It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree... You'll probably be mad about this, so go ahead and get fired up.
The vast majority of real estate agents are honest, ethical and hard-working. But there are some that don't hit all of those points... either by choice or by circumstance. And those people need to be rooted out. Their behavior needs to be corrected or they need to find another line of work.
One very easy way that incompetent or unethical agents show themselves in in the presentation of offers.
§ 10-6A-5. Duties and responsibilities of broker engaged by seller
(a) A broker engaged by a seller shall:
(2) Promote the interests of the seller by:
(B) Timely presenting all offers to and from the seller, even when the property is subject to a contract of sale;
I added the bold, and this is a passage from the Georgia Code defining Real Estate Brokerage. Please note what this DOESN'T say. It doesn't say:
- Present offers after we think sufficient time has passed to hope that there will be other offers.
- Present offers after we make sure that we don't have a buyer of our own to present.
- Present offers after making sure that the buyer jumps through a pantload of hoops first.
- Present the offer we like.
If there is a shortcoming to the rules, they aren't specific. Any lawyer and most brokers will know that there isn't a definition to "timely"... It is left to the court to decide during a lawsuit. And the lawsuit is tough because we don't know when the offer is presented to the seller.
Heck, in many cases we don't know IF the offer was presented to the seller.
There needs to be a mechanism...
Every offer should get two written acknowledgements.
- Acknowledgement of receipt by the seller's agent, showing when it was recieved and when it was forwarded.
- Acknowledgement of receipt by the seller, showing disposition if it isn't accepted.
These reciepts should be emailed (or faxed for those in the "fax age") immediately upon acknowledgement, and sending the receipt should be the noted time. This would prevent the selling agent from fudging the times or dates "by mistake".
Part of the reason for this is that institutional sellers are notorious for ignoring the deadlines on offers. And their agents have become just as notorious. Those are also especially prone to ILLEGALLY refuse to present offers without requiring buyers to complete extra steps.
Sellers can require that a buyer pass certain tests, such as pre-qualifying with a specific lender (although they cannot be forced to use that lender), but for the purposes of the offer, any agent or broker refusing to present the offer is breaking the law. The same goes for "lender packages" and other superfluous paperwork or requirements.
I have told seller clients flat out that I am bound by law to present every offer. They obviously don't have to accept any offer... but they are going to see it. And despite having sellers on other continents or vacationing, the longest it took me to get a client an offer was one and a half business days. (He was 75, didn't use email, and had moved to Italy. I had to send the offer to the local US Consulate for him to pick up.) I had an answer within 3 business days... Sorry, but dealing with a "monster mega bank" shouldn't be harder... they have a department.
And this whole business of requiring buyers to complete pre-qualifications is out of hand. With the large number of REOs that are getting multiple offers, a buyer might have to get pre-qualified several times before getting an offer accepted. All of these credit pulls aren't great for the buyer... Not to mention that his personal information is with not just one, but maybe five or six different lenders.
The bottom line is that WE (real estate professionals) need to clean house or lawmakers are going to do it for us. And since they don't know or understand the business, there will be a LOAD of unintended consequences.
Lane, I've experienced the "I'll get back to you in a day.." because of the seller working long hours or being out of town. And it is always to wait for that other offer. That isn't playing by the rules and it really does put the buyer behind as the clock ticks on.
Lane. BUT...what if the seller has instructed the listing agent differently? What if the seller specifically instructed the listing broker to not show him an offer until such and such has been done? The broker should always be working as per the terms of the listing agreement. As long as they are doing that then I'm cool with it even if the listing agreement states to shread my buyer's offer if it's too low.
My point is that how offers are handled needs to be 100% betweeen the seller and their broker.
Unfortunately, there are agents who are working by their rules and not the instructions of their sellers.
Lane
I think it is up to the local boards to create a policy and implement it. Yes, there will be a few who flaunt all regulations but over time, they weed themselves out
Ty
BB - I respect your position, but the Georgia Real Estate Commission rules don't read that way. They SPECIFICALLY state that the agent HAS to present ALL offers. The rules may be different in FL... So, here at least, any agent that isn't presenting all offering in a timely manner IS playing by their own rules.
I cant speak for Seth over at GAR and what they plan on doing, but my offers are time-stamped and all rejections are done in writing and time-stamped too.
I agree with your repsone to Broker Bryant; I don't care what the seller tells me...
