Hello everyone. I am new to this forum. I complete a volume of BPOS weekly. However, it has been slow for me for the past 2 months. I use to receive about 30-40 orders a week but now I will be lucky if I complete that much a month. Anyone else experiencing this in Southern California? What's happening with BPOs? I've been asking the companies and they don't seem to have a clear cut answer themselves.

Could be foreclosure/short sales are slowing down. What kind are you dong mostly? Exterior or interior? My BPO business has slowed as well here in NY. I was on a much smaller scale, maybe three a week.

Slow here as well. I think you will find there is a lot of speculation but no legitimate answers as to why the sudden drop off.

The million dollar question...

I wish I had the answer. I've been down by 40% for the past three months.

Today has started off strong though. I exceeded my self-imposed quota.

My numbers are down about 40-50% too. I think it's like this everywhere. There are still a ton of properties that need to go through the foreclosure pipeline, so I am confident that reos and bpos will pick up again. Hopefully soon.

I have a question - How do you all do it?

I read many times where some of you, it only takes 15 minutes to do a BPO - is this after you've taken your photos (ext. and/or int.) and pulled your comps?

I did BPOs a number of years ago and felt brutally beaten by them - the deadlines were too short, sometimes they weren't happy with one comp and then I'd be penalized. It took me one or two days to get one BPO together. Perhaps I was too anal in my collection and analysis of data that it takes me much longer. I'll do a BPO for a gov't agency now and then but the deadline is 72 hours (room to breath).

So I'm really shocked when I read someone is doing 30-40 a week! How do you all do it that quickly?

It takes me anywhere from 40ish minutes to an hour. That doesn't include taking the pics obviously. I always give myself an hour per order.

I can still do 30 - 40 a week, but I'm dog tired and I'm working before sun up, to sun down.

If I get to 20 a week I'm happy. In the last year I only missed that number once. I average about a half hour a form w/comps. And I'm a hunt and pecker. Sl forms I do in about twenty minutes where as a Mainstreet form takes about 45 minutes.

I'm also in Southern California and it is slow, very slow. I used to do 60 to 80 per month. Now I'm lucky if I get 30 to 40. Some of the companies I used to get lots of orders from have just stopped.

Many of us are husband-wife team When husnab takes photos for 3-4 hours, it's enough to pull MLS info, and input data for 4 orders. Then, husband does the rest of data entry and photo uploads. I pay him $20 per each order, ha-ha.

You sound like us Bunny, I hope my husband doesn't see the $20 per hour or he'll want a raise...LOL

2011 I am down 20-25% on BPOs; closed only two REOs this year.

Getting a 2d monitor really pushed my speed up. My dh is licensed & a wiz with mapping, so he can plan his route for maximum efficieny.

We have our routine down now. Once you have your system in place & plenty of practice you will find you can work quickly without sacrificing quality or accuracy.

Seems to be a little slower everywhere

terribly slow for me here in miami. during the last three weeks my work has been down almost 100%!!!! that means nothing!!!! I have done 2 or 3 orders during the last 3 weeks, none of my companies is sending me anything. my average before this was 5 to 30 a week. I'm praying....

That is about when our worked stopped here in Brevard County (central Florida) I have maybe done 10 BPOS in the last 3 weeks and 1 REO. Got one approx 500K listing and they just pulled it b/c they wanted to work with the short sale contract that just got under contract before the Certificate of Sale was issued. AHHHHH. Starting to get really really nervous here. Can't go on much longer lke this..been slooooow for months now.

same here in the Atlanta area- very few orders- BTW: is it any wonder that BPO companies have cut the fee's to the kneecap with stupid statements that a BPO takes 20-30 minutes? NOTHING could be further from the TRUTH- been doing them since 2002 and can't say that I ever had one that was completed in that short a time- most pic uploads take longer than that, consider the time it takes pulling info, and drivetime- 2-3 hours is more like it, per order, sometimes more if rural, I have had one recently took 6 hrs

It is my understanding that we are now in a slow period due to the fallout from the robo-signing litigation that the major banks went through a few Months ago. Hopefully it will pick up again in the near future. Slow here in Texas also.....

Wake up, we're in a depression. There no lending going on for the most part, no refi's, and too many " don't foreclose" rules.
Now throw hundreds of thousands of real estate agents into the mix, and you start to get the pictue.

As far as the mills cutting the fees, its all a part of the big picture of self preservation and more profits. Personally I'm done with flogging dead horses. I work for the companies who appreciate my business because they are the only ones that send me work anymore.

Enjoy the slow down while it last, cause when it hits again, it going to be crazy busy. I'm being told by some of my companies that the banks are sitting on the orders for now, but will soon release them. Not sure when that will be. Getting in my vacation time now, and doing the things that I'm usually too busy to do.

