Anyone going this year?

http://reoexpo2011.com/

It looks like it is alot of self promoting and self interest. What the heck is the Pinnacle Awards? Who votes? And The Pinnacle Award for the best bank goes to.....LOL.

I am definitely not going to this.

I'm going to attend the Evaluation Solutions Expo

I heard the Evalution Solution Expo that if you attend, you are entered into a drawing to receive your BPO check(s). Do you feel lucky?

Evalation Solutions Expo LMAO! LOL!

LMAO .... oh how funny

Boy, if I were new and having a hard time getting business I sure would go.

I think the old timers here are just trying to trick the new people into not going so they don't take their business away.

Or is it the other way around? ~ I forget

If REO Expo put together a panel including Eval Solutions, Cartel.....etc add your own choices, I would be in the front row. Sort of the same way I would watch a 20/20 interview with Charles Manson.

Nope not going. Just a bunch of money sucking payouts making conferences rich off of newbies.

If brokers/agents took that grand or more and used it on marketing they would get much greater returns.

Hello, all. I'm the CEO at HousingWire, the company that is hosting this year's REO Expo. I read some of the comments here and wanted to dispel some misinformation put forth by Papa Lou and a few others here.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pinnacle Awards, you might want to check here: http://www.thepinnacleawards.com. The awards are voted on each year by real estate professionals nationwide just like you, and this year our survey universe consisted of more than 60,000 individuals. Our survey data each year spans millions of data points covering agent/broker perceptions of the REO firms they work with.

This is our second year of conducting this unique awards program, and it is the only independent awards program in the nation that gives real estate professionals a chance to rate the firms they do business with. Only 11 winners are recognized as Pinnacle Awards winners across categories such as: best overall outsourcer, best listing practices, best closing practices, and so forth. And again, those winning are based on the ratings provided to us by real estate professionals.

In other words, there is considerably more to this awards program than some here have suggested. It's a program I'm personally very proud of, as we started the Pinnacle Awards one year ago as a way to give real estate pros in this industry a voice they'd not before had. (We'll likely be expanding this program to include BPO ratings within the next year, as well.)

As far as the conference itself, please do check our conference website to see what we've lined up for this year: http://www.reoexpo2011.com.

Thanks much, and best of luck to each of you in building your own businesses!

We bit the bullet and signed up. Several of our outsourcers are having meetings so (since we have never been to REO Expo before) we decided to go.

Got a good deal on airfare and hotel combo so next year I can comment with authority if it was worth it or not.

Best wishes and hope to meet anyone else who is going. Shoot me a PM and we can set up a meet at some time and place.

Best Wishes

I am attending. Debated and debated between REO expo and Five Star and REO expo won this year. I'm going for the meetings too. So I guess I'll be seeing a few of you there.

I'll be going attending as well. Anyone staying @ the Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel. I hope it's not far. I always register way too late to get a room where the event is held at.

Hope to see you all there. Should we wear a white carnation so we can recognise each other.

Heads up guys..... Its super hot out here with no relief in site. Feel like temps are in the 100's. My car temp read 105 yesterday. Can one of you bring some rain with you?

I waited so long to book anything flights doubled this past week. I hope to catch a last minute flight tomorrow, as the Cost of $2500 for conference, hotel and flight seems a bit steep.

This was posted on LinkedIn earlier today.

TODAY's RUMORS FROM REO EXPO
2 rumors I heard at today's REO CONFERENCE

1.) RE/MAX is going to go public which will allow Dave Liniger to have his golden parachute. It also explains a lot of why he can't be bothered with me!

2.) RE/MAX is working on an REO deal with Bank of America

Was any of this verified? The BOA thing seems to be a bit unrealistic.

ReMax has been working on that deal with BOA for 3 years. It still hasn't happened.

I was thinking that sounded like very old news that I had heard before.

We went and will be attending next year. If anyone has a specific question PM me and I will answer to the best of my ability. We have already gotten a request to sign up with a new AMC and have gotten significant clarification of what gets your scorecards improved.

One breakout session we went to gave specific info not only for the AMC but the deviations in what each of their customers want.

Bottom line. Give more info not less. If you have gotten comfortable in the way you were doing things before you need to consider over delivering by a large margin from what you have been.

One mistake and you could be toast as they have 1000 agents wanting to take the place of any current agent in their system.

Also, while things are starting to pick up, probably no significant increase in REO assignments until Q1 of 2012.

Something I forgot to mention. Heard from more than one source. With the reduction of REOs some of the AMCs are going to fall out due to lack of business sufficient to cover overhead.

The anticipation is that about 5 - 8 AMCs with deep enough pockets to weather the storm for the next year to 18 months will survive.

No idea if that is accurate but it was put out there and after thinking about it for a while it does make a certain amount of sense.

We have an REO agent in our company (not our office) who was the top level you can get to with C/B last year. He is doing less that 25% of what he did last year so far this year.

He has a LARGE staff and we are now outselling him with a very small staff. Just like a lower level AMC he can not continue to bleed $ if things do not pick up soon. He could be forced to cut back on staff which will negatively impact his performance going forward just as it could effect the performance of smaller AMCs.

Thus, the opinion of fewer, stronger, deeper pocketed companies serviving and some of the lesser companies going away.

As I said it was just something put out there during the conference but it makes sense to me based on what we are seeing in our little corner of the world and there was more than one source of the info.

Could it be a conspiracy of the top companies? Yes, that is possible. Do I think the bigs would put aside their competition with each other to co-operate on something like this? I find that very unlikely.

As always, only time will tell.

Best wishes

Did you attend the Corelogic session by any chance?