It will be presented or they can hire another agent.
Does that mean waiting until pigs fly and pink elephants to roam the streets is not classified as timely?
Just curious if you present offers after one has been accepted and is that the law. I will come back to see.
Agents sometimes forget whom exactly they work for and to what extent.
Time stamping and getting proof to all parties should be a no brainer. Timely is sometimes up for definition and or discussion, to me it is as soon as humanly possible.
Overall, the root of the problem starts at licensing...or the ease that one can obtain one in most states. Let's be honest. The reason there are so many ill qualified people in our industry is that it's way too easy to get licensed. Unfortunately, at the very least, ethics and decency often times have become an oxymoron if not a joke. Couple that with states lack of oversight, and this is but one example of why the public has the perceptions they do. A lot of it is well founded.
I agree with everything you are aaying but don't understand the part about getting preapproved multiple times. Why would you need to do this unless the letter became outdated?
No anger here, Lane. :)
There are as Ah-Nold would say "enough loopholes to drive my Hummer through" in defining 'timely'.
The seller's agent has to act in seller's best interest, though. So seller's agent is not remiss in even shopping offers (I speak in AZ terms) AS LONG AS SELLER IS INFORMED.
Buyers' agents must make it clear to buyers also that this COULD happen and cost them their chosen property. So take your best shot right outta the gate!
Both agents of course can CYA by sending notifications with date/time stamp, as mentioned above.
Pat - I can't say that I agree. It is very difficult to get a law license... yet there are bad lawyers, same for doctors. My very first deal included a 20 year agent trying to see if I would help commit mortgage fraud. I don't think the ease of getting a license is the root.
Bill - Ech different entity one tries to buy from requires a different person to pre-approve. So, if you put offers on 5 or 6 different homes owned and/or represented by 5 or 6 different agents, there might eb 5 or 6 different pre-approval qualification processes.
Joyce - Offers fail. So, there are back-up contracts... Until we get to the closing table, the seller should see everything.
Lane, I find that very interesting tha GA would have that as a law that the seller cannot over ride with their instructions. To me that law is stepping between the seller and the contractual agreement with their broker.
But I guess it is what it is. I just don't understand the reasoning behind it.
There are so many things that are just ignored and no one wants to do any reporting. We "police" ourselves and common practice has taken the place of any form of supervision. I think we are left to the brokers to supervise, but they are busy and often have the "bad" ideas to begin with.
I think it is a problem of training as much as it is ethics. Many agents simply don't know any better. They learned from others who had these bad habits. Some have been forced into deals like short sales and REOs without knowing how to process these transactions. This is not an excuse. Increased training requirements, increased education requirements and increased supervision by brokers is the cure.
I've heard rumors that in CA our organization (California Assn. of Realtors) had succeded in convincing CA congress to draft a bill to make it a criminal (civil) offense if a seller does not submit all offers to the owner within 48 hrs. of receipt. With all the technology available today, they reasoned there's no excuse not to do so.
The seller will also be required to sign and date the when the offer was received, and a copy of it must be sent to the buyer who must also sign and date when the confirmation was received.
I know for a fact that I've lost a few deals because the seller's agent never presented my buyer's offer to the owners. Unfortunately it's almost impossible to prove.
Lane...I'm hearing you. And for people like Broker Bryant (and I can understand what he is saying) we as agents need to be telling our Sellers (i.e. these *^*$*%^ Banks) that we have a real estate LICENSE and as such are bound by the LAWS AS ESTABLISHED BY THE GEORGIA REAL ESTATE COMMISSION. Maybe if a few agents lost their license over this, it would bring others onto the fair playing field, or maybe the banks could not find any agents to list their properties.....
I was just this morning reading foreclosure listings and the lists of "do this, call here, submit this" were amazing.
Great points Sir Lane!
Lots of good dialogue here. I agree with Weichert with regards to more training and supervision. When a new agent gets their license more often than not they are let loose and expected to learn trail by fire. Unless they are lucky enough to find a broker or brokerage with a mentor program or an established training program, they are let loose on unsuspecting buyers/sellers with no real understanding of what to do. What you learn in real estate school, only marginally prepares you for what you will experience "on the job!"
I've got the same issue. I submitted a full price offer on a REO and they accepted another offer 8 days later. Now the Listing agent won't/cannot/refuses to verify to my Buyer when, if ever, they submitted the offer to the Lender. I did some research, and the Lender can find no record of ever receiving my offer! Any suggestions?
