Two types of Broker Price Opinions – BPO for Real Estate Agents Explained

Many real estate brokers supplement the income they get from commissions by doing BPOs or Broker Price Opinions. This is a tool harnessed by brokers to evaluate properties. Though the practice of doing individual BPOs are not costly, real estate brokers can do extremely well by making their BPO procedures more simple and efficient. In fact, there are a lot of real estate broker companies who allow forms to be completed and submitted online.

There are two types of Broker Price Opinions, the Drive by BPO and the Internal BPO.

The first one, the Drive by BPO is exactly as its name implies. This type of BPO does not require the real estate broker to get out of his vehicle in order to give his evaluation of the REO or real estate owned property. This type however, still requires the following information to be noted:

• location,
• neighbourhood,
• conformity to neighbourhood and zoning,
• property style,
• type,
• age,
• condition of external features,
• parking,
• lot size,
• two photos,
• three recently sold similar type properties and lastly three currently listed similar properties.

The Internal BPO

The latter, the Internal BPO involves all of the requirements of the Drive by BPO and more. It basically requires that the broker doing the BPO be in contact with the homeowner or the tenant. It also entails the following additional information to be supplemented:

• individual room dimensions,
• overall square footage measurements,
• interior condition inspection of features,
• value adjustment in comparison to similar types of properties,
• individual photos of interior damage,
• repair estimates and lastly cleaning and trash out estimates.

These requirements differ by company or broker. Advantages of broker price opinions vary so it is important to have a talk with your real estate broker to determine what type of BPO you need in order to make a practical choice in buying property.

If you would like to know more and take advantage of these opportunities, The BPO/REO Kit is the ideal learning package any U.S. Real Estate Agent.