an here I thougth the sekret was to drag out da cattle prod... zap 'em and we be alz gud.  :)

I know several listing agents with REO who are too busy to call or respond.  I think they are given too much inventory over too wide a territory.  I work in just my county and don't have so many houses that I can't call and do them justice.

Cattle prod. That's a good one, Jesse. You know, AR is no longer uploading photos. And none of your comments show up on my homepage. What's going on? Did the REO agents throw a bug into AR? LOL.

Thanks, Barbara, for your response. I realize they don't call, but for crying out loud, you'd think they would let you know your buyer didn't get the home before they changed the MLS listing to pending. I had an agent call me today, more than 24 hours after he changed the listing to pending. That's just not right.

I like the way that you handled the situation, to set a notification to you when the status changed.  That's a very good way of dealing with it.

Buuuuuut, Judi, we shouldn't have to do THAT. I would no more change a listing to pending before calling the agents who submitted offers than I would slit my own throat.

From my perspective I think these REO brokers have their model all wrong. They make their money by doing a volume.  If it were me I would hire enough assistants to make my operation run like a machine.  When you are pumping out volume (which is how they make their $$$), your business model needs to be systematized and on point. Elizabeth your right... it comes down to how you want to do business.  This is business 101 ...when someone calls you, you call them back!  My four calls to their one returned call is not fair.  I need to earn a living as well and they can make my job so much harder.  Most of the time I feel like I am bothering them with items like a legible executed contract and title company information. I don't know why they don't get that if you "serve" your buyer and their agent, the more money they will ultimately make.

Just a little common courtesy from the REO listing agent would go a long way. Because of all the frustrations that REO listings put me through, I now refer my buyers out to other people. The REO listings just wind up putting me between a rock (the REO listing agent) and a hard place (my buyer).

Hi Team Newington: I agree with you. I don't know very many REO agents who consistently double-end their transactions. They need buyer's agents because it's buyers agents who make the cash register jingle.

Hi Jill: I'm sorry you've had such bad experiences with REO agents. Many of the agents I work with have streamlined their process. They post links to how they want offers submitted, immediately respond via email or fax when the offer has been received and contact the agent as soon as the bank responds. But some of them do not. It's the ones who leave you dangling that result in a bad rep.

Elizabeth:  You know I met recently with a local REO agent.  She mentioned that she was not allowed to represent the buyer in her REO transactions on the thirty listings in her pipeline.  Even more of a reason to respond to the Buyer's agent! To tell you the truth she had a sour attitude.  Her contract with the bank required her to bank roll the up front repairs (approved by the bank),  It took months in order for her to get paid back. Based on her story I would think that ANY call regarding her listings would be promptly answered.

Team Newington: I've heard the same thing -- that the REO agents pay for the repairs upfront. I wonder, though, if this local agent is quick to call all the agents after the bank accepts an offer or if she's one of those that will change the active listing to pending and delay notification. It's like none of the rejected offers matter anymore to some of those agents -- and one of those buyers could be the winning bid on another of that agent's listings. I make it a practice to be nice to everybody that I can, but not every agent shares that practice.

Hey, since you're not that far from Sacramento, how would you like to get together at the end of May with a few other bloggers around here? Email me, if you're interested, OK?

I agree with the comments about having a team and a streamlined process. If they are in the business of volume then they need to have the systems in place to service the transactions that they have. I really dont know why so many in this business do not put systems in place.

Best,

Scott

Hi Scott: I imagine some of those agents never expected their business to explode the way it has in Sacramento. Not that it's any excuse, though. We all need to continually make adjustments to fit our workloads.

Good idea.  I'll have to try that...  :)  Thanks for sharing!  :)

Some of the REO agents have taken on more than they can handle and they do need more help and yes it's true we put out our money up front for utilities,repairs etc and not all agents are created equal and some are just rude but one of the best ways to communicate with REO teams is E-MAIL as that is how we interact with the asset mgrs. There are weekly status reports due on every listing including all marketing , monthly BPO on all listings etc so they are doing a lot of work behind the scene.

If you have an offer and the agent is local drop it off with the agent to put a face with the deal and ask for the e-mail address they prefer to use and you will be surprised how well you will be received in most, not all, instances.

