REO AGENTS: SELL, BUT DON'T TELL? Even when there are inspection reports available?

The issue is: if inspection reports are available, these inspections are material fact. They're relevant to the property. And if they are available, disclose them.

So why won't the REO agent mention this in the MLS, or offer them to prospective buyers?

My clients finally got accepted on an REO on which they overbid against other buyers. Because we had only 7 days to do our inspections, the buyers ordered the following inspections: home, pest, roof, chimney.

During the inspections, we were told that the much-needed repairs are more severe and more extensive than what the buyers were willing to undertake. So although it cost them $750 for all the inspections, they thought it was money well spent in the sense that it prevented them from falling into a "Money Pit".

So they backed out.

Since the inspections are no longer of use to them, they agreed to release the inspection to the listing agent and the REO bank for them to include in their disclosure.

Imagine my surprise when the existence of these disclosures aren't mentioned at all in the MLS. Not a word!

The only document they wanted to share is the offer instructions.

Since these inspections are available, and since we gave them to the listing agent, it seemed to us that they would be happy to share these reports with prospective buyers. I know that if I were submitting an offer on an REO, that this would be a huge help.

Granted they want to sell and they don't want to discourage any buyers...nonetheless, making these inspections available from the beginning means no surprises, and the less chance that a buyer would back out later.

Special note: this post was precipitated by Cathy McAlister's post

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1169997/reo-disclosures-are-banks-really-exempt-