Lane...
I think this is one of the most timely posts ever written here on AR!
I have often wondered myself about when the "obligation to present ALL offers" went away.
I'm glad you wrote about this, because it needed to be said. And if anyone gets mad or offened so be it.
I can't remember having a problem with new agents, but this problem has arisen with a couple of reo brokerages where I've been left in the dark until the "squeaky wheel" finally got a response, which of course was that my offer wasn't accepted.
I really enjoy posts of this nature because I read through the comments and make note of who said what. Some of the answers absolutely astonish me, even here on AcitveRain, and reveal 'character'-istics of people with whom I may or may not do business with in the future due to our being 'on the same page'. It's a great forum that I take full advantage of. It sometimes gives me a little bit of vision to be able to tell who has had their ethics 'trained' out of them, who never had them instilled in the first place, and who made a conscious decision to try a 'workaround'.
I believe that for an agent (or any professional, for that matter) to build respect and a following, have 'staying power', and to be continually effective, that professional must follow the rules of that profession -- not his/her OWN rules nor the 'instructions' of his/her client if they are counter to the rules of that profession. I can't tell you how many times I've ran across an agent who 'discourages' me from making an offer on an REO because they feel it's "too low". And these are not just the banks' agents -- several have been agents I've approached to represent me. Their contact info. is now in my 'round file'.
For the most part, mechanisms ARE in place to handle most socially unacceptable situations. They're called LAWS. I don't know of any jurisdiction that makes a contract enforceable when the contract clauses require illegal activity by either party to the contract. So the idea that you can bypass the law by making an agreement is ludicrous. The biggest problem I see with agents flaunting those laws is that nobody uses the tools to put them in serious jeopardy. That first step is to make a complaint. As in reciprocity, most people are afraid to 'rock the boat'. You CANNOT trust that 'karma' will cause those bad apples to "weed themselves out -- I believe that 'karma' needs a little help to work effectively.
Agents need to 'know' both who they work for and the applicable laws they need to be responsible for in any transaction. Flaunting the laws in trying to please a client takes the level playing field out of the game and is ILLEGAL! Why risk it? As an investor, I would never ask my agent to do anything unethical or illegal. To me, that just represents the character of the agent (and my own, of course). It would be like marrying a partner with whom you'd been having an affair after you've divorced your previous partner because of the affair -- just how much trust will either of you have in that relationship?
Many times the agent forgets that he/she is working for the seller and puts his/her opinion ahead of the clients feeling that he/she knows what's best..
Dennis -- I would expect an agent or broker (a real estate PROFESSIONAL) should and WOULD know more about the business of real estate than the typical seller (or buyer)! I wouldn't direct my dentist in how to treat my teeth. Certainly that agent/broker is working for a client, but within the constraints of the applicable rules. I would expect the agent/broker to advise his/her client, based on that agent's/broker's training, education, knowledge and experience. If not, why hire him/her? I would expect that agent/broker WOULD normally know what's best, whether the client decides to accept that advice or not. What does "independent real estate professional" mean, anyway?
Well written comments on how some of the people without Integrity act. Unfortunately no matter what tracking requirements are created they will still find ways to live in a lower realm that most due. This just keeps us looking better to those we represent from of place of honesty and integrity.
Lane this problem goes beyond just REO Brokers although they are the worst. Maybe the board ought to enforce the response issues more.
I think most of these REO Brokers are so busy sucking up they are scared of loosing the business if they do what is right.
Lane, I like this blog. In North Carolina we are to "present all offers as soon as possible." (underline mine)
There was a lawsuit a few years ago where an agent stopped for lunch before presenting the offer to the listing agent. Meantime another buyer's agent brought in an offer, it was accepted and went to contract. Buyer #1 sued and won.
I am broker/owner and in my little firm, we don't stop to pee much less eat. We get that offer presented immediately.
"I am broker/owner and in my little firm, we don't stop to pee much less eat. We get that offer presented immediately"
My bladder hasn't ever been the same since having kids...
So, I take my Mac Book and aircard in with me! LOL! :)
"And this whole business of requiring buyers to complete pre-qualifications is out of hand."
AMEN! While I can't speak about presenting offer because I'm not a Realtor, I am so sick of my clients having to get pre-approved over and over and over.... It's absolute maddening.
