Buyer's agent asking to speak to negotiator
I've had this happen before and my sellers have never been willing to give third party authorization to another agent but I'm curious about you all feel about it. Buyer is anxious and putting tons of pressure on her agent. I don't want to give the impression I have anything to hide but am not comfortable with that request.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nate Gerard on
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I see this as setting appropriate expectations on communication.
I tell my buyer's agents that I'll give an update at least every other week even if there is nothing to report. At the same time if something new happens I immediately communicate the progress. They can then set this expectation with their buyers. If the buyer's agent or buyers don't like this cenario, then I tell them we won't accept their offer. 9 of 10 times setting good expectations and following through is all that is needed to keep everyone happy.
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Permalink Reply by Edith Gingerich on
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I have to agree with Azim. Whenever I have a SS buyer getting frustrated with the time, I forward them the listing agents response to my request for update, without the contact information of course. Usually they just want to know someone is working on their behalf.
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Permalink Reply by Patti Lyles on
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Beware of inadvertently communicating too much: I have always CC’d everyone on what is going on with the Sellers lien holders review for an approval. Typically in those emails is the Banks Negotiators contact information at the closing of their emails. Well, a buyer felt they had waited too long and decided they had something to offer to the approval process and just called the 1st and 2nd and gave them both her 2 cents. Since her rants were on voice mail everyone got to hear what this buyer said.
This was so wrong on so many levels I cannot address them all: So I encouraged that buyer and her agent to contact legal counsel immediately about buyer’s actions. 5 days later I got their written apology from their attorney.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Pigati on
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I had a situation where the buyers agent contacted the closing agent on one of my short sales off the approval letter about an extension to close. This property was a investment property being sold short to the two lenders involved. This could be a serious issue for several reasons...
1) What if the closing agent/bank gets pissed off and closes the file out based on the new information provided by the buyers agent for wha ever reason??....like needing more time due to changes in the financing, inspection issues or what ever?
2) What if the bank goes ahead and agrees to a small extension but changes the terms for the seller?
In my case the bank called me right after and asked me bascically to call the buyers agent and tell them NOT to call them and that they didnt have any authorization to do so. I ended up calling the buyers agent's broker because thats who told the agent to call thinking they were helping out and set her straight. She knew she had made a big mistake after I got the DRE and local board involved.
The negotiating should be between the seller/agent and buyer/agent before the listing agent goes back to the bank after seller approval. The sellers agent is the one working on the sellers behalf.
If for some reason this sale had not gone through and I wasnt able to save it, the seller could of been looking at a big deficiency issue. Who would be to blame??? The buyers agent & broker might be held liable and the seller might have sued them for damages.
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Permalink Reply by DON BUSH on
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I just had a buyer's Agent walk because the seller did not want him talking to the Bank, Negotiator, or Foreclosure Atty. She considers her negotiations with them private. We discovered that this Agent spent more time negotiating their commission--so--it was clear he wanted to improve his commission with the bank's negotiator.
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This has been an interesting post. It supports my position that the DRE should require agents to go through Short Sale Training or they cannot represent Sellers or Buyers in these transactions.
It isn't a cure because many agents don't understand Short Sales until they have done a few. I have closed 27 and still have to read Wendy's & Bryant's SSS website every day for insight. I continually see that 99% of the bad events that happens in SS are caused by ignorance & lack of education - - - not communication. WHY? The undereducated Short Sales agents don’t know what to communicate.
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Permalink Reply by Richard on
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Hello Patti, Nate and all other great posters on this site,
First of all, I like your comments and please remember, I'm not an agent. This is a little long winded so, grab yourself a coffee, beer or glass of wine. I'd like to clarify my stance once more. I'm not asking to contact the negotiator on a regular basis, I'm merely saying that there are certain times when a very knowledgable buyer's agent may be in a position to save a transaction when a very untrained seller's agent may be in jeopardy of losing the deal. Let me repeat........this is not the case all the time.
Let's step outside of the groupthink for a moment. I have argued all along in this site is that there should be some way to view the file status (only) for buyers. This is something that I believe will relieve a lot of the buyer's fustration. When I say file status, I'm talking about only the file completion milestones within the short sale process, not seller or lender's confidential information. Most people just can't comprehend this is strictly an administrative/logistics view.
