Does anyone use their software? I ordered it last week, FINALLY got it setup today and was super-excited about it saving me time. I had some thoughts in my head that I didn't know how it would work in all instances, but I realize I would have a learning curve. Having to wait a week didn't help keep me excited either...but that's life.

So, I got setup and decided to play around/try to learn on an order that I received today from Proteck. I opened the MLS, opened BPOA's software, imported/exported my sold and comp listings and tried to fill the Proteck form.



My First issue was that the list of Proteck forms doesn't really describe which form you should use. This is partially Proteck's fault for not labeling forms, so i decided to go to the "help" center and found that the answer was "trial and error".

I finally found a for that appeared to input some data. There were some basic fields, (Like seller concessions) missing. I checked the data file that I created from the MLS and realized that it had many issues. One is that it didn't download some basic information like "original list date" or seller concessions, or exterior features. The other is that it did download some iformation but interprted it incorrectly. One of the biggest issues is that Rappatoni lists baths in a format as 3 (2 1) meaning, 3 total baths, 2 full, 1 half. The data created just lists 3 total baths - so all of my bath fields are incorrect.

This is problematic because it means I have to go back and pull all the listings again to double check the data. I could probably do this quicker if I just did it by hand.

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Is it worth sticking with it? Maybe it's just a learning curve? Or do you have some other software that you use and could recommend to me (on this thread or in private)?


King of the Internet was kind enough to talk to me about Imacros and I'm wondering if I might be better served just doing my own macros at this point. I'm super disappointed at this point and looking for a good solution to save me time. Thanks in advance for the help!

Proteck is always a bit of a problem but still worth auto filling in my opinion. I would correct your bath count and anything else on clean up, and just go to the sold page, select sold on the imacros and let er rip. Do they same thing for the list comps. I've tried to figure out the various forms and the imacros just dont fill them correctly, with the exception of"market valuation" form. Just do the sold and then the list and it works pretty good.

I've had it for a few weeks and I'm sold, still need a few things from them, but overall it works. Re your PTek issue, if it's the Pro Tek form with the yellow bars, it's referenced in the selection list a Pro Tek "Old".

I would say the first day was the worst, don't worry, it gets better. I will say that the fewer the pages in the client's form, the better it works, Goodman Dean is over before you blink. Also, if you have suggestions, let them know. My sense, from them, is that the system is a work in progress and actually will get better.

I emailed Nicole some questions a while back, never got a reply. Maybe at some point I will try again, but I decided if I could not get an answer during the pre-sale stages that I probably would not do well if needing support. I have always maintained if you are in the pre purchase stages and not getting an answer that you may want to hang on to your dough.

nevermind.

Thanks for all the input. So far I am very disappointed with the autofill. I used it on a SLS form and at least half of the comp listing/sales data is missing. I can fill out an SLS comp in about 120 seconds TOPS, so we're talking a lot of extra work to save 12 minutes. I have to proof it, go dig up each comp again and fill in the missing info, etc. I think the quality of my BPOs will take a big hit with BPOA, so I've requested a refund - and I have seen no response in almost 24 hours now for my request.

I think that BPOA is really just a company that has no expertise in software, trying to sell a product that isn't developed at all.

King of the Internet has been kind to offer me advise on IMacros and I'm thinking this could be better accomplished with IMacros than through BPOA.

My hope was to avoid some of the learning curve and avoid having to develop macros on my own - but it doesn't look like it's gonna work that way. I hope I can at least get a response for a refund. If not I'll just do a chargeback.

I appreciate you sharing your experience with the forum. Might have saved some from going through a like experience.

The main reason why I stayed away from similar programs is our county records and MLS has a ton of bogus information. I felt it would take me as much time to clean up the order as it would just do the normal research and inputting. I believe a few of our members have developed their own program and have worked the kinks out......As for me, I'm not that computer savy.

Well, I just got a phone call from Nicole herself. She was very pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. We did another Go To Meeting and tried to get things worked out.

I believe that CandyMan's assessment may be along the lines of part of the problem. Poor data in means poor data out - and my MLS system doesn't have the data laid out the way that is maybe should be.

Coupled with this, the software that BPOA has was built with some limitations. Nicole is aware of this and is working on an update in a few months that will allow for more fields to be exported from the MLS, which I think may help alleviate many of the issues.

Nicole tried to make it right, and went above and beyond - so I appreciate that. Maybe I'll give it another shot when she updates the software. She seems to care about her product and helping customers - so you can at least trust that the effort and integrity is there.

