Not at all (at least IMO). Commissions on REO properties (at least from my experience) are very competitive. Short sales are a little dicey because the lender approves a lump sum.
For instance, on a short sale (on the listing side) when you do get an offer, you send the lender everything, the listing agreement the contract, every single thing about the home, (this is on top of the ton of docs that the seller needs to deliver) and the lender will then make an analysis. The lender comes back with a number in terms of what they will accept. So lets say you have a seller with two loans, 500k and 100k and an offer of 420. Say the listing agent has a contract for 2% and the coop commission advertised is 2%. Now the lender takes all this into account along with an estmated HUD that you the listing agent send.
So the lender comes back and says okay we will accept x$ for the first, and x$ for the second (loans that is). Now the short sale asset manager will build in the commissions and estimated closing costs as well. So lets say out of the example above the lender comes back with a response that says we will accept 395k for the first, 1k for the second. Thus there is essentially 24k left over to be used for commissions, other closing costs etc… If it was short, then the agents need to work out a split somehow.
REO properties are sticky for lack of disclosure purposes and liability releases more then anything else. You will be informed that the lender is basically released from all liability because they have no clue about the home. It is not much different then buying a home from a trustee or probate sale. You need to be extra diligent with respect to your own inspections/diligence etc…Also you WILL be presented with lots of liability release docs that are well outside the scope of a normal resale transaction.
Once more this is all just my opinion. Yet I see plenty of REO with competitive commissions.
