Realtors I need your help - How low will you go?

Nathan, we must make business decisions that are necessary, and for me that means I do not take short sale listings and I do not list foreclosures, as a general rule.  In my neck of the woods, both of those are disasters for agents trying to make a profit.  On foreclosures, for example, the REOs are requiring the listing agent they appoint to pay them a 40% referral fee.  In addition, the listing agent has to front about $1,000 of their personal money to pay contractors to get the house ready to sell.  On a $6,000 commission, split that two ways, then pay a 40% referral fee, and the listing agent is lucky to keep $1,000 (assuming they get reimbursed for the $1,000 they spent).  I don't mind working hard, but being abused for $1.95 per hour is not my idea of running a business for profit. The system was set up to make millions for those in control, and to short change the average person.  In that sense, nothing has changed.

My suggestion is that as professional Realtors we let the short sales and the foreclosures go.  Let the free enterprise market take its course.  We don't need to grovel for pennies on the dollar.  The feds have made a real mess of our real estate market nationwide.  Many in the mortgage market made millions before flying to to their island mansions.  CEO's are still paying themselves massive severence packages.  Bernanke is getting paid nicely, and Wall Street got its billions.  All of the shenanigans go on just as before, they just changed their methods. 

We owe our duties to our clients, our buyers and sellers.  As for the banks and their partners in crime, let their short sales go stale on the market.  Let them foreclose, but don't bother listing them.  Believe me, their intentions are not to cooperate with us, but to continue to satisfy their greed.

We all have to make business decisions in order to stay in business ourselves -- there are some deals that are just too much work and time and so little return it's best to move on.

Nathan, You make a good point that every business needs to understand its total financial picture!