This is the one that burns me. Some of the listing agents are 100 miles away. Now you tell me, how do they handle these? How do they show them, etc. I had a client that wanted to view one of these homes, and when I called the listing agent, he said he did not co-broke. I can see some loyalty to a good agent, and I want to have that myself, but come on, at least list them with agents in the market area. It just doesn't make sense.

I do agree with you, but for agents that do know how to handle the situation, they should be given a fair shot.

You're so totally right ky realtor.

There are a couple of agents here who get the bulk of sales and some of them are on the other side of the state from the properties.

There's a listing in my hometown that is a total mess...trashed inside, grass 2 feet high. A huge tree fell in the yard, a few feet from the street, that has not been moved. The neighbors called the agent and were told there was nothing to be done about it because "the bank owned it now."

Wouldn't you think a hometown agent could do much better marketing the property?

What makes you think its the agents responsibility to have the lawn done just becuase they have the listing. What if the seller uses a third party to do these services. Or the seller is not going to pay the agent back. Sorry no disrect intented but before one makes statements like that one needs to know what the situation is on the sellers side. The agent could be waiting on approval from the seller.I know sometimes it can take a while to get. And why should the listing agent absorb the costs. Many times the commission is not even enough to cover that. As to the tree where did the tree come from. If its from a neighbor then the neighbor would be the one responcible for the removal as well as costs.

The thing is what a lot of agents do not realize is that doing REO's has a lot to do with building relationships. And by tell an asset manager to use other people you are in effect telling him/her to break their relationship that they have in place. It’s not always fair. But a good REO agent does know how to get and keep relationships going.

....and apparently some really bad REO agents know how to do this as well.

Alan From Florida,

I always respect your opinions and your posts.. BUT...

Nothing in this town sells for much under $300,000 and I can guess what the commission is on this property. So $50 to mow this small yard once or twice isn't going to put much dent in the commission.

And obviously if the tree had belonged to the neighbor, then it's the neighbor's responsiblity...but it's not.

The property is a disgrace and an eyesore in a well maintained suburban neighborhood. I guess your saying the agent has no responsibilities here...except to collect the commission?

Again, I usually value your posts and know you never attack another's opinions (and no offense taken by your answer to me)...but, altho I see your point, I just can't agree on this one.

My point here is---If you are on the other side of the state, and you refuse to co-broke,then you put up a for sale sign; who shows the property? Who looks out after the property? I am guessing that these agents give the potential buyer the lockbox code and let them go in on their own, which should not be done. You know he is not going to drive 150 miles to show a house. Keeping relationships going is one thing, but if I can't service a listing that is too far away, it wouldn't be doing the asset company any good to take that chance, and I would rather someone else get that listing who is closer to the property. I try to be honest with the companies and tell them that it is too far away and assign it to someone else. This has not harmed my relationships with anybody in any way. I think they do respect that I am telling them the truth, and not being greedy enough to take listings that I cannot possibly take care of.

Concepts05
Agree with you in general. But what I am disagreeing with you in that just becuase an agent does not opperate like either you or me does not give us the right to call them bad agents. We should be saying something like if it was me and I got my full commission I most likely would spend the money to have the lawn cut.
All I am saying is if the commission was what you as an agent charges is normal for them then you may be right. However I do know some banks and I have one right now where the commission is $1500 for listing side and 3% for selling side. So in that case no I am not paying for the lawn. I also know due to I was working with them for a time an outfit where I paid 35% refferal fee and 50% of the remander. Out of that they were required to do the lawn, trash out pay the bills etc. Is this the case I do not know. However I think you need to concider it a possibility. Is it the agents responcibility to go ahead and take of it or to do the best they can to get the seller to take care of. The thing is what is the agent requires to do and what is his/her responsaibility. Paying to do the lawn I do not think is that of the agent. Although I think its the agents responsibility to point out to the seller to take of. Ky realtor first all I can say is if the seller has no problem with it who are we to say its wrong. After all the listing broker only has to answer to the seller. However it is my policy to only take listing that I can properly market and sell. I do not think I can properly service a listing 150 miles away. But thats me and how I operate. Although give me a multimillion dollar listing and I might do the drive and service it. Money does talk with me a little. But for a normal priced listing no I will not take them but reffer them out.