Ok, so we have people who say they knock out BPO's in 20 minutes and then we have some who say it takes 2 hours. The norm for most agents who do a good job is somewhere in the middle of that. One of the missing pieces here is the amount of time it takes will veriy greatly by the area you work and the form. Some agents live in a large urban area with their zip codes keeping them close to home. 10 minutes per house for pix, easy form, most comps are very similar to subject so not much adjustment ........... hummmmmm......... yeah those would be quick.

Now I live in a area where my average drive distance between orders in 20 miles. Comps searches often go out 25 miles and the property is way different. Lots of time getting pictures, long search to even get comps that are usable and then tons of adjustments.

You get the idea, it often depends where we work. I have some orders I knock out in 45 minutes, many that take twice that long, a few even longer. On a whole I probaby average 1 hour 15 minutes per order. Average order is $55 bucks. Take away car cost and double FICA. Hummmmmmmm ......... I average $30 per hour. Yeah it pays the bills but nobody gets rich like that in California. $30 an hour might be nice in mid America but $30 an hour sucks here in California. I call it dog paddling ....

The thing you need to answer for yourself is what am I worth? If I see an order on a blast that sits there and nobody takes there is a reason. I'll wait for the phone call and negotiate the price. I had one yesterday that sat in my available que all night from CC. I opened chat and told the person I'd do it for $75. About 2 hours later it was gone, someone else took it for less money.

I learned years ago you must determine what's profitable. The orders that aren't you let go. You give the losers to your competition and let them go out of business. Volume is nice but it can't be at the expense of putting you under water.

Agents are thining and dropping like flies. The pendulum will swing the other way sometime in the future for those that hang on and dog paddle long enough. Won't it be nice when that happens and the companies call and you say $100 thank you .....

Beercat,

I have been an independent contractor in various areas. You are so right. The race is not won by the swift [or to the under cutters], but those faithful who endure to the end. This has been my experieince time and time again. I have out lasted many of the incompetent employees [and some good ones] at my vendees. And eventually someone comes along who appreciates talent and hard work. Then I am back on top of their list.

With respect to BPO's, it takes talent,organization and a passion [or mild affection] for it pay to do them. Most don't have that.

I agree with that.

I don't think you can generalize how long a BPO takes, it depends on market area availabilty of comps, adjustments and analysis. Some are easier then others, plenty of similiar comps and others you struggle with.

Also depends on the effort you want to make, I like others try to go the extra 1/2 mile, it used to be an extra mile, but I realized in general it wasn't appreciated or worth it so I just go an extra 1/2 mile, because its my nature to try and do a good job no matter what the fee.

I am from South Florida and was told by one of the companies, that California and Florida are really slow right now.

I went from 15-25 BPO's per week to 2-3 per week in the last month. I hope it picks up.

As long as they are holding off on fourclosures, they are holding off on BPO's . Many have been in their homes without paying 18-24 months now without the bank doing a thing here in FL. If you want to sign your deed over to the bank, they will pay for up to 7000.00 right now becuase they know they are stuck and it's the only option to get the house sold and some of the debt repaid to the bank. Those are the REO's we are seeing come to market right now. No BPO's needed.

Just read that JPMChase and WAMU (I think the other one was WAMU) are giving $10K - $20K to homeowners to do a short sale to circumvent the foreclosure process. Makes financial sense for them as Foreclosures in FL are taking over 600 days and cost about $50K.

That combined with the fact that the Rocket Docket did not get refunded and ends in July. That will slow down FL foreclosures even more.

Is that not the sickest news you could ever hear ?
Only in America !

Half the REO's I'm getting are problem childs. Title issues, evictions, dumps. It chews up my time with no income flow, it's a 8itch ..........

Now BPO's are slowing which I used for cash flow seeing my inventory is sitting.

Time to eat more bean burritos :tired:

This is all about who can dog paddle the longest. Other Brokers would get pissed when I would take a 5% listing. Now many of us are netting as low as 1.65% on the list side and then if your an agent who splits, oh my. And that's 1.65% of half the sales price of 5 years ago. That means we are making only 1/3 of what we did 5 years ago for the same job.

I think it's even worse that there are so many people not paying their mortgages on rental properties and collecting and pocketing the rent they are being paid. It's bad enough that people can live in their homes for 2-4 years wihout paying a mortgage, but collecting rent and not paying the mortgage is theft. Yet, they can evict the tenant if they don't pay their rent...ONLY in America LOL

I service areas in GA and SC and have not seen it this slow in 4 years. Very concerning - generally 50 to 70 reports a week down to 25 or so. Wish I knew what was happening and my clients do not seem to know either.

I work in the southeast part of Georgia (Savannah, Tybee Island) and I have never seen BPO's this slow! Nothing at all this week!