I have two clients that have had their credit pulled so many times that it has had a negative effect on their score. Fortunately, it's not enough to jeopardize their approval with me but they are sick of it and they have instructed their Realtors to no longer show them anymore properties that require them to get pre-approved with another bank.
While this does limit their property choices a little, it will give their credit scores a chance to go back up to where they were before they started looking for a home.
In my opinion, it's not up to me, the agent, to make any decisions about what to present. My job is to present EVERYTHING immediately. I can certainly advise my clients, but ultimately, this is THEIR decision and their money and their time and their home. It is extremely frustrating to work with agents who think they are the ones making decisions.
this issue will largely disappear when we emerge fom the pit of REO hell we are in.
the old horses here will tell you that this issue has become the huge problem it is largely in the recent market where REO's are a significant portion of the inventory. the out of state owners DO NOT CARE what we want or need. they work 9-5 and it is not reasonable to expect their agents to do otherwise just because we do. sorry. and i can tell you they treat their agents like crap...i had one REO agent reveal that he was allowed to correspond with the asset manager ONLY by email. that's a fine way to be treated, no?
i can't think of a single good reason NOT to present an offer...even if it was to have a laugh and scribble rejected on it. i can tell you that in the past i have had clients tell me that they didn't want to even have offers faxed over after i told them what the offer was. when the fax was the norm, and offers go to 25 or thirty pages (prudential!) i had no problem complying. these days though i can scan an offer an have it all over the planet in minutes i send it before i call them. if you want proof that i sent it...you'll need to take my word for it. if you want my client to acknowledge it...maybe, but there is no requirement in the law that forces them to respond and i can't make them. i know this sounds callous but you do not get to make their business plan
that said, i would be completely opposed to ANY more laws telling me how to deal for my clients...the regulators have proved time and again that they can screw up a trainwreck.
we don't need more laws...we got plenty already and they don't seem to help.
I like the two receipt idea. Good one! I know agents that have given verbal rejections that never presented the offer to the seller. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Asking for a signed rejection is only good if you know what the seller's handwriting looks like.
I agree that institutional sellers are often just plain rude. They really think they don't need to follow any rules, and - they get away with it!
But agents dealing with transactions between "real people" can be just as bad. I once had an offer flatly rejected and felt that it was suspicious.
Later, after the listing agent had sold the property to his own buyer, I was talking with the seller and he apologized for not working with my offer. He said "Marte, I told you I couldn't offer terms on that property."
That's when I knew he had NOT seen my all cash offer. His agent had simply scrawled "rejected" across the front and forged the seller's name under it.
Your idea of the seller signing that he's received the offer is a good one - but if the agent is into forgery it won't do much good.
I loved this post & you made some great suggestions. Even before the REO glut, we needed to implement some controls.
Here's another unethical practice that short sales and the lending institutions are forcing upon us. Price fixing and guessing. I just lost a short sale listing to a trustee sale. When you take a short sale, the lending institution will never tell you what an acceptable offer will be. They will wait until they get an offer to order a BPO. Once they get an offer, I believe in my observation, the response time is relative to the auction date. The further out the date, the longer waiting period before the listing agent and home owner will know what is acceptable.
The mortgage was serviced by Aurora and would require approval first by their home retention department then final approval by Fannie Mae. I listed the short sale property in May at $235,000. In line with recent sales based on non-short sale properties by non-distressed home owners. In August, we reduced the price to $205,000 before we got our first offer in September of $195,000. I felt it was a reasonable offer for the market conditions. After 30 days , amazing turnaround time, Fannie Mae via Aurora's representative countered at $222,000. The buyer had 5 business days to accept. I got nowhere in requesting to talk to the negoitator for Aurora or Fannie Mae to question their value. The representative kept insisting Fannie Mae was countering at market value. The buyer backed out of the deal and the auction date for foreclosure was 7 days from the day we were notified of the counteroffer. My attempt to have Aurora/Fannie May postpone the foreclosure sale date, now I knew what price they would accept, was as successful as me trying to wrestle with gravity.
On October 28 the property was foreclosed. No one made an offer based on the opening bid of $254,000 (duh) and was sold back to beneficary.
On November 09 it was listed by another local brokerage representing Homepath as a REO (Fannie Mae) for $199,900. It was under contract on November 12.
It hasn't been quite three weeks. But it still stings. My seller did everything requested of her from both myself and Aurora to have a complete short sale packet. Though she understood her credit would be blemished, she was hopeful for a short sale vs a foreclosure. After 5 months, my commission on the property was zero.
