Hey All...

First-time poster, long-time lurker in Omaha, NE. I signed up with TransUnion the other day, got an email saying my account is set up, and I log in and there's no orders. I expect that I guess, but in your experience, how long does it take before you start to see orders from TransUnion?

Thanks!!

From what I have seen they primarily stick with people they have used in the past.

I have gotten a few orders from them, but I know another agent in my area that gets up to one per day from them.

I would think it depends on the area. Sometimes you might get one a month - sometimes three or four a week. It took awhile to get my first one I believe. Be patient!

Be prepared to provide a quick turn around!!!

Can one of you folks provide the link for Transunion? Thanks!

How much are you getting for a Transunion order? I did a ton of work for them up until about 3 years ago. They sent an email saying that they were cutting fees from $75 to $38. I told them to take me out of the database.

Transunion jobs are only good if you are scheduled to drive by the property or you are getting a slew of them. With their one comp/no photo evaluations, you can do about 3 of those an hour. The key is to only accept those that are on your regular routes of travel.

If you let me know your email address, I will email you the TransUnion application and instructions.

HEY! I received my first TransUnion order this morning. It is a $30 "Alternative Valuation Exterior Report".

Okay, here's my stupid question:
According to what I've read, I actually have to physically drive by the Subject, correct?

Somehow I seem to recall someone mentioning it's a desktop-only valuation, because of the low fee. It only requires one comp and no pictures. Anyone have experience with this type of report?

Very easy it only takes a few minutes. Some agents drive by some don't, it depends. Me, I only take them if it's close by, if I have other photos in the area. To be safe I always drive by to make sure the house is still in tact. Quick turn around, and you will get the work. They also do interiors, no photos. I get about 5+ a week.

I always take at least one photo even it isn't required. It's for MY records.

What if the place burned down the night before? You never know unless you check it out! C.Y.A!

All the TU orders that I have ever received had the statement on the bottom that declares that the person doing the evaluation viewed the property. I always drive by, 100% of the time, and always take a photo of the house, the house # and the street sign. I had a TU exterior a year or so ago that due to my value estimate the owner complained and said that the agent could not have driven by the house. TU emailed me and acused me of not seeing the house....actually assumed that I didn't. I emailed the TU state rep back the photos that I took and asked them to kindly take me off their site and their solicitations as I would never work with them again.

About a day later the TU manager, the state rep's supervisor, called me and was basically Ki$$ing my !!! to get me back.

No problems since.

That's the best reason to do the best job you can. If you do, the companies don't want to lose you and you have leverage.

If you always take the street sign first, then the house #, front view, etc. you can always go back in you photo inventory and get photos from years ago. I will bet that I have 4 or 5 gigabytes of photos stored on my external backup hard drive from the past 4 years of work.

If you store them by calendar year, they would also be a great resource ever ever subject to an IRS mileage audit.

I have a problem with an interior BPO I did for TransUnion. It's a manufactured home on 70+ acres - half cropland, half woodland. Of course there are no sold comparables like this in the area. I used other similar manufactured homes (2 on 2 acres and 1 on 10 acres). They had a place to write land value for the subject. The land is worth about 6 times more than the house. There is no place to write comments on their forms and no place to write adjustments. They just have prewritten comments and none of them are good enough to explain the situation. I hit submit and it won't let it through because of their "errors" saying that my comps are valued at less than half of the value of the subject. What am I supposed to do? I guess I'll have to call them in the morning. It's fairly frustrating because they have no flexibility in their forms whatsoever. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks.

Shoot. I really screwed up. Forgot to get the manufacturer, serial #, off the tag in the home- since it was a manufactured home. I've never done an interior on a manufactured for TransUnion before and forgot they wanted this. I guess I'll have to call the homeowner in the a.m. This order is ending up to be a royal pain in my.....

I called TransUnion and my rep wants me to only value the house and 5 acres. She also wants me to change the zoning to residential instead of agricultural so the form will allow me to submit. There is no where for me to comment on what I'm doing and what the actual situation is. I don't want to submit it this way. The owners are going to think I'm crazy only valuing this in the mid 100,000s instead of the mid $700,000s (which is where it should be with the land value)
HELP!!!!!!!!!

Don't do that...

