I have noticed lately it seems all the am companies are trying to drive down the price,it's like i have to play let's make a deal.

It's ok to do one for 50 when it's 3/3 without pics,but lately they are wanting pics of subject and solds in 2 days while only paying 50,anything below that doesn't work for my as it gets int he way of my buying and selling and investment properties.

The ones i love are the bpo's for th enew subdivisions for 100 that are rushes,they could send those to me all day long.

If someone out there is doing bpo's for 30 dollars i feel sorry for you that you have to accept such a low fee.You would have to do 100 bpo's just to make 3,000 a month,then you would have gas,batteries for the camera,and using up your paper and ink from your printer which you really would be netting alot less than 3,000.

Belowe a certain point it doesn't make sense to do them.

Buy rechargeable batteries and a charger- that will save you a ton right there, and print out your info and comps using black ink only. it saves a little for me.
But i understand- I am not doing anything for less than $50 myself, and most I negotiate higher than that. Of course, this is a mainly rural area, so i have to drive 30+ miles for the bulk of my orders...
I just don't take the ones that are going to lose me money. Often, they've been assigned to other agents, then in a few days when they aren't done, or in a week when the bank doesn't like the other agnet's work, they call me back and will pay whatever I ask for. I'm getting to appreciate the incompetant agents in my area- they are making me a lot more monay now!!!

Well its a sign of the times in our business, with more & more agents getiing in to this "for fast easy money & listings " fee's have continued to drop. My focus as well as changed I now focus on a core group of clients that know me & my work and pay above $50 & within 45 days .
Let those newbies take the $25-$30 driveby's & 50 buck interiors, because they want to do businesss/registered with everone under the sun just to get some work & then wonder "Oh I wonder if or when I might get paid my big $30 check ".

Yes there are plenty of incompetant agents in my area as well, We all can find them in our locations. They don't last long , but seems like as one falls away another one appears.

I have never received a $30 job, what companies are doing this??? $50 interior???? These must be companies I don't work with - I guess I am happy about that..

The reason the prices appear to be getting driven down is that most of the people on this forum got here on accident, started signing up with various BPO companies, and because they don't know what they are doing ended up submitting a very very poor BPO. That is why more companies are getting more strict. They want a better report done by a professional that knows what they are doing unlike all these new people in here thinking this job is "peaches and cream".

You are so right. I have had some of the companies call me to confirm my comparables and also to ask me about comparables that different agents used for the same property. Some of them are using whatever they can find even if it does not even somewhat compare. I actually love the tough BPO's where it challenges me to find comps. I feel so good after I am done with these. The problem I have is that it seems like I get all of the tough ones and they do not pay anymore than an easier one. What am I talking about, I have never gotten an easy one where the comps were just there. I always have to dig tax roll for sales.

Any way, Real Deal I agree with you. This is not for everyone. If you are a newbie to the real estate business, you may want to reconsider. Not just because you are bringing the prices down, but you are turning in BPO's which are less that accurate and I am getting your rejects. The truth is that if you did not work REO's/forclosures through the last decreasing market of the 90's, you really do not have a good idea for the trends and therefore cannot really be real accurate unless you have sold a lot of homes over the past few years and really know how to read this market and where it is going. Happy Memorial Day everyone and thanks for this site.

You know the funny thing is i have had 2 instances where the appraiser used horrible comps that had nothing to d with the subject inflating it's value,i am sure they were trying to HIT THE NUMBER for the bank.

One was in a lakefront community but was not on the water which affected value by over 120,000.

The other was in a community where this was the oldest home and everything new was built around it,the owner was going fsbo and overpriced it by 150k.

Most appraisers appraise based on solds and not trends. I have had a couple where the appraisal was significantly higher than what I valued at. This was a relocation. It actually sold for $1000 more than what I valued at. The employers attorneys were planning on contacting the appraisers because they wound up purchasing this home from the tranferee for the appraised value and lost $20000 3 months later. They were not happy.

I had a call last week for an order I did. I was told that mine was 42% lower than one that was done 6 months ago. They also had the house somewhere around 1350 sq ft. I got my info directly from the city assessors site and also pub records. Also I could not justify this house being worth $80k. There was all types of damage to the house not to mention the surrounding area. The house across the street had the front door kicked in and holes in the roof. The subject was not too much better. I explained all this to the rep and also talked with my broker about it and she agreed with me on my bpo. Not sure where this other person got $80k from. I am going to keep my eye on the property to see what it gets listed at.