I know buyers are anxious and I try to respond to their agent as soon as I have an answer but I don't take on more than I can handle.

Debi: Thanks for stopping by, and good luck with those REOs!

Cameron: I trust that you call the agents whose offers were rejected before putting the listing pending, then?

Yes I do but there are some agents who will put a property pending when they have multiple offers knowing that one of them will be accepted.

Do all of them do things fair, no, but when the real estate market was on fire there were agents that sandbagged their listings to sell them themselves. It's not REO agents only but people in general.

I hate to say this, but it's against MLS regulations to put a property pending when it's not. Just because an agent can take certain liberties, doesn't mean it is right nor just.

Elizabeth,

Hey, I'm one of those REO agents and I'm hearing all the negative talk about them here. That is underhanded and unfair. Wait, I'm posting this on a wrong blog. I should just stay low and eavesdrop on these juicy gossips. J/k I'm not an REO agent.

As a matter of fact, I had written in some offers on REO properties and these listing agents hired out assistants to help them with the work load. They told me it takes 3-4 days reponse time from the bank. I called them the next day to check on the status and they told me the same thing but I pretended that I did not know. Two days later, i called again and still no answer. Then the next day, I got a fax that my offer was rejected on my 40% down buyer! I just wanted to slap someone when I heard that.

Maybe I should get chummy with these REO listing agents so that they can push my offers through.

Hi Jim: The REO agents I know are too busy to care about being chummy. They care more about pristine offers and escrow closings. Which is how it should be, actually. While professionalism certainly plays an important part, I don't really see favoritism mattering much.

Elizabeth, words of wisdom indeed. REO agents take offers more on a business level rather than a personal level. Banks don't see the human side to an offer unlike a homeowner who is selling the home. Moreover, these agents are too busy as you've mentioned to be chitchatting about.

Are they obligated to submit all offers they receive or can they hold out certain offers? I see this as a loophole as the bank would not really know this if the agent hold out of these offers. It may not be 'ethical' but just thought it might happen if they want to do a favor for an agent they know.

The problem is the little commissions and the load of work.  It is just ugly from a customer service point of view.  If you want to play the REO game you will have to put up with the reality that market.

Hi Jim: REO agent responsibility to the seller does not change because the agent represents a bank. They have a respnsibility to submit all offers until the bank tells them to stop.

Hi Robert: Buying REOs in Sacramento means that buyers have to accept disappointment. When you have 24 offers one property, 23 buyers are going to be unhappy. Although, I do have another very happy client who got an REO yesterday. :)

Elizabeth,

Staying ahead no matter what it takes continues to make you the market expert.....have a great weekend..

We deal quite a bit with listing and selling REOs and it is not the same as regular listings and sales. 

Our biggest REO listing agent doesn't work with buyers at all.  She is constantly on the go doing BPOs, getting repair estimates, meeting the utility companies, submitting contracts, etc.   It would be great if she had an assistant but she doesn't because of 1) cost, and 2) doubts that an assistant would do things the right way.  And she always calls all of the agents in multiple offer situations with status changes although it's possible that she could make a mistake and miss one once in a while .

In our MLS, when the Bank verbally accepts an offer (which can take anywhere from hours to weeks and no one - including the Listing Agent - can predict the delay with confidence) we put the listing in Withdrawn status.  When the counter offers and addendums have been signed off on by both the buyer and seller, we put it into Pending.

Hi Dan: Well, nobody ever said it wasn't a lot of work. :) Thanks for stopping by.

Hi Frank: The guy in my office who lists a lot of REOs is always working, too. Mostly with contractors, as that seems to eat up a lot of his available time.

Hi Elizabeth

I was just reading through your blog here. We are experiencing much difficulty with the REO agents

here is Sacramento too ( with the exception of a few true professionals). There are quite a few that

have real service issues and are very difficult to do business with.   It sure seems like there should

be more  accountability from these agents.

