With the current economy and real estate market we deal with a lot of REO listing agents (for those of you that don't know what that means it means agents who handle bank foreclosure listings). There are some that are good at their job but there is a percentage of them that are unethical and basically dirt bags. They don't care about ethics, your clients, their word, simple customer courtesy.
- Some foreclosure agents will NEVER call you back. So you never know what is going on with the offer. Your clients are left in the dark until the foreclosure agent blesses you with a denial email or acceptance. Once in a while you win one with these agents. But you have no voice contact. I never want to be that way. Communicating with the other agent always makes the deal go smoother.
- Some foreclosure agents will verbally tell you have a deal and then two weeks later you don't have on. One case that happened to one the agents my office is that a clients offer was verbally accepted. They were waiting for the banks addendums to be emailed to them. This went on for two weeks. At that time they were told the house was sold in a block to somebody else. The foreclosure listing agent got both commissions so he sold the house out from underneath the buyer. I too just had one ripped off after my client accepted the banks counter offer. Two days later they changed their mind and sold the house to somebody that offered more. If I need to make money that way I don't want to be a real estate agent.
- Some agents will list the house. You go out there with clients and then submit your offer. But your offer never even makes it to the bank. When the sale price shows up on the MLS it is much lower than your offer price. The foreclosure agent has sold the home to a buddy or friend. So much for real estate ethics. There is no way to prove it because the asset managers are unidentifiable. I still want to be fair to all people that put an offer in. I don't want to be a sandbagger.
- Then there is the just plain nasty agent.
I recently had a deal where the young lady had to fix the house to meet the city certificate of occupancy requirements. She did quite of bit of work and spent her money because the bank required the buyer to do the city inspections and work. Well those items delayed the mortgage a little and the closing was going to be delayed a day or two. The agent was nasty and threatened to cancel the deal. Shame on him. No human decency at all from that agent. The buyer had to put money into a house they didn't own (because of the listing agents rules) and the other agent wanted to cancel it because it was fixed up now and he could sell it for more. He's a dirt bag plain and simple. I never want to be like him.
Unfortunately this is happening frequently in the Metro Detroit foreclosure market. Anything goes and you just hope you win the bid. It's pure luck right now whether a client wins a bid. And usually it will take two or three tries to win. Then we work thru it to get the deal closed no matter how many hurdles or hassles the listing agents give us. It's not always easy but we get the clients the home once the banks signs the offer. We often deal with these kind of agents that have no care for clients. They just care about the amount of money they make.
But my philosophy is that I treat people the way I would want to be treated. Life's too short to be a jerk. Sure more money 's is good but I'll do without it if I ever have to treat people that way.
Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent
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