Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 5:33 PM
REO Agents…or Robots?
There was a new listing on the MLS, and I wanted more information. The brokerage doesn’t answer the phone, you can only contact them by email, and this was their response. No wonder the banks want to out-source, they might as well have computers or off-shore folks handle their business if this is the best available:
Thank you for your inquiry, and we look forward to your offer. We only List REO Properties, and the seller is Institutional. This email should answer almost all of your questions.
All properties that are ‘Active’ in the MLS are available; they are vacant, please show anytime, and please submit all offers. We will not answer questions on how many offers we have on a particular property, or what purchase price your client should submit their offer. We do get multiple offers on most of our Listings, please submit your offer with your client’s Highest-And-Best purchase price!
All properties will show in the MLS as ‘Active’ until we have an accepted offer that has been executed by the seller. It is always recommended that if you have a buyer that is interested in writing an offer, please do so, as we keep all offers on file until the property is sold.
We notify all parties who have written offers via email when the property goes into escrow, and each seller has different timelines for acceptance – some sellers accept offers within 48 hours, others can take 2 weeks or longer. We apologize, as we know that you would like to get your client into a property as soon as possible, but please inform your client on the REO timelines, as most properties will take 45-60 days to close.
We look forward to your offer, and please be sure to see the confidential remarks section of the MLS prior to submitting an offer – each seller requires a specific offer submission package, and if the offer package is not complete, it will delay presentation of your offer. It is our goal to get every offer accepted, so please follow the instructions in the ‘Confidential Remarks’ section of the MLS
Posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 5:33 PM in Uncategorized | 19 Comments » | 
Print
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
There’s a sales strategy guaranteed to be a winner in a down market…
greenlander | July 29th, 2008 at 6:00 pmLOL, Maybe you should work up your own automated offer cover letter response to these kind of E-mails. Something like:
This offer is highest and best so don’t bother asking for highest and best…
Don’t question us about the FHA financing contingency, for questions contact the FHA directly…
If offer is not accepted in 48 hours, counter lower, not higher as market conditions and appraiser opinions continue to deteriorate…
Use of any seller mandated contract forms or conditions by buyer does not constitute buyer’s acceptance of such forms or conditions to the extent such forms or conditions are inconsistant with CAR forms or conditions in buyer’s judgment…
This is one of many offers made on bank owned properties in which buyer has an interest, so unequivocal acceptance by seller of this offer is nevertheless contingent on buyer’s best acceptance in buyer’s discretion…
You can make this just like two answering machines talking to each other.
Kingside | July 29th, 2008 at 6:55 pmI earned my 6%. Look, I created an auto-reply in outlook.
shadash | July 29th, 2008 at 7:28 pmHey Real Estate Industry, don’t look now but you’ve been disintermediated. Present company excepted of course. THere will always be a need for skilled knowledgeable professionals.
Rob Dawg | July 29th, 2008 at 7:34 pmI wonder if there’s some way to survey how many people look at an REO and decide not to make an offer because the process is so annoying that it’s just not worth the effort vs. their lowered consumer confidence in the market…
GeneK | July 29th, 2008 at 7:36 pmI think the real estate industry is going through what stock brokers went through about 10-15 years ago. The idiots are getting weeded out while those that bring some kind of added value to the table will just end up with a larger and larger share of the pie.
shadash | July 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm"I think the real estate industry is going through what stock brokers went through about 10-15 years ago. The idiots are getting weeded out while those that bring some kind of added value to the table will just end up with a larger and larger share of the pie."
This comment is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. There’s an incredible business opportunity for the few GOOD real estate agents right now.
Obviously Jim, you recognized this long ago. The popularity of this blog suggests an even brighter future IMHO.
The Blur | July 29th, 2008 at 8:03 pmI think it is sort of like avoiding the bill collector. Since they are so overloaded, and need a creative way to protect their position, they are only going through the motions in order to satisfy investors and auditors. Really if Fannie and Freddi have already said they are not interested in dumping REO’s at fires sale prices in order to protect existing valuations, then they feel the same way. Not totally interested in your realistic appraisal that will kill their portfolio.
fwdvw | July 29th, 2008 at 8:18 pmIf you could get them on the phone to question them on it, you know what they’d say.
