To Meet or Not to Meet…. The BPO agent

       There is no simple ”yes or no” answer to this question. Over the years I’ve tried many different approaches when it comes to handling the BPO agent. When I first started out in this business I would meet them at the house and provide them with a CMA on the property. I found that some agents would appreciate this while others resented the effort and they took it as me trying to tell them what to do resulting in a very high BPO. Other times I would provide them with a contract with the price that I wanted it to come in at. The challenge is to find out what kind of personality you’re dealing with because everyone’s different. Some agents are compassionate towards other people and when you explain the situation about the seller’s hardship and how you’re trying to help them, then they will also want to help. These agents will go the extra mile to try and get you the price you need in order to help the seller and get the deal done. However, there are other agents that are like dealing with robots. These agents don’t care, don’t want to know, and couldn’t care less about what the situation is. When I encounter someone like this, I don’t offer them any paperwork at all because not only will it not help but they will probably go out of their way to make the BPO higher than it should be.

        Another approach I’ve used that has worked well for me is to tell the BPO agent that the bank wanted me to do my own BPO report in addition to the one they’re doing. Remember, the BPO agent usually gets hired by an agency and they have no idea what the situation is. They can’t get mad or offended because you’re there to do a job just like they are. It’s very common these days for the banks to order 2 BPOs anyway and if they see me taking pictures of every single piece of damage in the house to put in my report, then what do you think they are going to do?  They don’t want their report to look less complete than mine so you can bet they won’t miss a thing either. In this situation you may even get a chance to share and compare notes.

        One of the most effective techniques I’ve used and still use sometimes is to be nice, play dumb and ask a lot of questions on how the process works. By doing this, I find out for sure if the agent is doing what he or she is supposed be doing. I will ask them things like “so you’re here to give a value according to a quick sale price right?” or “So what happens next after you complete your inspection?” This approach in non offensive and you will find out a lot about what type of personality you’re dealing with. I will even ask them at what price they think it will come in at if I feel comfortable enough with them. They worst thing they can say is “I’m not allowed to tell you that”.

        There are certain agents however, that no matter how nice or cooperative you try to be with them, they are just disgruntled and bitter on life and will actually go out of their way to mess up you’re deal. After a while you know exactly who they are because if you do a lot of short sales in the same areas you will get the same BPO agents over and over and it’s very easy to track which ones are good to work with and which ones are not. What I do with the bad ones is put them on my “Black List”. That way everyone in my office knows that when one of these names come up it gets handled differently. Whenever I get one that’s on my blacklist, I just don’t cooperate. When they call to set an appointment, I will usually tell them that the seller is out of town for a week or some other reason that will force them to turn it back over to the agency or bank since these reports are usually due in 72 hrs from the time they get assigned. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t happen that often and there are only a handful of agents on this list. However, if I know for sure someone is out to mess me up then they will be treated the same way.

       I hope I didn’t offend any BPO agents with this post but short sales are a lot of work and at the end of the day we should all be working together to clean up this housing market. The BPO is an intricate part of doing a successful short sale and if you are doing BPOs, you should understand that the banks are pretty much clueless and they are depending on you to help get them get the deal done. Try and find out about what the situation is from the agent and be part of the solution not the problem. 

Another Foreclosure Sale Stopped Just an Hour Before!

      At 9am this morning we received a frantic call from a buyer’s agent on a deal that we are closing at the end of this week. Supposedly the auction date of today August 1^st at 11am was put on hold according to One West Bank and we even had a motion to cancel letter from the foreclosing attorney. The agent was checking on line and found that the sale was still on schedule! After wasting time calling the lender and trying to get something done we only had one option left and that was to drive down to the courthouse with the seller and a stack of paperwork on the file including the contract, payoff letter, etc. and personally file a motion to cancel the sale. We got there at exactly at 10am with the sale scheduled for 11am. With less than an hour left before the sale we had the seller file a motion to cancel the sale together with all the paperwork and I’m happy to say that it worked!

     We’ve been working this short sale for months with constant communication with the bank and them telling us that the sale was on hold and everything was on track to close. It just goes to show that you can’t leave it up to them to do what they promise they would do. I’m not sure exactly who dropped the ball or if it was intentionally dropped, but I am sure that if we hadn’t taken action and gone down there ourselves to personally file the motion to cancel the sale, it would have gone to sale. Although we haven’t had a close call like this in a while, it was a good reminder to us that sometimes there is a huge disconnect between the banks and the court system and you just can’t leave it in their hands. The fact is that a $10.00 per hr negotiator doesn’t have anything at stake and they probably couldn’t care less about the seller losing their house or you losing a deal.

      The common belief is that you need an attorney to file this type of motion…not true. However, the seller needs to be with you or you must have a power of attorney from the seller. Also, you must have all the paperwork with you that support your claim because if the judge is still not convinced, he can still let the sale happen.