By now I should understand what’s going on…

December 9, 2007

…but it just seems so unbelievable. It’s like a bad song that keeps going thru your head all day. I am going to give you a taste..remember that song..”If you like Pina Colada’s….yeah…hum that one all day!

But this is much more sinister. Much more evil. It’s a “Mist” if you will that’s swallowing us all up. We’re entangled in this lobbyist induced haze of believing these people are actually professionals. I am talking about that animal that lurks behind an MLS listing and an alphabet soup of letters on their business card and a nice blue “R” pin on their lapel. The real estate agent!

Good name for this animal…”agent”. It implies and defines the problem. Ever see one of those old war movies and see the character that plays a mercenary. You know the guy who really does not care who wins or loses but is just worried about getting paid. Isn’t really for one side or the other…no real commitment or sense of responsibility. Just a hired gun.

Well even the mercenary had some skin in the game. After all, even he risked getting picked off by the enemy’s bullet.

The real estate agent is a different kind of mercenary. Sort of like that smiling dealer at the casino. He just deals the cards. Someone at the table may win and someone at the table may lose…but the cat that swallowed the canary smiling dealer just keeps dealing hopefully waiting for someone to win a hand and throw him a tip. (you can substitute commission for tip here). You see seldom is the commission “earned”. Seriously before you completely freak out is the commission really “earned”.

There are absolutely some stellar real estate agents out there. I have met them, done business with them and will continue to do so. These are the professionals. I am talking about the bulk of the real estate agents. The get rich quick, no money down, aluminum siding salesmen-like agents. You know who I am talking about. You the one that’s an agent when it’s convenient and a waiter or waitress by trade.

Ever eat lunch in Los Angeles. Sir here’s your burger, fries and my headshot! You know the wannabe.

Something has to be done. The media is blaming the banks for the foreclosure crisis. I blame the real estate agent. If what is going on is happening in other markets, then most assuredly it’s the real estate agent.

Let me give you a little background. Two weeks ago, we did a little due diligence and targeted 25 homeowners who were slated to lose their homes to a foreclosure sale by the end of November…like in 3 days.

Each of these properties was listed on the MLS…that vast waste land of a database that most agents mistake for advertising.

We submitted 25, ALL CASH offers to the various blackjack dealing mercenaries that were shown to be “representing” the poor homeowner.

This was perceived to be a slam dunk. Here’s what we had:

1. An extremely Motivated Seller who obviously does not or did not want a foreclosure

2. An extremely motivated bank who it is safe to assume did not want to eat yet another loan and increase their REO inventory

3. An extremely motivated and hungry real estate agent who may be able to skip a few shifts at Red Lobster by “earning” a commission by these deals closing.

Slam dunk…it’s like real estate investing 101. Find people who are motivated, offer them cash and start printing cash..right..right…well hold on Sparky!

While the aforementioned 1st and 2nd parties shown above are most assuredly ready to play this little game of “Deal or no Deal” and go for the money in our shiny metallic silver briefcase…the 3rd party never booked us on the show!

25 offers, never even heard back from 23 of the agents, 2 of them flatly said no with no further explanation and here we are at the end of the month.

Did you hear what I said…23 of the agents , although called 2-3 times per day, for two weeks, NEVER even responded.

So we waited and yesterday did some further due diligence by calling our local Clerk of the Courts. You are not going to believe this..or like I said at the beginning, maybe we all should.

19 out of the 25 properties went to auction and ALL were taken back by the bank. The other 6 are set for auction in the next couple of days.

Fiduciary responsibility? Ethics? Are you kidding me! The mercenary agent does not care. They are not in business. They are not looking to “earn” a living. Explain Fiduciary responsibility & Ethics to the 19 former homeowners who thought they were being professionally represented.

Folks..something has to change…Brokers what are you doing? I remember watching Starsky and Hutch as a child and even back then Huggy Bear knew what to do when one of his ladies stepped out of line!