Hi All,

I am new to this site but not to the BPO world. I have done a few bpos for evaluation solutions and was wondering if anyone else has done bpos for them....

I got my first payment from them last month and it was for a bpo that was completed in July of 07. I am wondering if they normally pay on time or what. I still have three bpos that I have not been paid for and I did two in feb. and 1 this month.

Thanks in advance for your replys!

Well at least it looks like they're sending you all their work in your area. I wouldn't send it to anyone else if they worked for nothing.

Just kidding, I heard of a lot of companies but not them.

__________________
Don Price REALTOR®
Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging
Pinehurst, North Carolina

Pinehurst Real Estate | Pinehurst Home Inspector | Pinehurst NC Real Estate

I had to stop using them because the still owe me from last year. Most of the companies that i use pay in 30-45 days.

__________________
-Free List of BPO Companies-

Yeah there is better companies out there. I didnt get paid for one of my BPOs last year. I drove out into the freaking boonies for them.

__________________
Alex G.
Portland Real Estate

FREE LIST OF BPO COMPANIES and REO COMPANIES.

Do bpos for this company at your own risk. More then likely you will have a very long and hard time getting your money. Thank goodness I was finally paid for my 3 or 4 orders. After that I have stayed away. I have heard a lot of other agents complain about not getting paid. Still it seems like they continue to use and abuse agents. I wish more agents would do a search and realize that the companies they are signing up for might have been discussed here. Do a search and you will find Evaluations Solutions or "Eval" discussed. Keep on them and they might pay you someday......

This comment is about eValuation Solutions, and I may also lift it and post it elsewhere if I can keep it short and to the point. These blogs are an opportunity to learn from the experiences of others who "understand" the dynamics of this RE businesss BUT are not our direct competitors. I can't share most of my war stories with people who are in my local REALTOR Board as readily as I can with you more distant colleages. On to the story . . . .

Until recently, I hadn't done a BPO for eValuation Solutions since last year when they sent me 45 miles away to a "WRONG ADDRESS". I got paid for that after chasing them, and I even got some extra $ because of the Address screw up.

This year, I did 4 for them (i.e. $400.00), all during February, and all for $100.00. I must have gotten weak because I tolerated it when they sent me to one place which was in the WRONG Township! I took these Orders while their Website still promised Agents would be paid in 7 to 10 business days - GUARANTEED.

Last week Tuesday, I offered to do another BPO for $100.00 by Friday at 5:00 PM. The woman said she would have to get the fee approved. When I didn't herar from her, I figured she had found someone else who needed CASH and would work for CHEAP. I personally consider these initial offers of $50.00 or so to be INSULTS. Well, now it gets exciting.

Friday Morning, the same woman calls and asks if I can get that BPO done by 3:00 PM for $100.00. I said "NO", I can jump but not that fast, and my daily schedule has been filled in since we last talked. Besides, I said, "Your Accounts Payable people are dragging their feet in paying me for past work . "I think I'd better not take any more assignments from you until I see a check for work completed".

10 minutes later, her immediate Boss was on the phone telling me that they'd pay $150.00 if I could complete the Order by 5:00 PM. I said that it wouldn't matter if they promised to pay me $1000 for the Order, my schedule has been filled in, and what good is their Offer to pay more if they don't get around to writing checks ?

Their Website promises to pay agents within 7 to 10 business days for work completed. He then said that they have grown so big lately that they'll have to change that and they are calling in the IT Guys to make the change. "But the last thing they want to do is alienate quality producers among the Agents" I said "Well, you've got to remember that it's the people on the frontline who put food on the table for you people down there in Jacksonville". You can't be operating on that much of a HAND-To-MOUTH basis, can you ? That conversation didn't end on the most pleasant basis.

Later that morning, I received an email saying they had changed the pay schedule to 30 to 45 days. So check in after that amount of time has passed. Like most every aspect of Real Estate, this BPO business is based on a little something called "TRUST" !