I am very disappointed, but realize that this is a difficult task for BPOA - there's a million different people doing BPOs for a hundred different companies, with a few hundred forms and a few hundred MLS systems. It's a lot to integrate for everyone.

I'm glad I gave it a shot....disappointed in it not working out....I am going to try IMacros directly and see if I can set things up myself...but I don't have high hopes.

I think part of the issue may be that I've become so quick at putting the BPOs in by hand. I'm a fast typer, and I can input data quickly. Searching for, identifying and opening the comps in the MLS is what takes a lot of my time. Once it's open, I can input many of the forms in a minute or so - so it doesn't matter if I need 3 fields or 20 fields...the time has already been spent in my mind by the time I have opened the comp.


Nicole has issued me a full refund, and I had the email confirmation of the refund within 15 minutes of getting off the phone with her.

Thanks for posting about your experience Alwaysthenewbie!

I had been on the fence about purchasing, and my concerns about it were exactly what you experienced. I'll wait.

Good to hear N.O. stepped up, tried to work it out and arranged a refund.

As far as learning macros, it sounds fascinating but not going to happen!

Alwaysthenewbie,
Sorry it didn't work for you and glad you got a refund. I've always found Nichole and her staff to be very helpfull any time an issue pops up. As someone else said their product is a work in progress and is always being updated.
If you do 3 or 4 bpos a day you probably won't benefit much from auto fill, I normally do 8-10 per day and no way would I ever want to be without it. I've had it for over a year and save an average of 20 minutes per form, and I type pretty fast. The new offer they have with a 2 computer download, a personal bpo form with photo capability, which just landed me a new small client, and the add on text is a great deal. The add on text and default doesn't really work for me, but it was included in the offer. You learn what is left out on each form after doing several and can go back and fill it out pretty quickly.
Something that saves me time also is a cheat sheet I made that I copy all the relevant tax info, cma info, and comp info, so I have it at my fingertips without having to go back to look anything up.

I was issued an order today that a previous agent had cancelled and I received it with all of the info still in place. Not certain why it cancelled, nor why I got it with the info intact. Typically, that stuff gets cleared out before reissuse.
I looked at it and it was loaded with bad MLS info. No agent in their right mind would have typed this info in...it had to be an auto fill program. I saw this and realized how much tweaking I would be doing after the data was plugged in, not worth it for me. zzLIke you said Candy, Bad info in and bad info out. I would spend more time cleaning up the bad data and info then I would if I did it myself....just my ..02.

The nice part of the forum is that you can get the info you need to make an informed decision. As someone who "aspires" to do 8 bpo's plus a day, I've found BPOA very solid. I would venture to say that if I didn't take the plunge, I would be further along in my consideration of plans b, c and d, one of those being a job search.

I'm always amazed at how poorly many of the mills manage their IT, I assume they have staff and or contractors to handle this and they fall on their faces all the time. I'm also forever disappointed with how well new roll outs work from the software giants. I think Nicole may have a leg up here. I'm not a shill for her, but I think that Alwaysthenewbie's experience in exercising the 30 day no obligation trial is a testimony to BPOA, tried it, didn't like it, returned it. As for me I like it and I look forward to it's evolution.

Yes, I want to be clear - I am in NO WAY upset with BPOA. I think Nicole and her crew did a great job by me. I just think that I am not a good fit for the product yet. I am excited to see how much of an improvement the update will be and it seems they work hard to improve a product that is difficult to produce for everyone.

The discount is one thing, but what I REALLY wanted was some way to save 20-30 minutes doing each BPO. She didn't just say, "OK here's your refund". She tried to help, tried to see if her product could work and was great. If it could have been made to fit me better, I would have been more thrilled with that than a refund and she really tried. Since it couldn't, she was great in giving the refund.

My MLS is a little funky. She showed me some of the issues with my MLS and I do agree it was on the MLS side. The bath counts, for instance, are listed in teh format of 3 (2 1) meaning 3 total baths, 2 full, 1 half. It says this on the top of the MLS, but for the same listing in the export fields, it often had 0 instead of what the top of the form said. So the tax record populates one field, but not the field that gets exported. Strange.

Other issues were just not fields they have YET.

She did point out that of the 30 fields in one of the forms I have, just 5 of them needed to be filled out after the autofill. Maybe this could be worked for a good time-savings for some, but for me, I feel that I would wind up scrolling through pages and pages to make things right.

