Lazy Real Estate Agents

Twice in the last 10 days I've had clients lose bids on houses without ever having the opportunity to know that there were competing bids on those houses.  Twice.  Have real estate agents forgotten how to work for their clients?  Or are these agents simply selfish and lazy?  What about the courtesy to other agents that brought them an offer. One agent is a very well known Re/MAX agent here in town.  On behalf of my client I submitted an offer on Friday afternoon and even called to let her know the offer was on the way.  No response.  On Monday about 11:00 I called and asked if she had received my offer since there was no response.  Both times the I had to speak to voice mail because apparently answering the phone is not a high priority. At 5:30 last evening I get a call (my first call from her, mind you) telling me my client's offer was the losing offer.  I asked her how many competing bids she had and why hadn't I been informed that there were competing bids?  She said two others and that my bid wouldn't have won anyway.  When pressed, I found out one other bid was a lowball and the one we lost to didn't even come in until Sunday night.  I again asked why we weren't asked to give a highest and best and she said the other offer was cash so she was sure the offer of my client would be rejected. Well, at least I feel more comfortable that she is now negotiating on behalf of her client. Folks, I doubt seriously if my client's offer was even really looked at by the seller. A very similar thing happened the week before with a Realty Executives agent.  No announcement that there were multiple bids, just that we had lost. Let me ask you: If you were a seller and could get into a multi-bid situation wherein you could quite probably get more out of the one buyer because of the second buyer, especially in a REO situation, wouldn't you do it? You know why the sellers don't get our bids, too?  Because I'll bet you the agents are submitting just the top bid they collect.  The listing agents of most REO listings are taking a commission cut to get the listings.  They are not going to want to have to work that hard, just to keep the commissions coming in.  2% of $120,000 is enough.  Why spend a couple more hours getting $125,000 when it only means another $60-$75 to the listing agent after office expenses. I tell my kids one of the worst things I can call you is "Lazy."  Well, guess what...