Well, I'm sorry for being somewhat long winded; but I appreciate the opportunity to VENT in an environment where the readers (if there still is anyone reading) can appreciate the situation and may protect themselves. I do know eValuation Solutions is treating many Agents the same way throughout the Country - NOT A GOOD SIGN ! And many of them say they are waiting to be paid for dozens of BPOs. I'll make another post if and when I get paid. I guess competition amongst the BPO Companies is getting pretty intense.

$150 not bad. In my market there is way to much competition. They will just find someone else.

__________________
Alex G.
Portland Real Estate

FREE LIST OF BPO COMPANIES and REO COMPANIES.

I am sure that the initial Offer was some piddley $45.00 or so. I never do any for less than $100.00. That $150.00 was only offered when they were getting desperate about completing the Order at all. These BPO Companies get roughly $200 to $250 gross for the end work product. The less that they pay the Broker, the more is left for them for having "arranged" to get the work done. Some have admitted to me that I'm making more on this BPO than they are. SHOCKING ! I'm the one doing the work.

But it doesn't matter at all what they say they're willing to pay you if they can't ever get around to checks for services rendered. The law of large numbers comes in to play and I think enough Brokers get amnesia and leave their fees abandoned because they fail to chase what is owed. And as some have said, there are 500,000 real estate people out there willing to do this, so you leave a few of them disgruntled - so what. That's why I said they could offer to give me $1000 for a "RUSH" job and if I agreed to do it, it's still SHAME ON ME !

I think the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) will need to help us out on this one at some point. I'm in Vermont performing a service at the request of a BPO entityin say, Colorado, who has been employed by a Bank or Mortgage Company in Washington State. That seems to be Interstate Commerce, and cries out for regulation.

Be very careful of what you wish for and who you ask to straighten your bed for you because eventually you will have to lie down on it.

Part of the mess everyone is dealing with now is poor property evaluations and sloppy underwriting where the underwriters needed 1 more comp to support a higher price then a property was really worth and the loan company was loaning over 100% of value.

I started appraising and doing more bpo back around 2000 until I decided I no longer wished to be part of a problem that was easy to see coming. (Big Ole' Freight train a Comin') IMO practically everyone did all they could to make sure this downturn ( recession ) would happen. I think it's called Greed

__________________
Don Price REALTOR®
Advanced Real Estate Services & Staging
Pinehurst, North Carolina

Pinehurst Real Estate | Pinehurst Home Inspector | Pinehurst NC Real Estate

Hello Don Price:

I think I agree with you on the MACRO side of what's happening (or has happened) in the RE Industry. I do believe that after the S&L Banking Crisis in the late 1980s, the mandated use of arms length Appraisals should have included some prohibition about supplying a copy of the P&S to the Appraiser so that he/she could do a TRUE Appraisal without knowing what the "Magic Number" was. For almost 20 years now, the Industry has had its Appraisals notched up because Lenders seek (or sought) to have the Purchase Price justified. Nullifies the value of the Appraisal process.

But I was talking earlier about the MICRO side where where the massive increase in the number of 3rd Party BPO "arrangers" has resulted in a reverse bidding war to see who can name that tune for the fewest dollars and if the Broker doing the evaluation doesn't get paid - SO WHAT! Honesty and Good Business Etiquette have left the battlefield. There are a million plus Real Estate suckers out there and the individual dollar losses in each instance are too small to justify getting an Attorney involved; and because the BPO Company is typically in another State, you have no standing. That's why my Attorney says we should consider fashioning a complaint to the ICC, and maybe enjoin some of the thieves from doing business across State lines.

I'm still smarting from a BPO I did in 1995 when I let it be known that the Subject property had gone up for TAX SALE and the Redemption Period had expired; so the Client no longer had a legal interest in the Subject. They dropped the pursuit, thanks to my information; but Cartel Asset Management never got around to compensating me! So now I refrain from volunteering anything more than the absolute minimum.