A Broker Price Opinion (BPO) is an estimate of the probable selling price of a property.  The BPO  has become an important source of information for the real estate industry and, increasingly, for government programs designed to aid the economy and help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

BPOs benefit:

• Homeowners by reducing pass-through servicing costs
• Mortgage investors by decreasing the cost of due-diligence
• Credit risk departments that need to verify collateral value accuracy
• Financial institutions that rely on multiple valuation perspectives to help them manage the dynamic real estate values in a challenging economic environment

According to industry estimates, over 10 million BPOs are performed annually across the country. BPOs provide critical information for decision-making and have been widely adopted as a valuation tool in the mortgage industry due to their timeliness, cost effectiveness, and accuracy.

BPOs are commonly used for:

• Fraud check and additional due diligence on a completed appraisal
• Internal non-lending purposes such as portfolio valuation and review
• Due diligence of loan portfolios by buyers and sellers in secondary market transactions and to help establish the purchase and sales price of a portfolio
• Due diligence and disposition analysis on distressed loans, including loan modification, short sales, REO sales, and foreclosure avoidance efforts
• PMI removal, mortgage refinances, home equity lines of credit (HELOCs, and home equity loans (where allowed by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA)).