I’ve got a real estate colleague that has been successfully doing BPO’s (broker price opinion) for the last few years. She’s got knowledge that’s worth paying for.
I’ve been researching the internet, blogs, marketing channels, product sales, social media, etc. over the last few years. I’ve got the knowledge [of course I still have a long way to go].
So we’re collaborating in order to create an eBook that will retail for under $50 and will be available for real estate agents that are interested in creating an extra income doing BPOs (broker price opinions).
I want to track the entire process on my blog and will do so for a few reasons:
1) You will be able to learn the process of creating your own eBook product. People are scared that they’re not experts. In order to be considered an expert by the masses, you only need to know more than the masses. I bet that you’re an expert in some area – whether it’s real estate investing, raising happy children, dog grooming, organic gardening – you get the idea.
2) I will be held accountable. Ideas come and go all the time. I even start brainstorming and researching ideas to usually find them wither from my productive plate. But if I post the process online, I’ve got nowhere to run. You’ll see if we’re successful or if we bomb. And that’s what I want – to share the process – all of it – with you!
Because we’ll be putting this project together while working on our own real estate businesses full time, I plan on this project being ready to market in 150 days – we’ll make the launch date November 1st, 2011 [there's that accountability again!] and if we come in early that’s icing on the cake.
We are still in the brainstorming process, but to give you some ideas of what you’ll find in this BPO agent eBook…
1) A List of active BPO companies – and the ones that my colleague has actually done business with. [you can find these companies online for free, so we’ll be adding plenty of spice!]
2) Tips and Tricks about each company – this is huge – different companies have different preferences and this information will lower the learning curve for new BPO agents.
3) Specific information about the companies – which pay fast, which allow you to accept BPOs via text, experience levels required to work with them.
Most agents want to do BPOs in order to gain REO listings. There are many companies that want you to do BPOs for free for the chance of gaining listings. Feel free, but I’ll pass. Lots of BPO companies don’t even have REO listings to give – they strictly focus on doing broker price opinions for their clients.
If you are a green real estate agent, you can learn your market while getting paid to do so! BPOs will allow you to intimately learn values in your marketplace.
And if you’re like me and possibly have plans to run an REO brokerage, then you need the skill anyway, as mostly likely you’ll have to BPO every asset that comes into your inventory.
We’ll leak the rest as we go.
My fellow Real Estate Agents, if you’re looking to keep your business gears turning smoothly, I sincerely think that BPOs are an incredible way to do it – we are making this for you!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Brooks,
This is a great idea. I’m not a agent, but would be interested in learning more.
When I interviewed an REO Agent for my blog, I recorded it with a voice recorder. It did not take much time to produce as the recorder recorded the file as an mp3 already. Maybe you can add a quick question and answer audio session to go with the ebook.
Danny, great feedback!
Maybe we’ll include the audio format to make it more enticing for people or offer different pricing to receive in print and audio. Different people prefer different methods of consuming information – Great thinking!