If you're on the fence, and want to know for sure, give it a go. It looks like it is a fit for a lot of people on here but not for everyone. The reason I went with BPOA was based on the negative customer service reviews I saw for other companies. I couldn't find much about Nicole's customer service, so I think it's only fair to post the positive also. I wish it worked, maybe on the next go-around it will.

like with anything there are tricks to the trade, i dont want to reveal what i have spent hours and hours perfecting but i can say the software is about as good as it gets. and as far as going back in and adding or correcting data, well there is software for that too. if your savy enough to figure it out then your savy enough to complete alot of them for the volume to make a nice paycheck.

I've been using BPOA for the last several months without any issues. Our MLS (MFRMLS - Central Florida area) and their program is very compatible. I average between 400-500 BPO's per month and couldn't imagine completing them without BPOA.

I've turned other Agents onto BPOA and each of them has called to thank me. Thank you BPOA.

There's always room for improvement which if I can get the program to default auto fill 4-5 fields it would be perfect...

Do they have a blank form that autofills for a BPO for private investors?

Yes they do and I think it is a part of her overall effort. IE I think she would like to market a standardized, 1 page form, with fewer quirks, to the industry, as her program supports more standard one page forms pretty well. Probably worth discussing with them, they have a decent free demo set up.

Thanks, Mike. I should have worded it differently. I have the software, just couldn;t find if there was a generic form in there to use for a private party.

I think BPO5000 is a much better choice for autofil. They have come a long way and have actually improve quite a bit. Worth every penny

I have hah nothing but problems with the BPO automation program, it would save as a csv file, however converted to an .xlr file when importing to the program.........no help from staff all they wanted was more $$$. They had me call paragon and then back to them with explaination, I have cancelled and am going to try BPO5000. What a waste of time on my end.

Just purchased it for Inspectionport/Landsafe forms. I am sold and impressed. It cuts down my input bpo time down to half. The only complaint is that I am not set up to do 1-4 units; it is an extra fee. But happy with SFR and condos.

Most of my time is spent uploading the photos and creating and scanning the map.

I got BPO Automation Software about 8 weeks ago. I would say I am overall happy with it. With some companies it is awesome, it does great with CC and GD forms in particular. With EML (which I do the most business with) it is just okay. I would say it take about 10-15 minutes off each form. The CC and GD forms I can now do in under 20 mins, EML's I can do in about 23-25 mins.

I emailed them a few times and never enen got a reply. I had questions about different forms. Needless to say, I am not impressed. if you can't get an service pre-sale, what kind of service will you get post sale? I get a good amount of Spam from these guys, but they are apparently not interested in answering product/service questions.

If you call rather than email and go to "presale" prompt, the gentleman there will and can answer most of your questions.

I did call several times asking specific questions. I will say viewing hte "training" webinar before you get the call to set up your MLS was most helpful. I was then familiar with the process and while on the phone getting set up, I had a list of questions, that were answered.

I emailed them before I bought and I got a phone call 3 days later, I spoke to a guy and got my questions answered. I purchased and really have not needed customer support (except for once when the program was down for like a day) since it has worked without problem. Its not perfect, but I think it has increased my speed by 30% and is well worth the money depending on the volume one is doing. I debated buying for like a year and really wish I had gotten it earlier.

Has anyone paid the extra fee for them to set up income properties (2-4 units) in your MLS? Right now I have only SFRs and condos; they said there was a fee for income property.

How much was it to set it up?

Does it save time similiar to SFRs?

Is anyone else having issues with BPO Automation today. For some reason mine will not load.

I have used BPOA for about 2 yrs and it really helps me out with all the work I used to do. Unfortunately, I have seen a big drop off in my order volume so it hasn't been that helpful lately.

I'm with you! it all takes extra time- I'd rather look thru my hand written notes than take time looking over their form and waste more time- I do not trust these programs to be accurate, and one has to fill in 50% of data anyway, so what't s the point of paying them? rip IMO

I think everyone's MLS system is different thus providing different results. For me it never makes mistakes, there are just fields where exactly what is in the MLS may not be correct, for example if the MLS says 4 bed 2 bath that is what the program puts in your report. But what you look at the MLS they may be counting 1 below grade bed and bath, so you have to fix that. The program works pretty well with my MLS. I can do forms that used to take me 30-35 minutes in 18-22 mins - so for me it is totally worthwhile and I am able to do more reports in a day. I could never go back to doing reports without it, although for some BPO companies it is not as good.