short sale scheduled for trustee sale in 5 days

[Lisa Goodwin]

Earlier this summer I made an offer on a property in Surprise Az and have been waiting on lender's approval. My agent emailed me this weekend telling me the house is scheduled for trustee sale on Friday and he has a friend that works at trustee sales who could place a bid for me and his fee is $1500. The agent also says that I will still owe him his 3% broker fee. He thinks I could potentially get the house for less than i offered on the short sale.

I'm new at this and though I should post here and see what is the norm with out of states bidders and whether the agent is still entitled to his 3%.

[Ann Bellamy]

Am I missing something? Why can't the agent place the bid for the buyer? Why does the buyer need to add an additional cost by hiring another party to place the bid?

It seems to me if you are paying an agent to represent you, the agent can represent you at the trustee sale.