Let me set the stage, the house in this conversation was built 4 years ago, sellers at one time were downsizing to move into this new home. Typical story, they refinanced the bigger home, took out cash for the down payment on the newer/smaller house, carried the two homes for a while then decided to sell the big house just a little too late. When the big house hit the market, sellers were on the higher end of price spectrum AND pressed up against break even for the time; if priced any lower they would have needed to pay the difference or sell short. This was almost 3 years ago. How they stayed afloat since then has been a small miracle. In the meantime, they decided to sell the newer, smaller home via short sale. It is very clean, in a great neighborhood, has all the upgrades (custom kitchen, granite, stainless steel, flooring, crown molding, cat-5 cable & TV cable everywhere, custom lighting, speakers in almost every room, 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, custom garage, 2655 sq ft...). Now the horrifying part - they paid (financed) $795k, now on the market for $409k. So now we have multiple showings, multiple offers and the price has gone above the list price.

The conversation went a little something like this:

Marvin (M) - Good morning, this is Marvin.

Buyer's Agent (BA) - Marvin, it's Mike checking status of our client's offer on your listing. What's the latest?

M - Well, the holidays have come and gone so now the loss mitigation negotiators for the bank are back from their brief hibernation; they're back to the overwhelm they left behind on December 19th. Essentially, I don't have anything new to report.

BA - I know what you mean, my own listings are the same, negotiators are still either in denial of wanting to make a deal happen or are sticking to their "company guidelines" in reclaiming lost assets.

M - So you understand, even though we call them nearly every other day to be squeaky wheels, sometimes it's counter-productive and we get pushed back even further. Meanwhile I had another buyers agent call me to say their client had moved on, the banks were taking too long to approve the short sale.

BA - Oh,  sorry to hear that...

M - Stuff happens, I don't blame the buyers out there that just want to move in. Meanwhile, I've got to keep plugging away at the banks, which is what we'll keep doing with this one.

M - With regard to your client, you haven't changed positions - no new offers, no word from the bank and your client is still way down below the highest offer we have. So you're still in a back up spot, 4 buyers have to go away in order for your client's offer to emerge on top. Truth be told, you're not going to hurt my feelings if your client is looking at other property and writing offers on others, you're just doing your job, right?

BA - So what is this with all the banks and the listing agents, I think it's a bunch of B.S. that we have to jockey for position, deal with overbidding, write multiple offers on other properties and wait for the same answer from agents like you, which is basically no answer.

M - Mike you've gotta remember, the banks are dealing with so many short sales and bank owned properties. The sheer number of homeowners in trouble is astounding. I'm watching 300-500 new Notices of Default hit the public record in San Diego every week. As for us listing agents, we're working not only for our clients but also the banks, you and your clients as well. If we're not banging on the phones to get these deals to go through, my client won't dodge the foreclosure bullet, the bank will have to re-list a month or three from foreclosure for less than the offers we brought to their table. Worst of all, your client is peeved that they still can't land a house with you. So what do you do? Keep calling me for an update and I'll tell you everything I know as I will be with everyone else in line. Keep showing them houses and writing offers. You'll land one eventually. Until then you can only do what you are hired to do, keep looking and keep them informed. You know Mike, your client could raise some eyebrows at the seller's bank if you blew away the competition with a higher offer...

BA - (silence)

M - Mike...Mike, are you there?

Guess he didn't get the joke. (Click, dial tone...)