In Which I Fuss (Again!) At Banks
I love banks. Really I do. But I still find them to be maddening, unorganized, and foolish in some of their decisions. This time it’s because of who they hired to do a BPO - or Broker’s Price Opinion. When a home is facing foreclosure or short sale, before the bank agrees to the price they hire - at a very low rate - for a BPO. They’ll find an agent, broker, or affiliate broker to go to the house to check the condition and then come up with a marketable price for the home.
Jessica Wynn Horton, broker/owner of Jessica Horton & Associates in Hampton, Georgia, wrote about her recent experience an agent providing a BPO. Sam killed the deal on full-price offer she had received.
He told me that it would easily sell for $30,000 more in this market and that I really should raise the price. When I asked him why some of the leading agents in my market (who had it listed before I did) hadn’t been able to sell it at a higher price….the ‘spirits’ were a bit hazy and not speaking so clearly. When I mentioned several recent comps that had sold nearby…he turned deaf (I think that’s when the ghost of “Speedy Gonzalez” got channeled and he took off faster than Dash in the Incredible’s.
See? Banks are killing deals - whether through the people they hire to do BPO’s or through their sheer unwillingness to be reasonable. Of course the bottom line is one pointed out by my colleague Robert, “Appraisals are just an opinion when it comes down to it.” Same goes for BPO’s I suppose.
Photo by RBerteig via Flickr Creative Commons.