Nope can't afford it with all of these BPO mills reducing their fees and commissions being reduced on REO properties can't afford to spend the money to go to conference. This just seems like another scam to suck money out of the Realty agent just like the BPO training classes they charge you to learn how to do BPO or they want you to pay to belong to some BPO organization this is ridiculous.

Yes, It was the best format of any I was at. They only let 108 agents attend. We are also going to Orlando in July 31-Aug 2 for their conference there.
Of the 108 in the EXPO session they asked for a show of hands of who was also going to Orlando and the CEO expressed surpise that more people had not already signed up.

It is by invitation only so that may have something to do with it.

Ouch Q1 2012? Thats not a happy thought. However, as many of you know, its just me and the cats, so staff cuts are not necessary.

I had heard the BOA Re/Max thing a couple years ago. While I certainly understand Dave trying for something like that, I doubt it will ever come to be. Re/Max told its agents that they needed to complete a training to be eligable, I think it was 2 years ago, cost was around $200 and it was a week long video conference. I did not participate, I thought it was a waste of time. I don't think approaching BOA with the idea would have gone over well, just use Re/Max agents, why would that give BOA anything better then what they have now?

As far as the AMCs that may fall by the side of the road, I would agree. The assignments are getting fewer and fewer, so companies that have agreements with banks are not getting anywhere near the volume they used to, and cuts as well as closings would make sense.

I would agree with step up your game, although Grampa, your game is already way up there. Agents who do not do what banks expect, do not use common sense, will be cannned. For those of you already busting your butts, just keep it up. For the agents who think they can just keep on doing the minimum, it is not going to work for much longer. I did a second opinion BPO for Fannie about 2 months ago, thinking I was just giving a second price so my AM could get the price down for the agent in light of the appraisal they had received. A queen here had done the same for me, we got the price down and put mine in contract. I did my usual BPO routine, and three days later, the AM sent the listing to me. When a listing is reassigned, you can go into the system and see all comments, and this agent was not on her game. I did not want to take that agent's listing, I just did the BPO.

BOA just gave me a reassign, the grass was 3 ft tall, leak in the roof has now caused damage, trash out not done, food everywhere and it was with the other agent for 2 months. Not a surprise on that reassign.

Just did another second opinion BPO yesterday, no sign, no homepath materials, property was not rekeyed to the master system, on the market for 4 months. I panic when I read "make one mistake" because I mess up too. But if the examples above are what I am up against, I'm golden, cuz at least I show up and work.

To put your mind at ease when I referenced "one mistake and you are toast" it was not about just a typo etc. but closer to what you referenced with no trashout, high weeds, etc. However, a series of minor infractions could also get you in hot water.

Also, Just an FYI. Anyone who is not Date Stamping photos. Start doing it NOW. Any report that requires a photo, weekly, monthly MMR, or BPO needs for the photos to be date stamped.

They are sending our more inspectors and if you are in violation you better be on top of it. They specifically mentioned a June MMR that has snow on the ground photos in an area that is now 80+ degrees and indicated them as current.

As an example we got dinged on a Chase property because the key was missing from the lock box. This is a common occurance for us because of idiot showing agents.

Got an "URGENT" email from the AM but was able to tell them that it is so common in our area that we had already found it missing and replaced it. We also advised that it is so common we do not even advise anyone when we find one gone we just replace it and go on.

They found that acceptable.


(This is also why companies that used the same code for all lockboxes have changed to individual codes for each coded lockbox if an agent had a code they could go into any property without our knowledge. They also have at times given them to buyers and the buyers were "previewing" properties without the agent present.).

As far as the agent thing. BofA and Citi are going to go to it per a meeting with their reps. The advantage to the banks is vetted agents. They also mentioned agents who were working in collusion with others to flip short sale properties so they are watching and are starting to do forensic analysis on short sales post sale.

Best wishes and best of luck.

I can see some herd thinning when it comes to agents, but I do have a problem with some of the REO inspections done, especially on Fannie properties.

I had one about ten days ago "No utilities on" Well, I had to submit a current electric bill to prove the electric was on. The house was winterized in April, hence no water. The gas company pulled the meter for non-payment and the authorization to pay the new meter charge sat on someone's desk for 2 months, hence no natural gas.

Now we're having Fannie's property preservation company running around dewinterizing property they just winterized in March and April. I told the AM if we get a hard freeze here in April, I'll be looking north over my shoulder for the glacier.

But I do BPO's on other Fannies handled by another broker and they don't have the right lockbox, they've been rekeyed to the wrong key code and haven't been trashed out.

So where's the equality here?

In REO fair only refers to where kids show off their livestock. Glad you were able to prove why the "utilities not on" was explainable. What we came from the EXPO with was that if you have a good reason for something and can explain it you are OK. Just respond to everything in less than 24 hours. Same day is prefferd.

That key disappearing from the lockbox story is so typical for me also Grandpa. Must be taught in one of the how to buy foreclosure online courses.
Greeting non realtor investors is our REO's with lockbox code information is also routine.
Last night I showed a property to a small time new investor. She has just attempted to buy an Fannie Mae REO from a queen in the area. Said the office told her if she paid $1250.000 to the listing agent; the investor who is going to puchase the home will turn around and re sale it to her...nice..
told to file a complaint with FREC but everything was verbal so where's that going to go:

Forget FREC call fannie may direct. In one of the breakout sessions they specifically asked that this sort of thing be reported to them. Try to get the office to put it in writing (Perhaps and email with the same question would get a response) or just let Fannie May know and they may call to get the same info. It is fraud pure and simple and Fannie is trying to weed out any agent who is doing anything like this.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/quotations/niemoller_jews_communists_socialists.html

If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

Apathy is the tool of those who wish wish to perform ill on others.