1) What is a Broker Price Opinion?
Broker Price Opinions (BPO) are mostly asked by financial institutions such as banks, loss mitigation companies, and mortgage companies.
The BPO is performed by Real Estate Brokers, who inspect the property on behalf of the financial institution and provide an estimated value of the property based on the characteristics of the property being considered and comparing it with similar properties that were recently sold in the area as well as similar properties that are for sales nearby.
The estimated value of the property through a BPO does not represent the official appraised value, it also may not be the same as the property's market value.
Broker Price Opinion vs Appraisals vs Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)
There is a difference between a broker price opinion and an appraisal and a CMA. This is listed as follows:
Comparative Market Analysis (CMA): This is when a Real Estate Agent needs to come up with a listing price for a property.
A CMA report contains information about pending sales, active listings, and recently sold homes to which the subject property is compared, to come up with a listing price. Adjustments in price are rarely done in a CMA.
Broker Price Opinion: It is more formal and more succinct than a CMA. As stated before, it's ordered by homeowners, lenders, and financial institutions.
Appraisals: Home Appraisals are done by licensed real estate appraisers only and are a highly regulated, and impartial estimate of a property's value. It is usually required when buying homes on a mortgage.
An appraisal is usually done by gathering details about the subject property, its interior and exterior features, and the recently sold homes around the nearby area. Appraisals help mortgage lenders to see if the purchase price is reasonable and to estimate the borrower's value in relation to the loan.
2) Who Requests a Broker Price Opinion?
As aforementioned, it is the banks and financial institutions, essentially the lenders who request an assessment of the property for foreclosures or to refinance a mortgage.
Owners of the property can also request a Broker Price Opinion if they are looking to sell the property. It is usually done because it is much cheaper and faster than an actual appraisal.
However, banks and financial institutions do not provide BPO orders directly to the Real Estate Brokers, nor can the brokers normally apply for BPO work, directly to the banks.
Instead, Nationwide companies such as Mortgage Contracting Services (MCS), SingleSource, and Servicelink are given the task of handling the BPO orders in each State, and any broker who wants to get BPO work has to apply to them.
3) How to Start a Broker Price Opinion Business?
If you are new to the industry and want to start doing Broker Price Opinion's, a good piece of advice would be to join as a member of the National Association of BPO Professionals (NABPOP). This is because they provide access to courses and resources on broker price opinion and also provide BPO certification tests. You don't necessarily have to be a member of NABPOP in order to start a BPO business, but if you are totally new to the industry, becoming a member and getting access to their resources can be very helpful.
Take the BPO Certification Test: Having a certification in BPO is not mandatory for most financial organizations, however between two candidates, one who has the certification and one who does not, they would certainly prefer the one with the BPO certification over the other.
Start Applying to BPO Companies: Once you are BPO certified, start applying to get work. Read below to find a list of companies from whom you can get BPO work. Alternatively, you can also work for a real estate company to get BPO orders.
Finally, wait to start getting work and once the BPO orders start coming in, start working on completing them! Remember, that often they have very short delivery dates and so should always be done asap without any delay occurring. If you are looking to hire an assistant to complete your broker price opinion orders, you can contact us for our BPO/CMA outsourcing services!
Broker Price Opinion Training Courses
NABPOP, BPO-university along with some other organizations provide formal training courses for those who are new to completing BPOs.
They also have a lot of broker price opinion resources that help brokers and agents in understanding how a BPO is done. Below is a list of websites with their links from where you can register for BPO training courses:
Broker Price Opinion Template
If you have to submit your Broker Price Opinion form in a PDF format, you would have to get access to free BPO templates. Below are some links from where you can get BPO templates online for free!
Also if you are looking for a free sample of a completed broker price opinion form to show you, how it's done (In case you are not familiar with it)! Click below to download the free sample.
4) List of Broker Price Opinion Companies
Below is a list of BPO companies, along with their site links, from whom you can get Broker Price Opinion Work:
When applying for Broker Price Opinion work, be prepared to provide documents such as E&O insurance, Broker license information, Coverage area, etc.
5) Broker Price Opinion Outsourcing
Finally, as the volume of your BPO work orders increase you may want to hire a virtual assistant to increase efficiency and lessen some of the workloads. ASL BPO is one of the top firms that provides BPO outsourcing services to its clients. Contact us and we would be happy to help you!