The tide has turned on the short sale market. Realtors in the recent past would generally shy away from short sales. They were difficult, time consuming, and often times paid less in commissions. But times have changed. Realtors have realized that if they don’t embrace short sales they will have a difficult time surviving in the coming months.
Because of the growth of the short sale industry, new companies are being formed essentially creating a 3rd party “niche”. They are short sale negotiators. They offer the service of handling the negotiations between the potential buyer of the property and the bank. They are basically doing the work that should be done by the listing agent. Doing the work of the person that was hired to do the job by the seller.
It seems to me that a listing agent would want more “control” over the transaction? Why would they allow a 3rd party to negotiate on their clients behalf? The listing agent is the one that has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, not the negotiator. I have also found these negotiators are often not licensed and have been in business a very short time.
So why does a listing agent pass off the deal to a negotiator? In my professional opinion, they do it for a few reasons:
The listing agent is strictly working on volume. They are taking as many listings as possible
and just don’t have the time to do the work themselves.
-OR-
The listing agent just doesn’t believe they know enough about short sales
or negotiations to successfully get the job done.
Either way, a distressed homeowner forced to sell their home, deserves better. The listing agent that is hired to sell the home has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller. Passing off the most important part of the transaction to a 3rd party negotiator makes no sense.
If you are in the undesirable position of having to sell your home to avoid foreclosure, hire an agent that will do the job right. One that will market the property, find a qualified buyer for the home, and negotiate directly with the bank on your behalf.
Posted In Short Sales
This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Short Sales. 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.