Is it OK to call seller's (REO) agent direct?

[Henrik Frank]

It seems the flow of communication from REOs is extremely slow. The 3 day offer has gone out the window - it typically takes weeks between each correspondance. As a hands-on and pragmatic kind of person, this is difficult for me to deal with. One REO in particular has never responded to a submitted offer and has never responded to any of my agent's messages.

In general, I know calling seller's agent is frowned upon, but is that still the case in today's REO market? Do you call direct? Why would this be bad? It would seem we could negotiate a deal and I could submit an offer based on that deal in a matter of minutes rather than weeks and weeks if we talked directly.

I'm not looking to cut my agent out - he does a lot for me and certainly deserves his cut - I'm just looking for more direct communication...

What are your thoughts?