|
1. Can anyone be an REO
broker?
2. What kind skills and
abilities do I need?
3. Don't I need some sort of
specialized training or knowledge?
4. This
sounds too easy--what's the catch?
5.
Okay, so why are you willing to share all of this now?
6. How do the banks and outsourcing
companies feel about this?
7. That
makes sense…but are there other reasons that the banks
and outsourcing companies would use me instead of
another agent?
8. How do I know that
there are foreclosure listings in my area?
9. I've always heard that
bank-owned properties are hard to sell, require lots of
paperwork, and that they don't pay well.
10. What is a BPO?
11. I've done BPOs before--they can
be a real pain, can't they?
12.
I've done BPOs before. It took forever to get paid and I
never got any listings. Why is that?
13.
What if my computer skills aren't that good?
14. So that's all I need to be an
REO Broker, and I can make a couple hundred grand a
year?
15. What's to stop all the other
agents in my area from joining up?
16.
How many other agents will be in my area? Can't I be the
only one?
17. Wouldn't I want to be the only
NRBA member in my area?
18.
What happens if I try this for a few months and then
find out that this isn't for me? Can I
cancel?
19. How much does it cost?
What type of referral fees do you
charge?
20. How long will it take for NRBA to process my application?
|
| |
| |
| Q1. Can anyone be an REO broker ? |
| This is the
question that we are asked most often. And quite
honestly, the answer is NO. Sorry if that sounds harsh,
but this isn't one of those "send your money and you're
in” type deals. We all have 6+ figure incomes to
protect, and we are not going to jeopardize that kind of
money by allowing just anyone to come in to the group.
There are certain skills and abilities that you must
have to be an REO Broker, as well as the right attitude
and commitment. |
 |
| |
| Q2. What kind skills and abilities
do I need ? |
| You need a basic
knowledge of residential real estate. If you are
currently licensed, presumably you have that already.
You will need an active membership in your local MLS.
You will also need your own computer—nothing fancy, a
Pentium-class system will work fine—with internet access
and email. |
|
| |
| Q3. Don't I need some sort of
specialized training or knowledge? |
| Everything
that you will ever need to know about handling REO
listings comes with your NRBA membership. If you have
been in the business for a few years, you are probably
ready. If you are a brand new or very inexperienced
agent, we would recommend that you take a basic
appraisal course and perhaps a course in residential
construction basics. These can be found at most real
estate schools and community colleges, and are
relatively short and inexpensive. As a lot of our newer
members are weak in these areas, we have arranged with
NYSAN to set up inexpensive online courses for these
subjects to help bring everyone up to
speed. |
|
| |
| Q4. This sounds too easy--what's
the catch? |
| The real problem
is that with what we have put together, it IS
that easy. That's why we are being so careful about who
we bring into the organization. The only "catch" is that
we require a very high level of quality and
professionalism from our members. If you don't adhere to
the Association’s standards and policies, we will
immediately refund your money and send you on your
way. |
|
| |
| Q5. Okay, so why are you willing to
share all of this now? |
| Simple. The
industry is changing. The nature and way that REO is
being done is changing with it. No single person can
afford to keep up with it on their own. The form
library, the custom database, publishing a directory,
marketing, updates, knowing who has which portfolios to
sell—no single individual or company is able to do it by
themselves. We needed to form a group dedicated to
keeping up with the changes…and the
opportunities. |
|
| |
| Q6. How do the banks and
outsourcing companies feel about this? |
| That's the funny
thing. The banks have been our biggest supporters. It
was some of the current REO brokers who were
apprehensive. They were afraid that our members would be
taking their business from them. They have good reason
to be scared, too, because our members willbe
taking their business! |
| |
| When we first
started talking about setting up the NRBA, we went to
the banks first—after all, they are the clients and they
are the ones paying us. The banks loved it! One of the
biggest headaches to them is finding qualified brokers
who actually know how to handle REO. When a bank or
outsourcing company is looking for a new broker in an
area, they usually go to a certain "relocation
directory" (one of which will list anyone who pays their
$249.00 fee). Of course, when they call up that broker,
the standard response is "Sure we know how to handle REO
properties!" What else is any self-respecting agent or
broker going to say?! They want the listing!
