sometime ago and now, owner of that property is telling me that my BPO was too high and his short sale is falling apart. That property was way underpriced, and there was nothing what I was able to help them. Owner is calling me, emailing me and treating me. I believe he even called to RE commission. Please give me your advice

On all three of these properties- the bpo value was in line with the list price/repairs/market and the load mod prop value was hundreds of thousands under loan amount and my bpo reflected.
So I know for a fact , the bpo's and short sale pricing did line up, not a bpo issue BUT my point is, the perception is different. I know they usually order several bpo's but again, these 3 interior bpo's/ values in line/ banks foreclosed after receiving bpo's..??? I live in a small area and I don't want to be perceived as the "angel of death" coming to do a bpo..in fact, I felt good about all 3.. I'm sure there are many banks trying to do the short sale/ loan mod etc. but obviously there are banks that don't and the "perception" the bank puts out is ..we're waiting for the bpo, bpo is in we'll get back to you, file is closed we're foreclosing. Hard for agents and owners not to draw the conclusion, it makes me rethink the " don't disclose value" thing. I know that's a whole can of worms and not thought out, just venting here, but I live in a small community and don't feel like taking the fall for the bank with agents and homeowners.

I have not had too many problems getting the agent to give me the value amount or finagling it out of someone at the lender.Or at least a range.
Lately some lenders have been more secretive though and others more upfront. Not sure what the goal of the secrecy is. Seems to me it serves no good purpose of keeping it secret. Its a value detrmined by another realtor like me. Should be the same as mine. Why hide it?

Minna- I have always honored the not disclosing value, since it seems to be the mill request. I figured it had more to do with them getting paid for the report, etc. In my case I hope the bpo value WAS disclosed to these parties by the bank.

If hired by a mill the agent should not disclose the value directly to the LA. Majority of clients I have worked with have this guideline set in place. Giving an LA the value is left up to the discrection of the client. It's to protect all parties. There's nothing worse than an irrate owner calling the BPO agent and screaming at them because they think the value is wrong (or an irrate LA for that matter). Working through the lender as the POC for that information keeps everything neutral.

J~

J- I agree. I've always held to that. This recent run of foreclosures after interior bpo's does put a spin on it.

Because I'm familiar with the list price/ pending price of 2 of the 3 scenarios, the bpo value should have helped the deal fly because there wasn't conflict in the pricing...just the backlash of the job. I can't help but feel badly about it. I know it wasn't the bpo value, not sure they do.

The 3rd I referenced was the loan mod who called me up distraught a few days ago because she's disabled and her words" as soon as they got your bpo they told me they were foreclosing"
and wanted the referrals of real estate attorneys, assuring me she wasn't going to sue me..lol...oh man. Anyway, I still didn't tell her what the value was but I did say the REO sale next door to her house was reflective of the market and I thought the bpo done would have helped her if nothing else....I tried to help her googling some info for her since she was so upset...

...maybe hold off on the sleazy guys and snakes till you know for sure..lol

Oh well - why not, Primer to Real Estate 101:

1. What all the three most important factors in real estate?

2. Why would you question this when doing a BPO/CMA?

3. minna, no offense, why should the price you put on a property be superior to the bpo agent's, that does roughly a 100 times the number of bpo that you do?

4. Why be surprised what a bpo agent tells the listing broker? I might tell them anything to make them quit being nosey, invasive, condescending, or superior then thow, so I can get my job done.

5. Someone hires me under my license and I automatically owe them a BOAT LOAD of duties ** exactly the same as a listing or buyer's agent owes their client. It is not difficult to understand. Would a buyer's agent tell the listing agent how much their buyer is willing to pay, or vice versa? Why even attempt to be seen as interfering with the BPO/CMA agent's duties to their client. Stand back, get out of the way, and let them do their job. That would help more then any busybody agent that knows more about what the BPO agent is doing then the BPO agent.

6. As long as what my employer asks me to do is legal and ethical, I intend to do it. If I feel I can't do it - that will be between me and the employer - not any other agent. In the same light, I won't bug a listing agent or needle an other agent into doing something they shouldn't do or say, that is part of my take on professionalism, acting above the crowd no matter how much I would really like to say to that agent

I never said I was superior or that listing agents pricing always is. There are a ton of crap agents out there - listing agents as well as BPO agents.
It comes down to the quality of the agent - and we are not all the same, however the bad BPO agent can cause a lot of harm as to some banks their word may as well be god's word.
Most of the time I do not have a problem with the BPO - but when I do and it is totally out of line it's a big problem for my sellers and can cause months of delays.

I am just trying to avoid a big problems down the line in an already sensitive situation.

Anyway - I did try some of your suggestions - did not work, or perhaps it could have but would have caused a major delay so that agent just did that BPO. She seemed to have it together, but she seemed to last time too. I guess we'll see how it goes.