As a real estate agent your business may be hitting hard by the current economic downturn. Your listings no longer sell and your buyers are taking forever to make purchase decisions. Meanwhile you still have to pay office expenses, broker fees, MLS subscriptions, board dues, etc. In this article I will discuss how you can earn extra income with your real estate license in addition to selling houses. Specifically I am talking about performing Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) for banks. I will also reveal a technique I personally use to grab those BPO orders before other agents do.

BPOs are basically mini Comparative Market Analysis (CMAs). Banks order BPOs whenever they want to know the value of the properties. This could happen in many occasions; for example, the owner could be applying for refinance, or the owner could be in default, or the property could be in foreclosure or in need of a short sale. Currently there is a huge demand for these BPO orders due to the foreclosure crisis. Since banks require BPOs to be performed by licensed real estate professionals, you can put your hard earned license to good use.

There are two types of BPOs. An exterior BPO does not require you to get into the property and typically pays $40 – $50. An interior BPO requires interior pictures of the property and typically pays $60 – $90. Granted you don’t earn a whole lot with each BPO order but keep in mind that a BPO can be completed in under an hour or so. Just do 3 to 5 BPOs a week will help pay for your basic expenses.

“Where do I find BPO orders?”

Although BPO orders are placed by banks, contacting banks directly would actually be a waste of time since most banks don’t handle them directly. Instead, they order BPOs through asset management companies. A quick way to find these companies is to Google “asset management companies bpo.” During your search you will come across some companies that are actually just directories. They usually require you to pay a fee to be listed as a BPO agent. They claim by listing on their directories the asset managers will find you. I have never had any luck with them so my advice is to save your money.

Once you find these companies you simply log on to their web site and register yourself as a “vendor.” You will be asked to fill out an online application with your information. Most companies will require a copy of your real estate license, your E&O insurance information, a W-9 form, and a list of zip codes or city names of the area you covered. Once you are registered, you will begin to receive emails whenever a BPO order becomes available. To maximum your chance of getting orders, you should try to register with as many companies as possible. I personally have registered with 15 companies and I know some agents have registered with over 50 companies.

One thing to pay attention to is that some of these asset management companies are so called “BPO shops” where they only handle BPO orders. Clear Capital is a well-known example of such company. On the other hand, some companies may also handle REO properties for banks. If you do a good job with your BPOs for these companies, you will have a chance of getting REO listings. Some companies such as Integrated Asset Services will give you the listing of the property that you performed a BPO on if that property ever becomes an REO. Thus if your goal is to eventually become an REO agent (which it should be as listing REO properties is EXTREMELY lucrative), then you may want to avoid those BPO shops and focus only on companies that can give you REO listings.

“OK. I got registered but I can’t get any BPO orders! What should I do?”

So you started to get emails of BPO requests. You were excited but when you replied to those requests you found the orders have already been taken by other agents. What happened? Well, when most asset management companies send out BPO requests, they don’t just send to one agent but to all agents that cover that particular city or zip code. Whoever answers the email first gets the order. You may be answering your email the second you get it, but your email program may only be querying the mail server every 30 minutes. So you could still be too late by the time you respond.

What can you do about it? Do you need to sit by your computer all day to respond to emails? Here is my solution. I use a separate email address specifically for BPO orders. Then have all emails sent to this address also forwarded to my cell phone email address. Most cell phone numbers have email addresses associated with them. For example, a Verizon Wireless cell would have an email address in the form of cellphonenumber @ vtext.com where “cellphonenumber” is the phone number. You can contact your cell phone service provider to get that information. Once it’s set up, every time a BPO request comes in, I get a text message to my cell immediately. I can then respond to the email right away. I have been able to get over 90% of BPOs since I implemented this technique.

You now have enough information to get into the BPO industry and the knowledge to beat out competitions. Start earning the extra money with those BPO orders when your regular business is slow and you may even be getting hundreds of REO listings in near future!

By: Leo Liu

Sun, sand and a whole bunch of fun stuff. If that is your cup of tea, then Virginia Beach is the place for you to be! A resort city, with miles and miles of beaches, excellent hotels and restaurants all along the oceanfront make it an ultimate long-vacation spot! Many of these hotels offer bay-view rentals. It is more optimal for you to rent a home in Virginia Beach if you want to explore all that the city has to offer.

You can rent a home in Virginia Beach or in any of the surrounding independent cities like Chesapeake, Hampton, Portsmouth and Norfolk. There is lots of recreational stuff in store for you. The numerous parks that the city offers have something for everyone. The city also has a few wildlife parks and a couple of museums to keep you entertained while you go hunting for those homes for rent in Virginia Beach.