|
| |
| The problem is
that the bank gets halfway through the transaction only
to find out that they have hired someone who doesn't
know what they are doing, and it ends up costing them a
lot of money. The banks loved the fact that the NRBA
would not only be screening the brokers first, but that
we would be providing the necessary training and support
for them as well. If the agent has a problem, an NRBA
member will be there to help them out. Put yourself in
the bank's position—to whom would you give your
listings? |
|
| |
| Q7. That makes sense…but are there
other reasons that the banks and outsourcing companies
would use me instead of another agent? |
| Yes, and a very
big one—MONEY! By using NRBA members, the clients save a
tremendous amount of time and money. We place a heavy
emphasis on electronic forms and the NRBA library. We do
so for some very important reasons. It not only saves
our members a great deal of time, effort and money, it
saves the banks even more. The old-fashioned way of
sending information to a bank is by overnight mail and
fax. When this information comes in, someone at the bank
has to enter the information into the bank’s computer
system. |
| |
| Here’s one example
that illustrates the point: Consider a standard BPO. It
is usually faxed in, and then the hardcopy and photos
are sent by overnight mail. The staff member at the bank
has to take the information off of the paperwork and
enter it manually into the bank’s computer system. With
the use of electronic forms, it’s much easier. "Parsing"
is the term for one computer program taking information
from one file and placing it correctly into another. The
NRBA electronic forms can be parsed. |
| |
The NRBA member's BPOs can be sent via email
directly into the bank’s computer, where the information
can be stripped out of it directly and input
automatically into the bank’s system. This saves the
bank about half an hour of labor time on each file. Do
the math—some banks are doing five thousand BPOs a
month. Multiplied by half an hour each to input, that's
2500 labor hours, which translates into $35,000 per
month (or $420,000 per year) in cost savings just on the
BPOs alone! And that's not even counting the other
information that comes in that the NRBA forms can
handle.
Again,
you're a bank--who gets your listings now? |
|
| |
| Q8. How do I know that there are
foreclosure listings in my area? |
|
There are foreclosures in
every marketplace around the country, no matter how
small. This
question is one of the more frequent ones we get. Here
are two insider's secrets (and one of the reasons that
most REO brokers are able to keep such a low profile and
that most agents don't know how many are actually out
there):
- Not
all banks require you to list their properties on the
MLS. You
are free to "pocket" list them.
- Most
banks, if they do want you to place the property on
MLS, will not allow you to mention that they are
bank-owned.
The bottom line is that in any market in the United
States, at least 25-45% of vacant homes on the local MLS
system are either bank- or corporate-owned.
|
|
| |
| Q9. I've always heard that
bank-owned properties are hard to sell, require lots of
paperwork, and that they don't pay
well. |
| Of course you did.
What did you expect to hear? "Yeah, I'm only working 40
hours a week, Monday to Friday, 9-5, and making over
three hundred grand a year"? But that's the better
answer. It's really very simple—you work in a real
estate office, you know how things are. None of us wants
anybody to know what we are actually doing—who needs
half of the agents in town trying to steal our business?
REO brokers are smarter than that. We keep a low profile
and we know how to keep our mouths shut. We like the
money. |
|
| |
| Q10. What is a
BPO? |
| BPO is short for
"Broker's Price Opinion."They are very
similar to a CMA. Some have a little more information,
some a little less. Most are done as "drive-by," meaning
that all you do is drive by the outside of the property,
take a picture, and leave. You then fill out the bank's
BPO form and send it in to them along with a picture.
The big difference between a BPO and a CMA is that you
get paid for a BPO! We charge between $50 and $125 per
BPO. It gets better…some of us do over 100 of them a
week! Does an extra $5000 or $6000 a week sound like a
decent living to you? (My BPO business alone covers my
three staff members salaries and my overhead--and then
some! - Dr. Mike) |
|
| |
| Q11. I've done BPOs before--they
can be a real pain, can't they? |
Then you haven't
been doing them right. Most banks
require you to type their BPO on their special
forms.
Using a manual typewriter, this can take up to an
hour for each one.
Using our computerized forms, we do them in about
12 minutes.
That's five per hour! At an average of
$75 each, that’s $375 per hour—even taking into account
another hour or two to check the properties and the cost
of film, that's still over $100 per hour. Are you making
that now?
(By the way, most of us use digital
cameras, so there’s no cost for film and developing
either.) |
|
| |
| Q12. . I've done BPOs before. It
took forever to get paid and I never got any listings.