Who is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac really? We as tax payers gave them $100 billion dollars in bailout money. Yet in my experience, that didn't help the taxpayer seller in acheiving a short sale. It didn't help the taxpayer Realtor (me) maintain a livelyhood. It didn't help the taxpayer next door neighbor in stablizing their home's value.
Why isn't Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac allowing the agents who had the original short sale listing during weeks of working with the lenders or servicing agents and countless hours on the phone and working under conditions that we would never tolerate with a regular seller, continue to list the properties and make a living?
I could go on. But if any of you have a better perspective on this, I'd like to read your comments.
Lane, great post. In CA we have the 48hr rule to present ALL offers. I have only run across one agent who refused to submit a lowball offer - which of course is illegal. We also have to present our offers in person, not time-stamped or anything. BUT the agent submitting the offer for the buyer also has a legal RIGHT to be present during the meeting with the seller about the offer.
Pearson & Pearson (#20) depending on your state:
when you write offers on REO's or short sales, in the comments of the contract write cc: whatever bank holds the loan. Then submit it yourself. This is a way to CYA and let the listing agent know the bank will receive the offer whether or not they send it to the bank themselves. It's also a way you avoid the issue of the bank never having a record of your offer.
Linda - While I'm not a Realtor writing offers, my clients continually are running up against the problem of REO listing agents not presenting their offers simply because they're FHA offers because they have multiple all cash offers.
My clients Realtors have informed us (me and my clients) that although here in CA offers must be presented in 48hrs, the way that these REO listing agents are getting around this is to state some date (typically a week or so later) when offers will be presented to the bank seller.
By the time this day comes around, they have multiple cash offers so then the FHA offers are either immediately rejected or just not presented, even though the FHA offers are higher than the all cash offers. Does stating a day when offers will be presented supersede the 48hr rule?
Not that it will make any difference to these REO listing agents but I'm just curious.
Hi Lane,
My reference above was to a real estate license. i have no doubt any state bar is considerably more difficult.
At least in my area I don't think the problem with bank owned houses is that the agents are sitting on the offers so much as the banks can take forever to respond. On regular sales we've never had much of a problem with listing agents sitting on offers. I personally like to get my offers presented and accepted or countered the same day and get my buyers' response same day. Same if it's my seller. I like to get everything wrapped up the day the offer is written. But I don't like the idea of having to get a rejection in writing. If a buyer's agent submits a piece of crap offer I have no problem presenting it immediately, but I shouldn't have to take the time to meet with my seller until your buyer makes a serious offer. But on the other hand you probably won't get a reject from my seller no matter how bad the offer is. But the counter will more than likely be verbal if the offer is real bad.
I also believe it is kosher in Michigan to not present an offer is the seller puts in writing not to submit offers under X amount or don't sumbit any FHA offers, etc.
Amazing to realize that agents lean toward their own agenda rather than that of the seller who will be responsible for their commission payment.
Lane, I have seen this too. Not with agents in particular, but with certain re companies in my area.
One of my buyer agents upped her offer 3 times, good communication with listing agent.
All of a sudden one day...sorry "they took the other offer."
We watch until closing yep same company.
50 bucks more.
Fishy...you bettcha.
Great timing for me on this post!
I'm dealing with this on a transaction right now. It took the listing agent 4 days to present my buyer's offer to his seller. He had every excuse in the book as to why it took so long. Before I received seller signatures and acceptance, the listing agent put the home as pending in our MLS. I called him on it and he said the pending was for my buyers that they were accepted and he was going to scan in the acceptance papers and email to me. The email had a COUNTER and an ADDENDUM. So without my buyer's signature and acceptance on these 2 forms, he went ahead and put the listing as PENDING. Now, keep in mind during all of this, I NEVER RECEIVED ANY COMMUNICATION from this agent unless I contacted him.
Seller disclosures were due on Sunday (He has the standard 7 days to get them done). It's now Tuesday at 6:00pm and guess what? NO DISCLOSURES and MORE EXCUSES! Also, NO COMMMUNICATION unless I contact him.
My buyers have done their inspections and would like to put in a request for repairs. I wonder how long it will take to get a response on that?
Buyers put in a FULL PRICE offer because the listing agent said there was going to be another offer coming in at the same time.