Rent a home in Virginia Beach, Virginia and you get access to what is said to be the world’s longest pleasure beach! The beach has many water sports like kayaking, surfing, sailing, snorkelling, parasailing, etc. There are dozens of neighbourhoods where you could also search for homes for rent in Virginia-Beach.
You rent a home in Virginia, and you can experience a wide variety of entertainment.

Virginia-Beach is a great place for vacationing, for the young and old alike. You can catch a concert performance by internationally acclaimed artists at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheatre. You may also want to check out the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Centre, which has a huge Norfolk Canyon Aquarium, containing deep ocean dwellers like sand tiger, different types of sharks, stingrays, etc. It also boasts of a huge sea-turtle aquarium, a jellyfish and octopus aquarium. You may also visit places of historical importance.

Virginia-Beach has retained its old world charm of the rustic lifestyle. So if you rent a home in Virginia, be prepared to leave behind your city life and to have a life of relaxation coupled with lots of fun. You can chose from a variety of mansions, condos, villas, private homes and other quality rentals. If you were into vacationing for quite a while, then it would be ideal for you to rent a home in Virginia-Beach, rather than getting into a hotel.

A walk along the nearly 3 miles boardwalk with its many street parties, games and rides, the Ocean Breeze water park, motor world, dolphin and whale sighting, and of course the long stretch the Atlantic Ocean, makes a stay at Virginia Beach a must. It is reasonable for you to just rent home in Virginia Beach, rather than book yourself into a hotel. Such rentals are perfect choices for accommodations.

By: Albert Caddick

It’s been a long while since you have gone for a vacation anywhere, right? Wouldn’t you like to take a break from the daily pressure of your work place and spend some quality time with your family? It would be wonderful to just sit back and relax without having to worry about deadlines and targets.

Now, let’s consider where you can go for a vacation. You must be bored with the same old places. There are always disagreements amongst family members regarding the holiday spots that you can visit. The budget is also very important. You can’t afford to stretch your budget too much.

There is a simple solution that we can offer you. Wouldn’t it be great, if you could buy a wonderful vacation home? It would be like a home away from home, and you can enjoy your annual vacation with your wife and children just whenever you want to. We are talking about the Ocean City condos.. All you need to do is to choose a condo for yourself. Even Jim O’Connor, the famous American anchor, has recently bought a condominium.

Ocean City condos have everything that a person wants to experience when he is on a holiday. You can pick out the number of rooms that you would like; multi-bedrooms condos are also available nowadays. These condos offer you with spacious hallways, bedrooms, kitchen, and attached bathrooms. The ambience is great which will help you to relax.

You can visit Ocean city, Maryland anytime of the year. But since it is a tourist destination, you will find that cheap, budget, and five-star hotels are booked to capacity. That is why people are actually opting for Ocean City condos which spare them the trouble to book rooms at hotels and resorts. It is extremely enjoyable to go for fishing, dolphin watching, shopping, and visiting the ‘Ripley’s believe it or not” museum. The nightlife at Ocean City is amazing and a must for ardent partygoers.

If you want to buy an Ocean City condo for your family, look no further than the Gateway Grand Residences. You can enjoy the comforts of being at home, and enjoy the scenic beauty of the place at the same time. These condos are also situated very near to the coastline. This means that you can also have a gala time at the beach.

By: Gardner Wilkinson

Did your homes listing sit on the market for too long and eventually expire?

Are you exhausted from the experience and are hesitant to re-list?

As a result of your experience do you feel that your home “just wont sell” because “it holds no appeal to buyers”?

That’s very unfortunate if this was your listing experience. Sometimes real estate professionals take on too many listings and just don’t have the time necessary to dedicate to each individual listing that they deserve. Sometimes mistake are made or the right steps are just not taken to get your home sold.

Steps like:

* Home staging to prep your home and present it at it’s fullest appeal displaying the full functionality or range of, within each and every room…( Home staging can increase the value of your home by up to 10%! Home staging can cost as low as 1% of the value of your home to do! )

* Doing a fair Comparative Market Analysis to ensure that when your home is presented and put on the market, it’s price point- is on point. Incorrect price point can and will result in a prolonged listing with it ultimately selling, or not, and becoming the dreaded expired listing.

* Extensive advertising of your home locally, nationally, online and offline. Statistical studies show that 80% of home buyers searched for their home online and 20% in magazines. Was this research used when advertising of your home was done?

Contact me now or keep reading

Did your agent discuss the absorption rate with you?

For every new listing that comes on the market per month, depending on how many of those that are sold we can determine how many months it would take to sell all of them. For example is there are 26 new listings per month and 4 sell per month then it would take 6 months to sell them all…given there are no new listings. But we know that won’t happen so ensuring all the right steps are taken is detrimental to the sale of your home.

