Question on Short Sales today...

So, I’ve been reading this forum and 2 others all week, trying to get ‘up to speed’ on what the REI biz is like today, after having been out of it for the past 7 years.

So much has changed. Back in my day, there was no such thing as ‘transactional funding.’

Also back in my day, when we did short sales, we worked directly with the homeowner and the bank, before it was listed with a realtor and well before it went to steps, became an REO and was definitely listed with a realtor.

And of course, we did that because realtors generally would screw up our deals.

From what I’ve been reading this week though, it seems like now, even if you get the homeowner to cooperate with you instead of the realtor, the bank/loss mitigators will force the homeowner to list with a realtor and then force your deal to be done through that realtor…

Is this an accurate assessment? Or is it a ‘case-by-case’ basis?