Now the listing agent is saying the seller wanted an "as-is" sale. So even with a full-price offer, the seller will do no repairs? And why didn't the listing agent put "as-is" sale in the MLS or on the Counter? My buyers certainly wouldn't have put in this full-price offer if there was going to be no more negotiations. Especially now that we need $2000 for Section 1 repairs and most likely a NEW ROOF! And this is not even a short sale or REO.
What the heck? The saga continues...........
BB - I understand it... and it would probably be because some agents wrote things into their listing agreement that they could exploit...
John - I think that majority of agents ARE professional and ethical... But laws aren't made for the professional and ethical, they are made to protect against the stupid, lazy and unethical.
Michael - Much of it will, but these agents won't go away. They will play games with other sellers... trying to get offers accepted that they can work both sides of. And the reason for the receipts isn't to regulate how you deal with YOUR client, it is to make sure that you deal correctly with MY client. As it currently stands, there is no way for me to show that you have done your job. (And I fully expect that you are a professional, and when I say "you" I certainly don't mean you as an individual)
Missy - I would think that if there were a pattern, there would be cause for a fat lawsuit...
When I represent the seller, I get their signature on all rejections and fax back to the buyer agent along with a phone call. This is how I practice my business. It is very frustrating working with unethical agents...
All state rules governing our conduct are not exactly the same. So, first, and foremost, we cannot break the law. Beyond that, we should do whatever our client asks us to do. If we believe that what he is asking us to do is not in his best interests, then we have a duty to explain why. But it is still his choice.We represent our clients and not ourselves.
Mad at the post or mad at the situation. One thing I've learned is that the laws are different in every state. If GA say it is the way it is that is the way you do it.
I'm a fan of Broker Bryant and like his idea. I'm starting to do short sale listings and like his idea. I'm talking it over with my managing broker to make sure that I can do that here in Colorado. I like that idea if the clients will let me and trust me. One thing that happens is that if you can price a short sale correctly and market it correctly you can have over 20 offers the first week it is on the market. Do you want me to present every single one of these to my client.
It is a hard and stressful time enough for these people. You want them to see all the lowball investor offers to rub salt in their wounds. If you think this is a good idea preach on. Have you ever listed a short sale? Is your market like this?
You know what though, before I do this I'm going to talk with my managing broker, get his opinion, and find out if I even can.
On the whole I would like the idea of offers being signed by receipts and universally implemented. That is not the way it is though.
It seems alot of these issues are related to REO business. i don't know if the banks are truly putting restrictions on what must be included with offers before they can be presented or it's the agents making up things to make their own lives easier. Either way, i'll be glad when we get back to a more normal market
Ironically.... I just got chewed out by a seller for presenting a ridiculously low offer because they were "insulted"....
As explained to them... I present all offers and need a response regardless of how stupid the offer is.
Lane: The listing agent should take the iniative and tell the 'client lender, asset manager' that all these prequals are totally out of line. The listing agent can tell if something is shady and don't tell me they don't know! XYZ prequal out of BF Egypt Bank N.A. is a great example. Some of this is common sense.
As you've said, all those credit runs are not good for the buyer.
We, thankfully do have the presentation time and presentation rejection dates & times now on our contract and no one uses them! I have had one buyers agent, not believe that I presented their offer (under list by 50K) to the seller. I was insulted but I filled it out & had the seller just initial it. The seller added a 'notation' something about hell freezing over which I approved and then initialed :-)
Mike - I would say yes... But the client is the seller, not the bank. The bank only needs to see the winning offer...
Lyn - I agree, but some other agent will be willing to do whatever... just like if the buyer passes the deal, there will still be a line of buyers waiting to take their shot.
Fortunately in TX our contracts are clear about presenting offers. Also, if the seller puts in writing not to present x or y, we can do that. I try to make it clear it might not be in the seller's best interest as it is terms and qualifications that matter also, not just the price on the line. REO agents get a bad rep because they earn it. I have a wonderful friendship and three sales thanks to a local agent who failed to present an offer when they had the listing. Seems the brother of the neighbor made an offer and asked the seller why he rejected it. He'd never heard about it! He fired that broker, hired me, has continued to hire and refer me, and they are wonderful friends also. A lot of our problem is that WE fail to take the time and suffer the inconvenience of a formal complaint. If we want the "bad guys" out of the business, then we better learn to stand up for what's right.
Joanie - We do need to stand up... but if all of us don't stand up, it won't work...