This is an update on Equator. We now have the top Tips and Trap to be sucessesful versus failure. CLICK HERE FOR BANK INSIDERS TIPS & TRAPS.
Homeowners & agents nationwide are confused. What is Equator and how does it impact my short sale? In this blog let’s examine the positives…up next the negatives and then finally what to do with Equator.
PART 1
Thinking about taking on a new short sale? REALTORS take note, Equator is the new “in thing” for Bank of America and now GMAC as well. What used to be REOTrans has been upgraded and is now the new Short Sale Equator system. We have been testing as well as using it for months and here is what we have discovered.
Let’s start with the positives, in theory.
- No more long hold times and mysterious disconnects. In a nutshell, they are pushing the loss mitigation work out of the bank and down to the homeowner, attorney, REALTORS, loss mitigation counselors and anyone else in the loop. If you have the time, a good scanner and fast internet connection AND the homeowner does as well AND you are really on top of your game this could be reason enough to celebrate.
- BYE, BYE fax machine and “we never got your fax”. We used to hear this often during negotiations of short sale and loan mods with Bank O’ UnAmerica. Their theory is an “upload” of the docs instead of faxing 90+ pages and then waiting for the bank to “scan and file” will streamline the process.
- The system is online and thus always available. Provided there are no scheduled, or unscheduled, maintenance windows. Recall how the old system was always “slow” or “unavailable” at the end of the month?
- Faster access to decision makers. The negotiators should be assigned more quickly than before Equator. This could be a real bonus since the front-line customer service processors can’t do anything.
- Faster response time. Since the bank has less responsibility because they have pushed all the tasks out to you, they should be able to respond more quickly. Sounds nice doesn’t it.
- Costs less. More automation, fewer people and less human-customer interaction are all good for the bottom line, Bank of America’s bottom line that is.
- Tastes great. Giving the customer access to the “system” makes them feel more involved and more empowered. Fake silk feels just as nice as real silk, only it’s not.
- Since Equator requires the internet, you and the homeowner can surf the net or play online poker while at work and not get in trouble for goofing off since you need to “check Equator” for your next task.
- If you hate Equator, currently FHA-insured short sales are not permitted to go through Equator.
- The Bank Slayer
I am the office co-ordinator for REO’s, we have several short sales uploaded into equator that are now in the “Held” status. I find their Equator system is still as slow as ever with negotiators not responding to messages sent to them through the Equator system or tasks left for the by calling their 866 short sale department #. Days go by and nothing until suddenly a “worksheet” appears in Equator with financials on it. If you agree then is moves forward to another 30 day cycle but if you counter the terms you start all over again and in another 30 days you get a new “worksheet” to contemplate the expenses on. I do not understand why they have you upload a HUD when the “negotiator” pays absolutely no attention to it at all, everything depends on the worksheet and the 30 day cycle, rediculous to say the least.
The Equator system has just simplified the submission of documents to Bank of America. No more having to fax repeatedly documents because B of A claims that they did not receive them. It has not sped up B of A’s cumbersome short sale process. While most of the larger lenders are now closing short sales in 6 to 8 weeks Bank of America is still taking 4 to 5 months or longer. Their processing is slow, negtiators are changed in the middle of the offer negotiations, negotiators do not communicate with the real estate agents or sellers and do not respond to emails or phone messages, you have to call for updates or you know nothing. The only thing that has really changed is that with the Equator system they cannot claim that they did not received your documents as they are there uploaded into the Equator system for those involved to see. Until Bank of America changes its entire system of processing these short sales they are going to continue to be inept in the short sale department. Maybe they would just rather foreclose as short sale a property? I will say that when you call now to the short sale department those handling these calls are very professional and nice and much more informative. Unfortunately they are not the ones processing the short sale which is where Bank of America fails miserably. We have now and have had several short sale offers for Bank of America, the 3 that are being processed now have been processing for from 2 to 4 months with no approval yet. We had 4 buyers back out due to B of A taking so long and just one closed, it took 7 months to bring to closing.
We also deal with several other Banks/lenders on short sales and I must compliment Wells Fargo, they have finally gotten it together and respond quickly and efficiently, we closed 2 within 6 weeks.
I agree with Gladys. I have a file that should have closed quick. It is not supposed to close on Friday and we still have no approval letter. No matter who you call you cannot get to any decision maker.
