I had a listing that was “chosen for alternate marketing” …AUCTION. Now comes the new LA. This is after 3 months of pre listing tasks and only 2 weeks of marketing with the original asset management company. The original LA was a 1500.00 min commission to the LA. Not really all that bad on a 32K property. Actually a very fair commission if you don’t break it down by hourly increments. The auction LA comes and it is now a new commission. 800.00 minus the fee so it comes to 645.00 for the LA. The day the property went to the auction e mails began arriving. A BPO , new photos , a property condition report, bids for repairs and several other “requirements” now on the auction platform all waiting for completion by me. Meanwhile the other emails began. Several of the auction minions began directing all in different directions on their separate tasks. At least 3 demanded the new BPO be e- mailed directly to them. Each not knowing the other was requesting the same task. Now I am not going to bore anyone with all the miss step, lack of communication and disrespect these auction companies have involving the Listing agent. I am not going to delve into ALL of the downsides of these assignments when they go into the “Auction world”. Most REO agents have their “own war stories” to attest to on this subject. Suffice it to say there are too many issues for me to discuss here and now. I will skim over just a small amount of BS in the Auction process. The Auction company needed me for anything and everything they needed and nothing in anyway beneficial or even in consideration of me. They removed my sign on the first day, thus removing the ability I would have for a local buyer to contact me directly. They never communicated with me, never sent me the offer or even the accepted contract, never informed me of the closing agent and never once kept me informed of a property that I was claimed to be the listing agent on. Finally 12 hours before they had scheduled closing the escrow agent informed me I had to pay a “past due sewer bill of 124.00 or this would not close. This came via e mail at 4:30 and closing was to be at 9 AM. I had no contact numbers no e mail addresses other than this escrow agent’s. I had previously checked for any past due bills and saw all were paid. Since no utilities were on at the property due to missing plumbing I was a little confused by the 124.00 newly discovered bill. I called and the escrow agent and got no response. (What a Surprise!!) The next day I called the city for the “past due” sewer bill amount that was said to be holding the closing. The person I spoke to informed me that it was not a sewer bill but a trash service bill that follows the previous owner not the property. It was assessed in 2010. It had no effect on the property or the deed. Now here we go. If I had paid that bill it would have been on behalf of the previous owner. No reimbursement would have been given to me and I would have been out 124.00 making the commission on the entire listing dwindle to 397.00 for all the work I did. I made up my mind in that very moment to refuse to do even one more of these auction assignments. I would rather work for nothing for 3 months than worked for pennies for 6 months. The auction companies need the Agent to keep the utilities on, keep doing property checks and to pay any bills that are discovered in the last hours prior to closing. They need us to keep the property in the MLS. They need their website on the MLS to direct local buyers to them for the auction. They need us to do all the work they get paid for. This sale was 16000 K. I had an offer for 21 K days prior to the auction. The auction company charged the seller 2700.00 auction and another 1500 for management fees a total of 4200.00 on a property that sold for 16 K!! The auction in turn was paying me 645.00. The auction company also charged the buyer a premium of 5 %. So for all my work the auction company received 5000.00 and paid me 645.00. (Again only 397.00 if I had been dumb enough to pay the 124.00.) The banks are willing to pay these auction companies well over 6 %. In fact this was a 33.2 percent fee of the total selling price!! On top of all this the original Asset Company also was paid a fee for their participation in the asset process!! Auction companies do not have employees in the area. That is our trump card here. They have to have an agent. So does the seller. So why do we work for pennies when we see the banks WILL pay absurd amounts for the property disposition for only minimal work by the auction companies?? Why do we ever agree to assist the auction companies who continue to use us? All REO agents may think about declining the assignments when they are chosen for “alternative disposition” by way of any auction. The asset managers love when you do this. The auctions companies are in direct competition with them. .After the above mentioned auction I refused the next one. It was taken from the auction company and given back to me PRIOR to the auction start date for traditional marketing on the MLS. Not participating in the auction process is a very small step in gaining some of the self-respect we have lost.
