Investors offering to negotiate the short sales for free??? Be aware!

I have been approached by a ton of these "Investors", and have given a lot of thought to this, trying to figure out if it is the right thing to do, here is my personal opinion:As a Real Estate agent representing a seller in a short sale, it is your fiduciary duty to best represent your client's interests. What these investors in general do, is they formalize a contract with the seller (directly), this contract authorizes the investor to record an irrevocable option to sell the property, meaning that they are the only ones authorized to sell the property, even if the investor will continue dealing with the agent, at a given point, he has the right to sell even beyond your listing agreement expiring. This is not the best part, if the bank wants to the property to sell before foreclosure, they don't have a choice but to deal with the investor, even if this investor is offering a ridiculous amount for the property, it is either take it or foreclose it.The investor does not give a crap if the offer is unreasonable, the only thing he will care about is the profit he is getting, so he forces the purchase price to insure a hefty profit.If the bank decides to foreclose, the investor does not care, he has other properties.What happens with your client and your fiduciary duties? they went down the drain.What happens if the seller had refinanced or had a HELOC or a recourse loan? He probably will be hit with a 1099 and deficiency judgements at some point in the future and guess what.....He will see the records that the property sold NOT FOR THE AMOUNT THEY SIGNED but maybe $100,000 more!!!! Guess what they will be thinking then?..........LAWSUIT, MAYBE?

Bank tapes ----Urban legend?

Is this for real?, I have been chasing "Bank Tapes" for my investors for many months....Everybody talks a lot about them, nobody really "has" anything, everybody wants proof of funds, letters of intent, non disclosure and confidentiality agreements and in the end, they have nothing, everybody is trying to resell something that somebody else told them they have....To me, these bank tapes are URBAN LEGEND.
Rules that all these "contacts" should consider:
Who would sell houses at 50 or 60 cents on the dollar, when the market right now is hurting for more inventory?, when houses can be sold at 1 dollar per dollar?
If this was real, don't you think it would already be in Wallstreet? returns on this kind of investment are astronomical.
Why don't you see these deals closing?

NEW WAVE OF FORECLOSURES?? I don't think so.

I personally think that REOs will not be coming back in a huge volume, inventory will continue to trickle while the Banks concentrate in the big new trend with HAMP and HAFA, which basically means "short refi"; what they should have done from day one. They didn't because they are huge entities and cannot react fast enough to the problem.We will see an increased volume of short sales, because most people will try to short refinance their home that now is worth 50 cents on the dollar. If they don't qualify, they will be issued a payoff approval to short sell their home. All this will bring tremendous liquidity to the market.On the other hand, we need the job market to improve, and I think it will, (at a huge cost to taxpayers) sooner or later.We cannot, as a country, tolerate a huge foreclosure wave as you and I selfishly would like, I know we would make a ton of money, but our economy cannot tolerate it, it is about National Security, and Government priorities.You can rest assured that the wave you are waiting for will not happen. Not in this cycle.I recommend you continue to take advantage of the trickled REOs that will continue to be available for a couple of years, but get yourself focused on the areas that make sense, THEY HAVE MOVED OUR CHEESE AGAIN.The only thing you will find in the REO market, is people wanting to squeeze money out of you, vultures that will promise to deliver "THE SECRET" in exchange of "A FEW DOLLARS"Conventions are only trade shows, Certifications are just tags that are worthless, if you want to learn something, buy a book, talk to other agents, don't pay for people to BLOW SMOKE UP YOUR.....