I have been using this system for a couple years back to when the portal was once called REO Trans. When your property is in the HELD stage the bank is most likely trying to contact your seller to complete seller tasks, if the seller does not complete the seller tasks the process will be delayed. During the HELD stage is when the bank also has the appraisal done on the property, or possibly the case has been sent to senior managment for approval. I have closed alot of short sales and REO properties using the Equator Portal and have had no issues. When I first get a short sale I right away get a title commitment, and HUD that way if there are any adjustments that need to be made to the HUD during negotiation they can be made quickly. I typically have to send 2 to 3 revised HUDS through during the shortsale process. Best of Luck!
I have been denied modification due to the amount in arears on my mortgage.( B of AM
on a former countrywide loan)
I was never offered to do a short sale
i have had two realtors willing to try but claim the”new process” is still very hard to work
I need to start the short sale process to delay the sheriff sale which has been delayed by court order
BUT i was told B of AM needs
1. Property listed – who determines price
2. and a offer submitted before they will stop sheriff sale process until sale is completed – is all this true?
I have a file that has been in the equator sytem for two months. Several offers were initiated and the library was filled with everything needed for each offer. I have 6-8 hours of time involved and the library was emptied. BAC has not performed a BPO and they have no reason decline offers that are fair market value. Actually they can do whatever they like because I’m delisting the property and it will get foreclosed on in two years. BAC service is friendly on the phone, but the system and the run around is not going to help anyone close a short sales. BAC can go swallow a Mongo Burrito from Burritos Mexican Grill in Sarasota, FL.
No surprise. Equator is a great tool for BAC to push off work and “issues” to the property owner and agent. Good luck selling burritos!
Quite possibly they need these items but they can choose whether or not they want to stop the foreclosure process. If they are not backing down it is because they believe the more profitable course of action is to seize the property versus assisting you. Remember that many of these loans have been already paid off with default insurance or they have been bought for pennies on the dollar.
I had a home entered into equator and it finally sold ….however, when I entered it in I was prompted to put in my credit card and now…………I am being charged $4.50 every month. does anyone know who I can contact to stop this charge?
Thank you
I am still having great success with my short sales and foreclosure assignments using Equator. I love this portal. If you find the right agent that can navigate the portal you will most likely have a successful sale.
Bank Of America not allowing Buyers to purchase short-sale homes when they have a FHA loan is complete BS!!!
This is my second attempt to buy a home thru BofA. The first attempt a standard loan with BofA which fell thru with no reason for the denial. The second was a short sale and the bank denial for $3000.00 dollars.
which I could pay to close the loan. I have never seen such a process like this before!
Look. BoAM is just the most screwed up company in America. We have to make allowances. I just had a client who lost his home 3 years ago. He moved out and the property sat vacant — for 3 years. No foreclosure.
BoAm rejected THREE short-sale offers in that time. Then I contacted them to point out there were squirrels in the attic, mold in the basement and their property was sitting there with NO insurance of any kind.
All my client wanted at this point was for them to foreclose. He had discharged the debt in bankruptcy and they were without recourse.
Just take the title out of his name so the HOA would stop suing him for back due association fees!
Well, they never bothered to contact me, but 1 week after my letter/rocket to BoAm they completely REVERSED their rejection of the last short-sale offer, contacted the realtor and accepted it!
That’s BoAm for you. Any merely small or medium size firm would be bankrupt with these kind of business practices. But, they’re “too big to fail.”
Let me first say that I would never ever finance with BOA again. There’s no comunication what so ever and this hiring of 3 parties after they got Federal Monies is just a joke. They dropped the ball on my modification at the very last of faxes my 1,000 pieces of work they had me to put me on trial payments and finally after calling them every other day 5 months into it and hearing your in the final process. Really final process was telling me I was never in modification mode and they had me resend everything and told me that because what I sent was old I’d have to start the process again because I was denied. Because of there stupidity. Now I’m with a realtor the house has been on the market since May we are trying to do a short sale with BOA and everything is in the equator system. Yup another joke they tell us it’s in the underwritiers hands. We call a few days later and they tell us I’ve been denied cause I didn’t put 12/2005 for tax years I only put 2005 dah you can’t figure that out. So once again they tell us it’s back with the underwriters. I say shut down BOA they are too big for there own britches and people are losing there homes because the bank has no idea what the left and right are doing.
With most homes being sold FHA it seems very unreasonable for GMAC to not accept an FHA offer. Insisiting on 203K re-hab financing only eliminates a lot of buyers from obtaining these homes. At least give the buyers a chance to see what will be cited for repair and let them try to get an FHA 203K
loan after they know what will be required to make the deal. In the future I will steer clear of any GMAC
homes and opt to sell the homes of those who are more civic minded in helping buyers secure a home and not so hard to work with as GMAC. Once again, greed shows its true colors!