I feel your pain, Danita. I have been trying to get a response from a Pocket agency, and have been getting the runaround for two weeks. Last week, they put the listing pending. I called and asked if that meant they were tired of phone calls or if an offer had been accepted. The response I received was the listing agent was out with a foot injury, her coworker was out of the town, and no, the bank had not yet responded. But I know the bank did. Don't ask me how I got this information, but let's just say the agents are falling down on the job.

Today I finally spoke to a person who supposedly was covering for the agents missing in action, and he confirmed my conviction. But the poor buyers had to wait two weeks on a Freddie Mac that is generally two days turnaround at most. Lenders should cut loose non-performing agents and list with those who provide superior service, not just those who cut their rates to the bare bone's minimum.

Elizabeth, we too have had our share of REO issues here in Western MA.  There are a few that are good and then there are those on the other extreme.  We had an offer on one that took weeks to get any response from the agent.  Come to find out it wasn't an REO at all, turned out to be a short sale and the agent was "trying to negotiate with the bank".

I understand that some of these agents would prefer to communicate via email.  I don't care how you prefer to communicant, just communicate!

That's incredible, Lou. You mean the agent misrepresented the status of the listing? What does your MLS have to say about that?

Well, the listing didn't say that it was REO, just subject to 3rd party review.  The listing agent was one who is well know for REO listings though.  He "forgot" to tell us that it was a short sale.  Probably should not have assumed either.

Hi Lou: Well, if I saw "subject to 3rd party review," I'd assume it was a short sale. But then I don't have to assume because I always pull the tax records to see how much is owed against the property. I do this because some agents list short sales as regular active listings, hoping that they'll get full price -- when a 1% price difference would shove them into a short sale.

Just when it seems the public needs realtors the most , to help navigate some sense of calm in the storm, the industry falls under the spell of a new way of doing business.  The handling, control and processing of offers on REO's is very reminiscent of dealing with the builders during the hi-flying days after 2001.   There are strong similarites regarding who has control about timing, liability, closing issues, requirements, title/escrow selection, delivery, penalties, etc.   It becomes very one sided.    In May of this year , here is Sacramento county, 1084 of the 1654 closed transactions were REO's.    The buyer's have no choice but to deal with them.  It is what it is.

The clients understand the lender's need to dispose of these properties quickly, efficiently and with as much money to the bottom line as possible.   They do not fault the lenders for their business model, but believe that if an agent chooses to master REO's, there should be some provision for a level of professional courtesy provided to buyers in this process.  (The REO agents are also under extreme pressure to manage the properties, deal with timelines and a myriad of details.  This fact is not as generally understood by the public.)

 Buyers are coming to their own conclusions on how the real estate industry is handling this and it does not seem to be helping our image as professionals.  We are the public face of what happens in this process and during these times.  It seems we can improve our performance and the buyers deserve it.

It's always something in this business, Cathy. :)

But the good news is about 50% of the buyers didn't have to deal with an REO. I believe about half of my Sacramento home buyers last month bought from an individual seller, so those numbers do fall within market stats.

Only 46% of the four-county sales in Sacramento were REOs in May.

Frank Sauer (above) hit upon a possible solution to your problems in communicating with REO brokers, change the MLS "status classifications."   Maybe the definition of "pending" ought to include: verbally accepted by bank; awaiting written confirmation.  Or, add another classification that applies only to REOs.  At least the other MLS participants would have a better understanding of where a particular property is in the REO process. Still does not excuse the REO broker from not communicating with their cooperating brokers.

Hi Bill: In Sacramento, we have changed our short sale status classifications to active short sale and short sale contingent. This way, agents know immediately that the listing is a short sale. They also know when an offer has been received but not yet accepted by the bank. If I have a buyer interested in a short sale, I often call the listing agent when I see short sale contingent, find out how much the pending offers are and advise my buyer to offer a hair above the best offer.

Liz,  even better yet they don't bother to UPDATE the MLS so you show a home to a buyer.. write an offer.. only to find out 4 days later that is should have gone pending 2 weeks ago...UGH!!

Hi Alex: Some of the agents record outgoing voice mail messages that promise their REO listings are current in MLS. But they're not. In fact, there is no way they could be. I don't care how fast you are at inputting into MLS, there is always a time lag. Plus, the voice mail messages don't tell you how many offers they have received or if a counter offer is out.