I am troubled by a pattern that seems to be developing for the marketing of REO properties.  Listings for bank owned properties are given to service companies around the country for marketing and sales.  Many if not most of these listings seem to go to offices well outside our marketing area and are not available to our IDX.  These brokers have little or no information about the property and in some cases are depending on the service company to manage the property.  The service companies begin authorizing dropping the price; see no offers and few if any showings.  Eventually the properties are sold at auction with an unnecessary level of cost and an unnecessary negative effect on the market conditions.  These properties are then used as comps by appraisers devaluing the market even further.  I do not mind the low prices for our buyers but this pattern seems to extend the recovery period much more than necessary and show a smaller number of affordable properties than the reality of the market.  What is going on out there?  I would think banks want to get rid of properties faster, at higher prices and at more reduced costs than the results of this process would indicate.