Can You Believe That People Are Stealing My Customer Testimonials and Infringing on my Copyrighted Material? I’ll Prove It! Part II By Nicole Ocean

In my last blog I let you know of one instance where someone was infringing on my copyright material, in this blog I am calling out everyone (that I know of) who has ever violated my copyright so as to bring attention to an serious issue that many are not aware of that is and has been happening with information products, in specific with Broker Price Opinion eBooks. 

Here is a list of other people (most are past customers) who have infringed on my copyrighted material in some way and a brief history about who they are and what they did to me. They are:

1. Chad Williams, who is a real estate salesperson and was also a past customer of mine who purchased my BPO Manual. Some of the websites he uses to promote his ‘similiar’ BPO products are: bpokit.com and reokit.com I wouldn’t be surprised if he passed my BPO Manual around to everyone he knew for free.

(P.S. Everyone reading this, please do not email or send someone an eBook that they have not purchased themselves, by doing this you are doing a HUGE disservice to the author and are actually infringing on the author’s copyright. Instead send a link to the website where they can purchase their own copy)

I stumbled upon finding out that Chad infringed on my in October of 2007, just months after purchasing my BPO Manual. He was guilty of copying and pasting some of my customer testimonials to post on his website as his own. Plus, he also stole content from some of my eBay auction ads to use on his own website that is no longer active: bporealestate.net. He was the first person to do this to me. After confronting him and directly dealing with it I was able to get him to take down my customer’s information and my content from his website within 1 month of when I initiated contact with him.

2. Ray Soriano, a past eBay customer and real estate agent in California at the time, he purchased my list of 120 BPO, REO and Asset Mgmt companies for $19.99 and then tried to turn around and sell ‘his own list’ that he likely recreated (hopefully) from using mine as a template. He was trying to sell his list for three times more than I sell mine for, but his website is no longer active. I found him by Googling, “Broker Price Opinion,” and seeing something suspicious in a search result that pointed to an ad on Craigslist. I followed up by emailing for more information to kind out what he was really doing.

This type of thing has happened to me countless times since I first started selling Broker Price Opinion information and eBooks in January 2007. These copyright infringers found me online through my website, through the items I sold on eBay and elsewhere. Plus, many of my infringers are past customers.

3. I have had Kimberly Ramer of Kimclass and NABPOP, used an employee or used a fictious name to try to purchase one of my lists of companies for $19.99 in May of 2007. I am sure that they would have used it to make their list more up to date, because I update my list every few months. I made sure that they didn’t get their hands on it and refunded their money.

4. A past eBay customer and real estate salesperson in California, Sherie Corsello, bought and tried to resell my list of BPO, REO and Asset Management companies. She purchased my eBook for $19.99 and tried to resell ‘her own list,’ for $49.00. She denied that she used any part of my list of information in my eBook as her own, but it is painfully clear how much of a help my information was to her recreating her list.

5. I’ve had many of my other competitors purchase my BPO Manual so that they can get a point of reference, this is ok. The Owner of ForeclosureU did this as well as a few others.

My main problem with all of this is that I didn’t expect that other real estate professionals would take advantage of me in such a personal way and try to exploit all that I created to use as if they themselves created it.

This to me is the biggest slap in the face that I have encountered next to getting phone calls from countless strangers who let me know that their friend emailed them my BPO Manual eBook (In which, they themselves did not pay for it!) and that they had some questions for me. That was an even worse situation to deal with. In all instances it feels like I have been kicked square in the gut!

I hope you learned something useful from this post. Any constructive comments would be appreciated! Thanks so much for taking the time to read this blog!

Best to you,

 Nicole Ocean

 BPO Trainer/Realtor

 www.nicoleocean.com

Can You Believe That People Are Stealing My Customer Testimonials and Infringing on my Copyrighted Material? It’s 100% True! Part I By Nicole Ocean

Take a look at another real estate ‘professional’ who stole some of my very own customer testimonials to use on his website. Notice the second testimonial where it still has my name in it! The person who did this to me is David Miller of the Miller Realty Group in Wellesley, MA. He owns bpo-success.com and on top of everything he is a licensed real estate broker! Read more to find out what I’ve done to combat him infringing on my copyrighted material…….

Copyright Infringement Issue

I first learned about David’s website at the beginning of October 2008. Just so you know within his website, he offers very similiar BPO products to mine. He is a reseller of the products that he offers, and is not reselling any of my products but instead is reselling another one of my competitors items. (To make things worse, I’ve also had an issue with copyright infringement also with this competitor as well as a handful of others).

So this is what I did to try to correct this HUGE ethical problem. I researched to find out who owned the website and got all of his information. I tried to contact him by phone two times right away to let him know I knew and require that he take down the offending material from his website. He was not available and didn’t return my phone calls.

I also send David a ‘Cease and Desist letter’ which is addresses what he is doing wrong, as well as my copyright certificate number and date issued. This letter is proper etiquette when dealing with someone who is infringing on your copyrighted material. I still have received no response to date from him.

I decided to take it to the next step without hiring an expensive copyright attorney (been there, done that). I filed a complaint to the Division of Professional Licensure in MA with their Office of Investigators. I would also have filed a complaint against him if he were a Realtor with his local Realtor Association, but go figure he is not a Realtor! That makes sense with his lack of having much ethics, morals and even consideration for my copyrighted content that I worked hard to get from some of my satisfied customers.

After checking up with them today after almost 1 month has passed since filing my complaint, they said that they have received it and still need to assign it to an investigator. Although it may take a few more weeks for them to investigate and address how they are going to handle disciplining David, my content is still active on David’s website and he is still infringing on my copyright privileges.