One of the reaction I've seen to this is mainly is that a lot of agents here seem to somehow lose fact that buyers are equally important in this transaction. Well, it takes buyer's money to make this transaction succesful. Lenders are going to give anything away! They should know that by now. I'm not just looking at this process from buyer's viewpoint, I'm trying to see it from a team view as well.
Look at this way, if you could go through a given short sale in 2 months with success, rather than 6 months, wouldn't that be better from an agents, negotiators, and lenders standpoint as well? However, when you are required to use multiple buyers, just to get a transaction processed, then you run the risk of losing the deal completely or value overall due to time. What good does either do? There will always be properties for buyers to buy these properties, however sellers seem to take a big hit when deals get denied and go to foreclosure. In most cases, they have no funding or leverage. Who's at more risk?
Additionaly, in my opinion, if modest deposits are required from the buyer upfront, this small effort of some form of transparency would hold more buyers on a given short sale, however it would more listing agents accountable for their actions. It eliminates a lot of the personal updating on the seller's side and places some on the buyer's agent side. Remember, fair is fair either way you view it. In my specific case, the seller was hurt as my as myself by the lack professionalism, skill and training of all the agents. I can not blame this on the lender because I have no idea what went on in those transactions. I can only witness the actions of the agents. It was chaos!!
However, I do know for sure,
- all the agents were fired,
- attorneys were hired,
- the property is in foreclosure,
- the property was relisted just this weekend,
- they relisted it for the price we had agreed on earlier,
- the seller and real estate attorneys contacted me and my new agent this weekend at home to see if I were still interested,
- and they have a well thought out plan
So I ask, is this the trend?
Regarding my decision, I have homes already and am not pressed to move anywhere. I've since moved on to other properties however, I may consider it even as a good investment. It's a very nice property.
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Permalink Reply by Jesse Hammond on
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I have been on the other end. When one of my agent's clients want to buy a short sale listing from an agent that has never done a short sale before I offer my services. But most of the negotiators I deal with only want to with one or two people and not everyone in the transaction. I agree with Jeff if they give that negotiator a what for your file is going to the bottom of the pile.
Jesse
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Jeff & You are right about being on the bottom of the negotiator file but doesn't anyone but me get the bigger issue was you could be sued? If you read my last post: That buyer that called the 2 banks and went on a rant hired and attorney to preform damage control because that buyer could be held liable.
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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Meyer on
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Many buyers' agents have been screwed by sellers' agents in the past who didn't do the short sale properly and effectively. So, I agree with the suggestions of many below...over communicate and send regular email updates, even if the update has no more info (ie: called the bank again today and it is still under review...nothing further to do at this time.) It seems like a meaningless update, but will let the buyer and her agent know that you are actively working the file.
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Of course there are poor listing agents as well, and it is the job of the buyer's agent to assess and communicate their faith in the listing agent's ability to get the deal done.
While it might seem effective for Equator (and similar sites) to give the buyer's agent access to see where the file is, since the status is so often the same from week to week, I wonder if this wouldn't drive buyers away (due to seeming lack of progress)instead of keeping them informed.
There is an art to good communication as well as a science. I try to have something to say every time I communicate and only communicate "no new news" a few times. I also get fristrated when I constantly have to email or call the listing agent to find out what is going on, but if they get back to me and the only thing I need to do is promt them, I can accept that as part of my job for my buyers.
I think the summary of this thread is that there are bad agents out there that sellers and buyers need to beware of. That goes for who you hire AND who' on the other side of a short sale transaction. Asking questions in all cases will help you determine whom you should trust.
Good Luck!
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Hi Nate,
I agree with your above summary 100%. I also feel one of the problems is a good percentage of today's buyers and sellers remember the earlier days when short sales were an insignificant percentage of the market and traditional sales ruled. If I were agent, before I show any properties I would send each client a list of expectations for each sale scenario in advance, traditional, reos, and short sales etc., buyer's, seller's and agents responsibilities. I would further include possible outcomes. Then, I would sat down with them and briefly go over those expectations and require them to sign-off of their understanding of these expections. I would aim to make it as straightforward as possible. No sugar coatings. Like any investment, know the risks, then make informed, intelligient decisions. From that point, I'd say let's load up and go for a joy ride!!
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