Why are these Realtors' evaluations of this property so different?

[Justin Todd]

Hey, guys.

I've got a question about some BPOs I had a couple Realtors send me on a property I was considering picking up financing for to flip. Why are their numbers so drastically different? I'm hoping to get a response from somebody with experience in flipping properties, but any advice is welcome. It's bothering me because I don't want to pay the $650-700 for the HML to gather their own evaluation of the property if it stands the chance of coming in below what they cover, because if it does, I'd have just thrown that money away. And also, the biggest issue, is being confident in the value to be able to sell for a profit after purchase.

I ran a CMA myself and brought the property in at roughly $124,000. This wasn't anything too comprehensive, just the general stuff: +/- 20% square footage, same stories, close to the same year built, within half a mile, within the past 3-6 months, all that jazz.

For some reason, though, their numbers are coming in at anywhere from $102,000-133,000. That's a huge difference! I don't have access to the BPOs any longer, but is it just safe to assume that somebody was using the wrong comps? If so, that's confusing, considering I didn't grab any "newbies." They're all seasoned realtors in the town the property is located in, with plenty of sales and experience under their belts. (I'll mention that one of them was using blatantly wrong information to acquire one of the lower end numbers, in that they'd listed it as a 2 bed 1.5 bath when this has never been true, so it's not even like it was outdated, just simply wrong).

Am I reading too much into this? If I'm going to start investing with financing rather than just wholesaling for a fee, I'd like to be extremely confident in the numbers... but with this kind of feedback from seasoned professionals, it's got me a little nervous, to be honest.

Thanks in advance,

Justin