Anyone heard/had any dealing with Residential Real Estate Review Inc. out of Hatboro, PA? Received a rush BPO out of the blue and am second guessing myself for taking it w/o doing research. Help!

I have have done several, they have paid on time.

Good stable company, Pays quickly.

The are a servicer and do not directly supply REO's but the people they work for often contact the BPO source for REO evaluations and listing.

Only think I dislike about them is the way they pay with out direct identification of what properties the check is for.... you have to go back and pull up e-mail to find what properties are in the payment batch.

Yep, I've done some for them as well. They pay!!!!!!!!!!!

I used to do quite a few for them but then they dropped what they would pay, I won't drop what I charge for my service though!

I do a lot of work for them. They usually within a couple weeks. Decent people to work with.

I have done work for them and pay fairly quickly, but as stated above they don't do a good job of identifying what property the check is for.

Very good company, I've done plenty of orders for them.

Well it depends...

If you're near me, they're an awful awful company, stay far away.

Otherwise they pay fast, pay well and have a reasonable form (well, it's a bit of a pain, but not too bad).

RRReview seems to be ducking my questions, so I'll ask you BPO/REO specialists. It could be nothing though. In their Accept/Decline email workorder, what does the term High Risk Area actually mean or indicate? I know what it meant in the USAF, and that was injury or death is possible. Hey, just curious because none of my other 6 BPO/REO companies use that terminology.

They put "high risk area" on every bpo order. It means that if you don't complete it within 24 hours..even though your due date says 7 days for completion...they will hound you to death every 5 minutes until you finish.

Thanks

LOL! That term is only on my orders that want REO comps. I assume the "high risk area" is an area that they have determined to have a lot of REOs and the values are potentially going to be driven by REOs.

My biggest problem with RRR is their lack of communication. They have never responded to any of my emails.....I repeat..never. I always have to call them direct....I called on an issue about a week ago.....the lady I was talking to spoke perfect english.....thought we were good to go.....wrong..... their fire alarm went off and they had to evacuate their building.....just my luck. I only use their orders as fillers as they only pay $40 for exteriors. If I have work in the araa where their property is located I take it....if not, I pass. I use to just take the order and hope other work would come from other companies....that never seemed to work out....if their order was going east all my other orders were going west. I tried that for 2 months and found it was a loosing proposition. They pay fairly quick but, again, only $40 for exteriors..

Here's a little known tip. Accept the order and then call the toll-free and ask for a increase. It generally works. You can also increase your fee in your profile.

*WARNING* This may not work in all areas. It works in mine because few agents are signed up with them.

I understand RRR gives listings. Is this true? And what is the trick to reaching someone of authority to ask for the listing? The orders I get are anonymous...no contact name is given. I have gotten many interiors but no listings.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it.

RRR doesn't give listings.... if a listing comes from a BPO done through RRR its from the compay who has requested the BPO. They contact you via your contact information on the completed BPO form.

I got a call from these people for wanting me to to do a exterior rush for $40 like 5-6 months ago, I said no the fees to low, they said ok bye. Today after such a long time, they assigned me a $50 exterior that is near me and not too hard to comp, so I accepted it.

Do they always offer $40 for exteriors? Main thing I like about them so far is they assign orders, but I still won't do orders for $40. Can't say I like their form too much though...

Yes, $40 is the standard here in my area in Florida. You may be able to get them to $50, but most of the time they will just move on to another agent that will do them for $40 if you won't.

Thanks for the reply Justine, Where in FL are you from? I'm in mickey mouse town.

Anyways that's fine with me, I'm not holding my breathe for their orders. If they send them thats fine, if they send me lowballs I'll decline and I'll accept my normal orders from other companies who want quality reports.

I do the $40 orders and give quality work. Business is business and $40 an hour looks pretty good in my neck of the woods. The forms are long but I have never heard from QC and the checks come regularly. To each his own.

I am in the panhandle HR

I'm getting quite a few orders from them but I am assuming I get them because my fee is lower ( don't even ask!) but now that I have done quite a few,I'm wondering if I can up the ante. Unfortunately, I think not.........it's not that I'm doing good work......it's that I'm $1 below what is customary in my area that I am getting the orders...or will this change with time and experience?!

Personally I like them. Pay Quick.

Char - RRR has no loyalty in my area and it doesn't matter how long you've been doing BPOs for them. If you raise your price, you risk not getting any more orders. I get orders from them from time to time, but nothing regular because I never lowered my fees as low as others in my area did. Obviously I can't speak for other areas, but that is what I have seen in my area.

Thanks for the advice OhAgent I'll hold and ride the wave!

OMG! My first bpo with them, and my negatives are out weighting the positives...

I got a short sale drive by. The list price is $7k lower than my BPO value, so it's not letting me turn it in, I e-mailed the person that sent the due date for the BPO. No reply back, instead I get another e-mail from someone else saying your BPO is incomplete for blah blah reasons..

I e-mailed him back and explained the situation, he replied with I resetted your password to 1234. WTF??

Long story short , he finally READ the e-mail and said I forwarded it to our clients.

Do I just wait for their response?

I tried calling them, I just get a busy type tone when I put the extention..?? Makes me miss my CC orders =(

this is a BAD company to work for. Yes, they pay, but there is no loyalty, very few of their reps understand English or what to say if you ask them a question not on their "cheat sheet", and they CONSTANTLY NAG you for orders even if it is not due for 4 days.

I don't get a ton from this company, but have never been nagged by them either & they do pay!

Oooops - posted response in wrong thread. I have never had an issue with RRR.

I received my first BPO from RRReview last week. Do you have to call them each week to receive more orders?

No, once you're in their system they will send you requests. RRR is the first company I ever worked for and they are still one of my favorites, but I get very few requests from them anymore. I'm not lowering my fees--they've been the same for 5 years, despite the fact that gas has done what it has and many of these require some distance driving.

