I noticed that one agent in my area handles all of the REO's for one of the largest banks in the state. I was wondering if anyone here had tried contacting the local banks directly and if so what were the results?

Yes, I have contacted local banks and had good results. But don't limit yourself to local banks, you should contact and market to both local and national banks, mortgage companies, asset management companies, etc.

There is a good chance that the local bank is outsourcing it's business to a national asset management company and that agent is getting his business from the AM company.

Thanks Jim. I have signed up/contacted everone I have found information on. The REO niche is extremely competetive here and all of the agents who have been doing this for awhile have a tight grip on most of the business. I guess the only thing I can do is to keep giving the best service possible and wait for my chance. I do get a large amount of BPO orders but I am still looking for more REO listings.

In my area, there are 2 main REO Brokers, and they get everything from local banks. I think it's all political- their companies refer more loans to the banks, so the banks return the favor by giving them the listings. I contacted one of them and was told that they are happy with who they have. Even tho I showed them that our listings average less than half the time on the market than their brokers'...
So, I now have one of their listings under contract- 2 days after it hit market and before their agent even got a sign up. maybe they'll stop and think now...

There is less competition finding people in trouble with pre-foreclosures and getting the short-sale listings.