So listen, the good news is it isn’t too late to sell your property. You CAN re-list your home and have success. You just have to make the right decisions because this is the beginning of a new chapter in your life. Yes, I know, you have heard this before, “choosing the right agent etc etc etc”. Here’s the thing though, the truth is it’s not just a sales gimmick, it’s reality. You need to select a real estate agent:

1. Who has “Clout”. One with strong influence who also has great negotiating skills and is not afraid to be forthright in order to get you your top dollar. In one word? A fighter.

2. Who is incredibly creative and innovative and even web savvy, to put the cherry on top.

3. Who is available. Available when you need to speak to them. In anything in life when you hire someone you should be able to reach them when you need!

4. Who is in depth, thorough, analytical and makes moves with precision.

These are just a few great qualities that your agent should have and you will find all of those qualities in myself. Having been a personal beauty stylist working in the fashion and beauty industry for several years as a makeup and hair artist along with being a graphic designer and web developer, I am creative and innovative. My 5 strongest life skills or “themes” (as described by Gallups research) are

1. Deliberative

2. Focus

3. Competition

4. Futuristic

5. Analytical

So in closing my message to you is to Utilize my skills and let me give you what you want, in the time you want.

Let’s re-list your home and you can continue your plan to start a new chapter in your life. Your first unsuccessful experience doesn’t have to alter your goals for your future!

I hope you can see the benefits of working with me, your Whitby real estate agent, and encourage you to touch base with me asap so we can set up an appointment to go over how your new listing experience will be successfully accomplished! I look forward to hearing from you soon! Thank you for reading!

Your Ajax Whitby Real Estate Sales Representative
Molena Gould

By: Molena Gould

Too often in today’s real estate industry, good works sit unnoticed under the piles of corporate greed and lust money. When the bottom line for a real estate company is also the line in the sand, the agents don’t dare do anything to toe it. Pushed to the forefront are stories of stock prices, revenue projections, and profit margins. What many would see if they dig a little deeper, maybe read past the first page, is that many corporations do indeed give back to their respective communities in ways big and small. This practice has become especially prominent in the real estate industry.

Take for example a couple of real estate agents in Lavallette, New Jersey. Just last month Stephanee Mirachi, who is the Executive Assistant to Broker/Owner Lee Childers of Childers Sotheby’s International Realty, and Budd Rall, Sales Associate from the Childers Sotheby’s Lavallette/Ortley Beach office, participated in the 15th Annual Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Bear Plunge in Seaside Heights, to benefit Special Olympics New Jersey.

The air was frigid and the snow was fresh as the stage was set the day before the event by a snowstorm hitting the area. Despite the snow and the 38 degree water temperature, nearly 3,000 volunteers showed up alongside Mirachi and Rall to take the plunge. While the temperature was low, the donations were high. The event raised over $750,000 for Special Olympics that will go towards free year round programs that are available to adults and kids with intellectual disabilities.

In Minneapolis, brokers from area commercial real estate firms get together once a year to play in a charity hockey game. The Opus Cup is in its ninth year, and crowds turn out to watch these men hit the ice, and sometimes each other, all in the name of charity. Some are seasoned hockey players that played in college. Both goalies in this year’s game played college hockey. Don’t be fooled- this game is highly competitive and features a number of players who are just as comfortable skating around an ice rink as they are showing people around a property. The event benefits the charity “Hope for the City”, founded by Welsh Company CEO Dennis Doyle. Hope for the City collects and redistributes overstocked items such as food, clothing, and medical supplies. Last year the event raised over $27,000.

In New Jersey, commercial real estate firm Matrix Development Group bought two office buildings and nine acres of parking lots in Brunswick. Rather than settling for just a corporate presence in the community, President and Chief Executive Joseph Taylor began looking for a way to integrate the company into the community in a charitable fashion. Matrix is currently the backer for Elijah’s Promise. The charity is a Soup Kitchen, Counseling Center, and Catering School. In 2007 there were approximately 95,000 meals served to the needy at Elijah’s Promise.

The New York Times recently ran a piece about charity in the real estate industry. That is how relevant and prevalent the two have become together. Within the real estate industry, companies are not only looking to put their stamp on a market by selling homes or commercial properties. From heartfelt grassroots efforts like Kelli Bennett’s to big time undertakings such as Matrix’s Elijah’s Promise, real estate agents and companies are leaving their mark on communities and touching people’s lives every day through ongoing charity work and charity events that are embraced by everyone in the area. Agents once thought of as slick salespeople have been rebranded as agents of change and agents of charity simply by keeping it real.

By: Kelli Bennet