Don't worry about calling them---they will definitely be calling you!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

They are a great with turn around payment....just not my favorite to deal with on communication

LOL!

I just started doing BPO and I've been getting quite a few from RRReview. The previous ones have been Exterior BPO's and I finally got an Interior BPO. :)
But I have a question that I can't seem to resolve. According to their instructions -
"REO COMPS - Utilize REO comparables that best represent REO market conditions, as long as they meet the following: a) in the subject neighborhood, reasonable proximity, or competing neighborhood, b) comparable property subject to reasonable adjustment, c) exposed to market for a reasonable period, d) sold comparables dated within 6 months."

OK. I understand thgis but the only way I know of even trying to locate only REO listing in my MLS (Trend) is to utilize the Remarks field. What would I use as a search term? I know that many agents don't give all of the information in the descriptions.

Do you know the area well? Are there a lot of REOs near the subject property and in surrounding neighborhoods? You would have to use your knowledge of the area to answer the REO questions if your MLS does not clearly include/exclue REOs. Call your MLS and suggest they add that field.

If you don't know the area, try asking your fellow agents/broker about the surrounding area. Tax records can let you know if homes on the same block are bank-owned.

Surely owner name is a field in your MLS...

Or a disclosures field where you can search for "no disclosures" or "corporate seller"

What a understatement.......I'm still laughing.....

I received an order a few weeks back and decided to take care of the phone call issue......I had it back to them in less than 24 hours....thus, no call. I had one slide in on me last week when I had just got hit with a ton of orders from other companies. It was the last one on the pile. My intent was to get it back to them by Sunday....no such luck.....but, Monday worked.....now, here's the kicker.....order was 5 days old with two days to go.....no emails and no phone calls....go figure.....lol. If this is their new policy send me more.

I have no reliable method to use in our MLS, either. Most agents put "Client" in the owner field, and a great many put anything that indicates a f/c or short in the Confidential Agent Remarks. Makes it hit or miss for me, too.

Then there is our beloved REO Queen (I really do like her)-- she puts Bank Owned/Lender Owned/Short Sale in an unused address field at the very top.

I've had good luck with them, and they pay quickly. They asked me to do an interior on a foreclosed property a half hour away. I was busy and told them my price. I really didn't want to take the time to do it, but I named my price for the rush order and they took it. I also got my check in about two weeks.

I like RRR very much, no QC issues & quick pay. 1 photo or they pay more. RE: searching REO, I use terms such as Bank Owned, Corporate, Addendum, Bank, Foreclosure. Those terms usually produce the most. I always state, per MLS @.............whatever the search results.

Then use those terms from the REO queen. I also have an REO queen in my area. They don't like to put the name of the bank in case others research it,or so I think. Just customize your search and see what comes up. In my area we are so rural we have to take what we can get. What area are you in? PM ME me.

I want to thank everyone for their input, I appreciate it.
Lastly, I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving.

In my area, I can usually find foreclosures on the MLS by searching "corp" in the owner field. Some agents put "bank" as the owner. That gets most of them anyhow.

Here's how I understand it: They want REOs if the area is REO driven. So you can't know if that particular area is REO driven if you are trying to ONLY pull REO comps.

Pull comps as normal, and then when you go through them you can figure out the prevalence of REOs. THEN you can separate out REOs or Fair Markets.

If it's not REO driven, don't kill yourself trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat - that's NOT what they are asking for!

I was lucky to make out that was who was calling on a recent 'phone message, couldn't make out enough of the rest of to even return the call. I much prefer e-mail as the method of contact anyway.

100% agreed.

Shockingly someone from there called me the other day that I could actually understand! I think she may have actually been calling me from the U.S. too. I don't do much work for them, and when I do I often wonder if it is worth it.

I adore RRR. They are in my top 5.

They were in my top 5 too, but that was several years ago before they went half way around the world to find cheap help that neither know the business nor speak the language. I rarely do anything for them anymore.

That can change. CC was once in my top 3. And now they hardly love me at all. I get 1/3 what I use to get from them. They are now in my top 5. Next week RRR could move to my top ten. Ya never know. Tis why it's good to be signed up with a boatload of companies. I know you know this too.
For me, I adore whoever is sending me the most orders in any given week. It could be Protek tomorrow. Crazy, I know.

Had the same experience. Full American accent. I tried to negotiate the fee but the rep told me they had MANY agents willing to accept the standard fee To me, I think the form is pretty time consuming due to its layout.

I used to do quite a bit for Review 5-6 years ago, and yes I did recieve many listings BECAUSE OF DOING THEIR BPO'S!. RRREVIEW is a sister company for Select Portfolio Services formally known as Fairbanks capitol.
THE PAY IS LOW AND THE OUTSOURCED HELP WILL BUG YOU TO DEATH BUT THEY DO PAY AND PAY ON TIME.

I just got my first BPO from them, seems easy enough, it is close, going to take the 1 pic tomorrow with my other runs, form looks easy and I hope they send me more, as long as they are on the way for other BPO's I do with other companies, I don't mind.

Key with them, do it right away, or else they will drive you mad with phone calls and emails reminding you to get it done.

LOL Rose, that seems to be the case with the post I have read in this thread. Oh well, what can you do except say, yep, have it done soon, keep sending orders.

I love RRR!
HOWEVERRRRRRREREEREREERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR........
I WISH QC would READ my NOTES goshdarnit!

Do you get the $35 drivebys??

No, they're $40 for me.

The worse thing about slashing your fees is not knowing if you can increase them and still get the work! I cut fees when I started with RRR to get orders, good thing the forms are too bad and they pay quickly. $35 drive bys are a deal for the client not for me!