Ok Listen Up! We need a collaborative effort to sell Real Estate in Arizona while helping our clients and make it more streamlined! For heaven sakes people! As if it isn't hard enough to find a viable property for a buyer right now (or to find that viable buyer for a seller) without all the games we play with the Multiple Listing System!!
Typical Realtor Instructions: Call Jane Doe M-F 623-000-0000 from 9-5 to speak to a person or after hours & weekends, text John Doe 602-000-0006/text SusieQ 602-000-0000. Quest & mult. offer addm (if applicable) to be submitted with ALL offers MLS DOCS TAB. Homesteps.com & click Smart Buy for Owner Occupied Buyer Bonus Program. Must be with offer! If buyer declines free home warranty, we need signed decline form. Must be pre-approved with John Smith with XYZ Mortgage Company. John Smith is so busy that he cannot get back to you in under 48 hours and in the meantime there are two other buyers who are already pre-qualified with John Smith with XYZ Mortgage company.(ok I made that last part up but it is mostly true!!!)
OH don't get me going....as if that isn't enough now because of a loophole in the MLS System if you are a listing agent with a short sale and you have an offer on the property you do not have to put it in AWC-I (active with contingency) status in the MLS if you do not have it SIGNED by the seller. So ok tell me how that serves ANYONE!! I'm sure this is going to be a red hot topic with those listing agents who are playing this game (and it is a game). Take a class, learn that it does not benefit ANYONE to submit multiple offers or even one UNSIGNED offer to the lien holder. If you are worried that the lien holder will not take the offer because it is too low - don't submit it!!! Plain and simple - it should be 85% of list or comp sales. If you aren't getting an offer and you have a trustee sale date coming up DON'T PANIC!! Ask them to delay the sale. If the lien holder is a servicer of Fannie and Freddie loans they can't foreclose anyway while the home is listed short. Communicate with the lien holder, be straight up with your listings, don't overprice them, be honest with the listing language.
If you are JUST a listing agent try walking in buyer shoes for a couple of weeks then you should be more sympathetic to buyers and their agents. I have to call every single agent with a listed ACTIVE property and ask them straight up before taking my excited buyer to a listed property and hope to get an answer from you because you are too busy to get back to me. Sometimes I can't get a call back until I say I'm writing an offer...OH and don't even get me started on those agents that really don't know how to do a short sale and they are taking the listings!! You know who you are. Let's think about our moral responsibility to do the right thing. We are supposed to be helping our clients who are in trouble with their payment, about to lose their house. Puleeze if you are unsure of what you are doing please refer it to someone who can actually help the homeowner.
I am a Short Sale agent and I do pride myself in working very hard to come to a successful close in a short sale transaction. Since the beginning of last year I have taken every class that has come my way (the bad included). It has taken a long time to get to where I am now in my skill level. I still take classes and I am lucky to work for a brokerage that goes out of their way to help me find answers. I also work with an incredible partner who shares her knowledge with me.
In conclusion - let's play nice and try to make this very difficult period in Real Estate History a little easier. Please, fellow agents!
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