There is another explanation, you said it sold for about 2% less than your offer. But if your realtor was set to make a 3% commission, then the net offer was actually 1% more than yours. You don’t know the listing agent’s comission if they also became the selling agent. Sometimes if they get both sides of the deal it is lowered, with reo’s, since there is very little work on the seller side, it is sometimes very low. If you asked for any consessions, or if you had fha financing that comes with costs to the seller, that knocks down your net offer. Having the listing agent represent you gives you the advantage of knowing what the other offers are. It isn’t supposed to work that way, but it does. More than likely, the other offer was probably a few hundred more “net” to the bank and the listing agent adjusted their commission to make it so.
Search old posts but I’ve written about this fairly extensively and in my reo buying saga, I failed to win until I went without a realtor. Realtors are great for standard sales, even short sales, but for reo’s that are being dumped quickly by a certain date, you need to go it alone (sorry realtors). There just isn’t anything they can do for you, you can’t be protected from much, it is an “as is” transaction. There are clauses that a realtor can include in a contract, there are things they can request, inspections that can be done, but in the reo “highest net offer by friday” scenarios, those clauses get your offer thrown in the trash, cause the other offer doesn’t have them.
My suggestion is to find your own properties and go straight to the listing agent as soon as possible. Don’t dally around, be able to look at a property and make an offer within 3 hours of it listing, that’s how you win. To do this you may need to stalk properties before they list, read the no trespassing signs, call the number that is listed for emergency contact on the sign and try to get them to hint as to who the listing agent will be (sometimes the emer contact is the future listing agent).
If it makes you feel better, you can pay a realtor or an attorney a fixed fee too look over the paperwork and do it on the side, away from your offer. But just know that any delay can sink you.