I got one a while back on 40 acres... it was a pre-foreclosure. I did my report and next thing you know a clarification. The previous appraisal (that I had a copy of) said 3 acres, please fix your BPO.

Hmmm... so I check it out. In the data table it said 3 acres, but the appraiser had a note "Subject property is 40 acres, but client asked that it be compared as three" Fact of the matter is only about 5 acres was useable.

Next call I get was that the bank had a problem because their guidelines did not allow them to do a residential loan on 40 acres...

Okay now I get to my point...

I have a client with a gorgeous manuf. home on ag land. Most banks will not loan on it.

Wanna keep your license? Thell them what it really is and stick to your guns. If they wouln't budge tell them to reasign the friggin' order. You'll sleep better.

You're right. I've been thinking about this whole thing for a couple hours now. I don't feel comfortable with this at all. Hopefully, my rep will understand - if not, there's nothing I can do about it. If I lose orders, that is better than losing my license. I know this report will be completely inaccurate if I submit it as they are requesting and the owners could possibly file an ethics complaint against me as well. Not worth it. Thanks for validating what I was thinking.

If the property has a residence on it, it is residential, not agricultural regardless of the zoning of the local taxing authority. For most evaluations that I have done, agricultural means rural productive vacant rural lands.

The owners will see the report and that you only used the smaller of the acres. Here in Texas, most of the evaluations of rural residences want either the house and one acre, five, or ten acres according with the homestead laws. Only when they are borrowing off of a working farm or ranch with the total be used.

I would go ahead and do as TU asks, keep copies of the emails and the finished report.

When I said "ag-land" I meant with an active commercial ag operation on the property (Strawberries in this case)... there is land that's zoned ag but is really residential, you're right... that would be a different case.

There is crops growing on half of this land. I haven't received any e-mails from my rep, only phone calls so I can't "prove" anything if I needed to.

Will THEY LET YOU ALSO SUBMIT AN ADDENDUM OF YOUR OWN? YOU COULD SAY THAT YOU ARE CONFIDENT THAT YOUR OPINION OF VALUE IS ACCURRATE AND THERE ARE NO COMPS TO JUSTIFY OR SUPPORT THE VALUE. This WOULD BE EASIER IF YOU WERE COMPARING ONLY LAND AND MAKE AN AJUSTMENT FOR THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE. They SHOULD HAVE DIFFERNT FORMS FOR EACH PROPERTY TYPE.A STANDARD FORM DOESN'T ASK APPOPRIATE QUESTIONS FOR MULIFAMILY OR COMMERCIAL. MANY BANKS WIL NOT CONSIDER THE VALUE OF OUTBUILDINGS AND/OR ANY ACREAGE OVER 5. I DO NOT KNOW WHY??? GOOD LUCK!

Will THEY LET YOU ALSO SUBMIT AN ADDENDUM OF YOUR OWN? YOU COULD SAY THAT YOU ARE CONFIDENT THAT YOUR OPINION OF VALUE IS ACCURRATE AND THERE ARE NO COMPS TO JUSTIFY OR SUPPORT THE VALUE. This WOULD BE EASIER IF YOU WERE COMPARING ONLY LAND AND MAKE AN AJUSTMENT FOR THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE. They SHOULD HAVE DIFFERNT FORMS FOR EACH PROPERTY TYPE.A STANDARD FORM DOESN'T ASK APPOPRIATE QUESTIONS FOR MULIFAMILY OR COMMERCIAL. MANY BANKS WIL NOT CONSIDER THE VALUE OF OUTBUILDINGS AND/OR ANY ACREAGE OVER 5. I DO NOT KNOW WHY??? GOOD LUCK!

I am going to call my rep in the morning and tell her I feel uncomfortable with the situation. If there was a place for comments in their form, I could just write in that it is zoned AG and that the extra land is worth ___ and that I am just valuing the residence and 5 acres. If they let me use an addendum or have a nice size comment section, I would go ahead and proceed.

Just an update: I talked to my rep - she told me how I can get the form to allow me to add comments regarding the add'l acreage. I'm glad. I want to service my client but don't want to be misleading. I also want to cover my own butt. Thanks for your comments!

Can you share with everyone how you can get the form to allow you to add additional comments. Thanks.

Where the drop down list of comments are, just choose the one at the bottom that says "other". It will place a little + sign next to the comment- click on the + and you will get a short little space to write something of your own.