Why is that? |
| Because you didn't
know what you were doing or who you were working
for. There
are a lot of "BPO mills" out there that do nothing but
waste brokers’ time doing BPOs. Banks hire them
for back-up opinions. The primary
company and agent get the listing. You have to know
which companies actually get REO properties to list and
deal only with them. We know who they
are and how to get to them. When you join
the NRBA, you'll know, too. |
|
| |
| Q13. What if my computer skills
aren't that good? |
| We've made
everything as easy as we possibly can, and very user
friendly. The worst thing you may have to do is play
with Microsoft Word and ACT!© for an hour or two to get
the hang of them. But both have extensive help menus and
on-line tutorials—that's one of the reasons that we
chose to use these programs. |
|
| |
| Q14. So that's all I need to be an
REO Broker, and I can make a couple hundred grand a
year? |
| Yup. Your own
computer, internet access, an active real estate
license, and MLS access. We at the NRBA
are going to provide you with everything else you need
to know. |
|
| |
| Q15. What's to stop all the other
agents in my area from joining up? |
The fact that they
can't simply join at will. You most likely
were invited to this site via an email message. That is the only
way we are contacting potential members, unless they are
already an REO Broker. You cannot
become an NRBA member without internet and email
capability.
That alone eliminates nearly 80% of agents in
most areas.
Furthermore, because we are a private
organization, we are under no obligation to accept more
members than we need in any given area. |
|
| |
| Q16. How many other agents will be
in my area? Can't I be the only one? |
| Exactly how many
NRBA members/agents will be in each area will depend on
the size of the local market, and even then they only
come in if we feel they are qualified. As far as being
the only one—absolutely not. And you wouldn't
want to be anyway. |
|
| |
| Q17. Wouldn't I want to be the only
NRBA member in my area? |
NO. Let's explain
another "secret" about REO listings and
banks.
Most banks will maintain a list of several
agents in each area that they have foreclosures in—they
don't believe in "putting all of their eggs in one
basket."
Most of them also don't want to overload a single
agent or, conversely, to create an "800-lb gorilla" in a
broker's office.
For those reasons, the majority of the banks will
only allow an individual agent to have a few of their
listings at any one time; hence, they have several
brokers in each area and divide the listings up among
them. So
the way to get 20 or 30 listings a month is to be on 10
or 15 different banks’ lists and get 2 or 3 a month from
each. |
| |
| The best way to
get on a bank's list is to be recommended by another
broker who is already on their list. That's one of the
greatest advantages of NRBA membership: we are
the networking group for REO. By having
several NRBA members in an area, you will be able to
work with each other and help each other get on to the
different banks’ lists. It's a quid pro
quo arrangement.
This way everyone who is an NRBA member gets even
more business.
And those who aren't NRBA members? Too
bad. |
|
| Q18. What happens if I try this for a few
months and then find out that this isn't for me?
Can I cancel? |
Any member is free
to cancel at any time. We neither need, nor want, anyone
in the organization that is not going to be a successful
and productive member. We are looking to establish long
term relationships, and build a quality broker network,
and expect to have our members for many years to come.
For these reasons, we chose to offer a "pay-as-you-go"
billing system. Even though our membership fee is based
on an annual rate, if you are on monthly billing, and
after a few months, you find that REO is not for you,
you simply have to notify us of your desire to cancel.
At which time, you will be removed as a member and no
further fees will be charged to you. For those members
that elect to pay in full for the year, upon
cancellation, we will refund the unused portion of your
membership fee on a pro-rata basis.
|
|
| |
| Q19. How much does it cost? What type of referral fees do you charge? |
There are no referral fees. As a matter of fact, we do not even permit them under our charter. The commission you earn from the listing and sale of any REO property is yours and yours alone to keep. We charge a flat membership fee that allows us to provide tools, training, and marketing support to our members. The membership fee is $165.83 per month, when billed to a major credit card. Some of our members choose to pay the entire annual fee ($1990) in one installment by check as they prefer to take the entire write-off in the current tax year. You are free to choose whichever option is more convenient to you.
|
|
| |
| Q20. How long will it take for NRBA to process my application? |
NRBA is receiving approximately 150-400 applications a month, please allow approximately 90 days from the date you applied for someone to contact you. NRBA does full reference checks on each and every single application that we receive, we know how eager you are to be a part of our association but we ask that you be patient.
|
|
Back
to Member
Application
