Are agents becoming irrelevant? 45% of all home sales in December were foreclosures.

[Nick Gromicko]

Many of these sales involved little participation from a real estate agent.

[relliott]

I was just talking to an Agent who called for an Inspection tonight ,about how it must be bad for them guys not getting a bigger commission on all the smaller priced foreclosures.

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Many of these sales involved little participation from a real estate agent.

Unfortunately many were not inspected either.

When you are paying forty cents on the dollar or less than $50 a square foot it appears that inspections won't help in any further price negotiations.

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Almost all REO properties are bought and sold through RE Agents here. A small percentage (probably less than 1%) are sold at auction without RE Agent involvement.

[relliott]

Foreclosures and short sales are also a specialty from some Broker offices.

[Thomas H. Dietrich]

I agree with 'little participation' remark, I've seen this in action lately. However, they are still grabbing their 'typical' fees.

tom

[Bill Smith]

There are agencies in this area that are set up specifically for REOs. Most of the other agencies around here don't really want to deal with REOs - it typically takes 6 months or more for the banks to close the deals. A 6 week wait is common just to see if the bank has accepted the buyers offer. Many are not inspected as there is no negotiating with the banks - they are sold "as is".

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Originally Posted by jpope

Almost all REO properties are bought and sold through RE Agents here. A small percentage (probably less than 1%) are sold at auction without RE Agent involvement.

Ditto. "Little participation" means they don't have to get off the couch. They just list it and make $$. They make money on the transaction, with less work.

Turn on the utilities for the home inspector? Forgetaboutit!