I have some questions for the realtors and other experts out there:

I lived in a rental house last year that ended up foreclosing. I got cash for keys and moved out. I drove by a couple weeks later and found that the listing agent for the bank was holding open houses and making a list of names of interested buyers. The house then went on the MLS and sold within 2 days – probably to one of the people on her list but I don’t know for sure. I suspect that she did it this way so that she could be both the listing AND selling agent and get double the commission. Is this ethical? Is it common?

Now, a year later, I’m looking to be a buyer myself and I’m getting VERY frustrated. I’m finding that most of the houses have multiple offers on them almost as soon as they hit the MLS. Is this because a lot of the REO agents are doing what I described above? If so, should I really be looking for open houses on newly foreclosed homes rather than new MLS listings?