Anyone seeing an increase of aggresive behavior towards you as the BPO agent by short sale listing agents and negotiators?

In the past week, I have gotten very nasty phone calls from listing agents and two negotiators. In all cases, they found some tiny thing to make a fuss over and blew it totally out of proportion. For example, one threw a hissy because I set up the interior photos through the showing desk after they didn't return my call directly. Called that "unethical behavior" and threatened "repercussions" since I did the BPO without "having all the facts" (ie, I didn't have them tagging along with a sheaf of bogus repair items). Another got furious that I didn't use the comps they forced on me and again, hinted there would be "repercussions". Another insisted he had to come along on the BPO and talked ominously about "BPO agent liability".

What the heck is going on out there? Is there some new short sale class suggesting that intimidating the BPO agent is a good way to get your deals put through? I know that it is getting tougher to close deals all the time, but this kind of behavior is REALLY OBNOXIOUS. On EML orders now they are asking us to verify that we will inform them if we feel someone is trying to influence the BPO value. I didn't really put this kind of behavior in that category before, but I'm starting to feel like it is not just tension over getting these deals closed but out and out attempts to cow agents into coming in low "or else".

So I'm going to be turning them in from now on. In fact, I may start turning in anyone who pulls the "you can't do the BPO unless I'm there" BS. If they want to send me info by email, fine, but I'm really getting sick of this behavior.

Sounds like it is coming from investors who are trying to pick up the short sale at a steal. Trust me, I know from experience this is what they teach. They are told to influence the BPO as much as possible!

Interiors....

You can have them!!!

Well, fine. If they try "influencing" me, especially through veiled threats, they are going to get on the bank's blacklist.

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I pass on all interiors.

And bfisher is right. The harassing agents are doing the A-B-C flips, so they need the value to come in really low. If they were selling at market value, they would have nothing to worry about. The California DRE has taken the position that these deals are illegal, so hopefully we will not see many more of them.

I'd like to dump interiors, but I'm preferred with EML and I don't think they let you opt out of them. Maybe I should check and see if they would. Between being threatened by crazy owners and now this rash of crap from short sale listing agents and negotiators, I am really sick of them. They are SO not worth the extra $25!

Never been coerced or harrassed by anyone to do anything in RE...yet.

I told an agent to stop harrassing me by email because her short sale got closed. I hate interiors from Farvv..

I do a lot of interiors. Nobody has ever harassed me, but I get some people who try to influence my values. They send someone to meet me at the home, the leave a package with comps, repair list, and a bpo, or they just notify me what the pending price is over the phone or through email. I can understand their frustration. There are a lot of stupid agents doing bpos and comping the houses really high, but i'm not one of them.

I have had a lot of agents try to tell me a house is a fix up but I arrive to find the home in move-in ready condition.
Short sale agents try to influence[unsuccesfully] my price all the time, I dont blame them, they want the sale to go through so they can get paid. About 50% of the time the home is priced at market value, the other 50% is usually way low, with low DOM, and a very difficult agent, those make me a little suspicious.
I always take my husband on interiors, he doesn't look like the type of person you want to threaten[ he's really a big softy], so I haven't had to deal with any veiled or real threats thank goodness!

Several years ago they actually took me off the interiors list, so all I would get was exteriors. That lasted like 6 months, then interiors showed up again. Some update in their system reset it, and when I tried to get it switched, they said no. However, I am not on the "preferred list" (which is odd, b/c I am always at capacity with them, and actually get more from them since they implemented that program.

Since I am still chasing blasts, I have set up a program thru Imacros that detects when there is an interior order through its image recognition plug in, and plays an audio alert for me to let me know there is an exterior order sitting there. For interiors, it plays no noise, and I can pass.

The solution for all of this is to say "by the banks guidelines, we have to weigh traditional/standard sales more than we would the last REO or short sale that sold within a six month period". If they give you anymore guff, tell them to take it up with the Bank.

I no longer do many paid BPOs, as I am mostly an REO agent right now--but my favorite line is "I'm sure you are aware that influence peddling is illegal." That usually stuns them a bit and puts them on the defensive. I can then quickly follow up with something like, "I insist on avoiding even the appearance of illegal behavior, so I'm sure you will understand when I say that this conversation is over."

If I were a short sale agent, I would be worried about future ramifications, Their list price is usually unreasonable. I got a call yesterday from an appraiser wanting to know why short sale agent listed property (before I got property as a foreclosure)40 K below what

To continue; I sold it for. What was I to say??? Short agent needed to drum up business of any kind even though he knew bank would not work with is number?? I'm afraid these short sale agents are just asking for problems.