The saddest part is that this is not the first time someone has infringed on either the content on my website, on my eBooks or on copy that I wrote to promote my products on eBay as well.

In my next blog I’ll give you an indepth history of all of the people who have infringed on me since I wrote my first eBook “All You Ever Wanted to Know About Broker Price Opinions,” in January 2007.

Please feel to comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts…plus I’d like to invite you to read my next blog as well!

Kindly,

 Nicole Ocean

 nicolesdreams eBooks

 www.nicoleocean.com

Is it Really Getting Harder to Break Into the Broker Price Opinion Business? by Nicole Ocean

 I have been doing Broker Price Opinion’s (BPO’s) full-time for 2 years, since September 2006 in fact. I see myself as a non-traditional Realtor because most agents don’t do BPO’s and instead do real estate sales full-time and some may need to have a part-time job on the side for when sales are slow.

   In January 2007, I wrote an instructional manual (an eBook) on Broker Price Opinions that is entitled, “All You Ever Wanted to Know About Broker Price Opinions.” I’ve been blessed able to help over 1,700 other real estate professionals all across America in the last year and a half.

  Because of this experience I decided to branch out and do BPO training and consulting work alongside of doing BPO work myself. I’ve been offering my training services on BPO’s and have had some heartfelt conversations with fellow BPO Agents.

   During my phone conversations with these various BPO Agents I seem to pick up on an underlying theme and topic that keeps coming up and so I wanted to address it here and see what you think.

  People were asking me, “Is it Really Getting Harder to Break Into the Broker Price Opinion Business?” I am not afraid to answer this question and tell them my thoughts and perspective on how I feel that the a lot of real estate professionals have been jumping on the BPO Wave these last few years. Who would blame them? It is a wonderful niche market within real estate and a lot agents and brokers who have hit the wave at just the right time are now ‘hangin ten’ and enjoying the swell of REO business that they have worked so hard to get.

   I feel that there are still many people wanting to get into the business and have just found out about it! I don’t want to discourage any of these people and say that there is no real opportunity for them any more because they missed the wave as it was cresting. This just isn’t true!

   There are many new BPO Agents that are just now getting into the BPO and REO business and are able to still be very successful! Especially in market areas where is not a huge saturation of BPO and REO Agents. I myself live in an area where the typical BPO/REO Agent is an older agent that has been in the real estate business for 10-20 years. They’ve paid their dues, seen a few cycles and simply just put in a lot of hard work and dedication into their business. Anyone that is going to be successful (no matter what type of business they are in) will have to do the same! 

   The biggest encouragement and advice that I can give to people wanting to get into the BPO business right now is three fold.

 1.) Do your research and educate yourself. (Learn as much as possible about BPO’s and the business, either from going to conferences, buying material on the internet, joining forums or going to seminars)

2.) Put in 100% effort and commitment to make sure you succeed as a BPO/REO Agent.

3.) Simply give it your best shot, take a risk and see what happens! “You will never know what your future holds if you are hesitant and cannot take that first step towards building your tomorrow!” (Nicole Ocean)

What are your thoughts?

It’s Official! My BPO/REO Forum Has Over 1,000 Members by Nicole Ocean

It has taken less than 2 years to have my BPO/REO Forum reach the record amount of having over 1,000 members. I couldn’t be happier!

I can’t get over how far the forum has come in the last couple of years and I couldn’t have gotten this far without the help of everyone who has joined and participated within the forum. Thank you to everyone for making my BPO/REO Forum the best that it can be! I couldn’t thank you enough!

If you aren’t a member yet, I’d like to invite you to come on over to my website and check out all that I have to offer. My website is: www.nicoleocean.com

Let me mention quickly that there are over 140 different Broker Price Opinion and REO related topics being discussed right now!

There is a yearly membership fee of $49.99 and it will be good for a complete year from the day that you make your purchase (You’ll get a full 365 days after making your purchase through the shopping cart at my website: www.nicoleocean.com) Plus, if you have purchased my BPO Manual you will get FREE access to the BPO/REO Forum and will not have to pay the yearly membership fee for one complete year.

Come see what you have been missing and stop on by to get proven answers to the questions that you are having a hard time getting addressed.

I look forward to seeing you online at the forum!

Best to you,

 Nicole Ocean

BPO Trainer/Realtor

www.nicoleocean.com

www.nicolesdreamsebooks.com

My BPO/REO Forum Has Almost Hit A Milestone by Nicole Ocean of nicolesdreams eBooks

I had created an online forum for my customers that addresses over 140 Broker Price Opinion (BPO) and Real Estate Owned (REO) topics in February of 2007. It has grown so much over the past year and a half. In fact, to this date there are 985 members within the forum and again it is FREE to join after making a purchase with me or you can purchase a yearly membership fee for $49.99.

 You can find it by going to: www.nicoleocean.com

Look for the BPO/REO forum link after making your purchase.

I am estastic at the way that my forum is different than other great real estate forums, such as: www.agentsonline.net  and www.activerain.com

After extensive research and careful consideration I have found that many other real estate forums were placing and accepting outside advertising within their forum. I have purposely decided that no outside advertising will be permitted within my website or within the BPO/REO forum. (This is the biggest reason for the yearly membership fee of $49.99)

Many of my forum members mention how positive, open-minded and non-judgemental my forum is, and I couldn’t agree more! I intentionally tried to make it a place where any real estate professional could come, ask questions, read about other BPO and REO Agent’s experiences and learn more than they thought possible or more than they had anticipated.

Come check me out online at my website: www.nicoleocean.com

Warmly,

Nicole Ocean

Realtor/BPO Specialist & Trainer

nicolesdreams eBooks

360-933-1187

360-223-2482

www.nicoleocean.com

www.nicolesdreamsebooks.com