"We have 400 listings, do you know how many phone calls we get?"
If you can’t handle the business like a professional salesman, then don’t take 400 listings – your client deserves better.
It’s examples like this that pretty much guarantee that this real estate downturn will be an excruciating experience lasting for years.
Jim the Realtor | July 29th, 2008 at 8:27 pmDON’T JUMP IN TOO SOON….
I HAVE SEEN MORE AND MORE FORECLOSURES FOR SALE THAT WERE BOUGHT BY INVESTORS AS FORECLOSURES.
STUPID!
I’M WAITING AT LEAST TILL 2010 BEFORE I START NIMBLING.
"""""""""""" THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD DEAL —- THERE IS ONLY GOOD TIMING """"""""""
Todd | July 29th, 2008 at 8:47 pmIf they are going to automate it.. automate everything. Have full FAQ’s to answer all questions, all disclosures for each property and information downloadable online, ability to submit offers online, etc.
But I bet they’ll be very successful for awhile, their clients aren’t demanding more of them.
I wonder how Leo Nordine does it, his site is barebones and he provides a link to each of his listings, but I’ve never tried contacting him.
qwerty | July 29th, 2008 at 8:51 pmJim, I assume you are an SDAR member. Have you signed up for RELAY? Could you use RELAY or another TMS (SureClose, TRPoint) to help manage all of the activities associated with an REO?
Frank Jewett | July 29th, 2008 at 10:03 pmIf the banks hired good agents and handled these like a "normal" RE transaction, we would get more deals done sooner. Which means the banks would get more money and we would get through this mess sooner.
Big Wave | July 29th, 2008 at 10:40 pmFrank,
I’m in the NSDCAR jurisdiction (North County Assoc. of Realtors) but am on SureClose plus CHL is on REOTrans too.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the software is only as good as the operator. They’re buried over there. I still have five REOs that were assigned to me in April that are sitting vacant, waiting for somebody to push the button and authorize the listing.
Jim the Realtor | July 29th, 2008 at 11:02 pmNo wonder thye can’t sell any homes.do not show their listings.what a bunch of tools.
arizonadude | July 30th, 2008 at 2:44 amBeing a buyer in this market for the past couple months, I wish I had a dollar for every listing agent that is impossible to get a hold of, never returns calls to my agent, or knows next to nothing about their listing, or otherwise sounds like they got their license from a correspondence school. Once I get into my house and get on with life, I might toy with writing end-to-end software to take agents entirely out of real estate transactions, I mean other than filling flyer bins, what value do they add? You should able to sumbit and accept offers entirely electronically, see the # and the $ amount of competing offers, schedule inspections with inspectors that register in the system. Submitted offers are routed through a logic engine tied into to the 3 credit reporting agencies so bad offers get filtered out automatically. Other than having someone let you in to a property to see it, and getting handed the keys afterwards, the process can be automated.
Redfin is a step in this direction, but it needs to taken radically to the next level. The MLS continues to be this secret sauce database…why? Why cant it be public, other than justifying the existence of the agent industry? I cant think of a reason. By letting so many incompetents in, this industry has sewn the seeds of its own obsolescence.
Rueben | July 30th, 2008 at 3:09 amStill no way in hell I’d be a real estate agent, and that’s coming from a plumber, I put my agent through hell at the top of the bubble looking at almost 100 properties, I can’t even imagine asking someone to go through what needs to be done now to feel somewhat comfortable in an offer.
jason | July 30th, 2008 at 9:13 amWe’re looking at foreclosures and short sales and I’m surprised as to how many times we are caught in a bidding war, especially over a REO that needs a lot of fixes. It feels that there are many investors trying to make their last buck and it’s frustrating because they got us here in the first place. Why don’t they butt out? Argh…
Susan | July 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pmWhy don’t these big servicers just join the large MLS’s themselves or pay a really minimal fee rather than pay a listing agent commission (if the listing agent isn’t going to do anything but send email auto-reply’s)?
san diego mls | July 31st, 2008 at 4:36 pm