Ya'know, some AM's go through Safeguard or Cyprexx or whoever to service their listings, and they don't always do a good job. But, the listing agent should be on the phone, sending e-mails, whatever is needed to get the properties cleaned up. I think we all realize that a property that is not maintained loses some value to buyers just because it looks really bad - bad curb appeal. If we don't do what we can to keep the property maintained, I think we are not doing our job well - we are supposed to try to get the best possible selling price for our seller, right?

Not that I have a problem with Safeguard in general, but my experience with them is not good - They handled one of my properties. Every time I went to this property, the grass was taller. This property was on the market for about a year, and the grass was cut twice. I sent e-mails, called, & faxed both my asset manager & Safeguard at least once a week, sent pictures, I even had someone take a picture of me standing next to some weeds in the driveway - I'm 5'8" and the weeds were taller than me.

After about 4 months of constantly contacting them to do something, they had the grass cut. A week later, I got an offer (the first & only offer). Now, this property was listed at $58,000 and sold for $33,000. Don't you think the sale would have gone faster & had a higher sale price if the property was maintained?

On properties that don't go through Safeguard or whoever, the agent is supposed to have someone cutting the grass. etc and then get reimbursed for the costs. I know, that gets expensive and they don't always send the check promptly, whatever. But, I feel that if you want to do REO work, you should be willing to fork out the money. If you aren't willing to pay, you shouldn't play!! If you can't afford a lot of bills, don't list so many properties - stick to one or two at a time until you can afford more. And I'm sure there is at least one of you out there that agrees with me.

I agree, but I feel that most of the time the seller doesn't know. I don't think any seller would be agreeable to properties being shown without an agent, or not being inspected periodically.

An't that the truth.

And to be honest with you the biggest reason I get so up about this issue is I would say 90% of the time when I see an agent making a complaint the complaint itselve is not warrented. And you can go back and find the agent making the complaint is only mad becuse he/she had an client with an offer on the table and for whatever reason it was not accepted by the seller. At least thats in my market.

My area is basically a bunch of smaller towns scattered all over the place. I service 9 counties and drive over 100 miles to some properties, because that is the nature of this area. I have turned down REO assignments before- not so much because of distance, but because our MLS's don't cover those areas and it wouldn't be very effective putting listings on where local agents won't see them. When I list in towns that may be an inconvenience, at times, for me to show, I contact a non-mls agent in the area with a good reputation, take them a coop agreement, and refer buyers that I'm unable to help at that moment to the agents so THEY can show my properties. I've had one sell that way and that agent just referred someone to me- not asking a referral fee. I just want to make sure the property can be shown, even if nobody from my office can do it. the agents on the MLS already have access to show and sell it, so I expand my network a bit. I also fax or email flyers about the property to all non-mls offices in the area, telling them how we will cooperate. I just try to get my clients' properties seen by as many agents as possible, and keep good relationships with most.
I have seen those agents who give out lockbox codes and tell buyers that nobody else can write offers except the listing agent. I refuse to be that way, even though they make a LOT more money then I do. The sellers probably don't know what is going on with their assets most of the time. But if you tell them, do they do anything about it? How can we let lenders know that their agents won't return calls, won't accept/present offers from other agents, don't secure the properties, allow anyone access without being present, etc- without sounding like jealous competitors trying to get more business for ourselves?
As far as maintenance, the only company I have trouble with is FAS, or one of their contractors, anyway. I far prefer being responsible for the lawn cuts and maintenance, because when I list it, I am responsible for the way it shows and will make sure it's done right- and usually for a lot less money than these contracted services charge my clients. Try complaining to them, and you get the run around and 2-3 weeks before the problems are fixed. If I complain to my local crews, they get right out there and correct it- they know they won't get more business from me if they can't do the jobs well.