Bank of America Quits Kicking You Out of Equator When You Replace a Buyer
If you have ever lost a buyer with a Bank of America short sale through Equator, you know that you’ve always had to re-initiate the short sale file in Equator with the new buyer… I don’t know what the purpose of that is, but it’s been pretty annoying… for 2 years.
Finally, BofA has decided to direct Equator, the third party software provider that manages their short sale processing system, to allow users to replace a buyer the way it SHOULD have worked from the beginning… by simply uploading the new offer and changing the buyers information in Equator (ok, it’s not THAT simple, but much easier than starting all over).
This will make it so that you can replace a buyer and HOPEFULLY (time will tell) BofA has trained their employees well enough [edit on 7-13-2011: many agents have reported that BofA HAS NOT YET TRAINED their employees on the new process which can be found HERE. If your negotiator tells you they have to decline the file and you have to re-intiate, copy and paste the url to the training pdf in a message through Equator or ask to speak to an Equator Specialist] that they will see they can resubmit for approval with minimal effort on their part since not much will have changed. I am hoping for 2 week approval from the time you upload the new buyer for files where BofA has delegated authority and <30 days for non-delegated files.
As always, you can’t just leave it up to the bank employees, you will probably have to stay on top of things and make sure they don’t get into the habit of taking 30 plus days to re-approve files with the new process.
Now if Wells would follow suit!
I think they may… it would only take Wells deciding to do it, as all they would have to do is tell the guys at Equator to mimic what they are doing for BofA and train their staff how to handle back up offers. Could be rolled out in a few weeks IF Wells wants to.
-Trent
Nationstar already does this on equator so it is literally just a policy issue with both BofA and Wells. I don’t see Wells doing anything soon, however. They don’t even let you email them documents or upload them to the library on equator! Good to see that BofA is moving forward with their strategy though.
“send out cards” is this a company or service or just a description? I have been looking for an easy automated service for years if you have one please let me know.
thanks
yeppers – the trick is – will B of A have someone who can really train – train those who are supposed to operate the system. Trainers that know what they are training and train them CORRECTLY. Not the way I was trained. “Just do what you think you should probably do (guess) and _______ (by golly you better do it in 3 minutes and get your 235 file minimum done or you wont have a job)” Another words do what we havent trained you to do and do it faster than humanly possible regardless if it is helping anyone and correct just do it do we can report it as “done”
You people have NO idea how hard the people you deal with at Bank of America are working and with WHAT and WHO they are given to work with ! I hope this “New” short sale system makes it better for everyone. I was a realtor who worked a couple short sales from the listing side a couple years ago with a couple other Short Sale Corporations and to B of A;s defense – when they took over Countrywide they took on the impossible task of trying to work their unregulated, unbelievable mess of mortgages of which some were NO PAPER loans!!!! BofA NEVER themselves had this type of mortgages and were thrown into the task of making “right” what Countrywide created. I would like to say more about the files they had to take over from the C word, but . . . I don’t want to suffer recrimination. My experience in the SS process with other companies was much much worse than any I have seen at B of A. I lost at least a dozen buyers before we finally processed an offer after +/- a year of being on the market in SS status. I dealt with THREE different servicing companies that supposedly took over the same originator’s loan in a 3 month period and had to start the 38 pages of documents over each time for the same seller. The nightmare of a story probably contains just about every possible bad scenario you can imagine. So many deals fell through. Just for starters, after the sellers thought they HAD to move out per the lenders instructions and do and deed in lieu, which they never did finalize, a got a new servicer started the process over again with a new offer – almost 3 months later that offer got approved – there were lots of last minute surprises – one of which was just before closing the city came in with an appraisal almost 200,000 higher than the offer and about maxed out the % value increase from the year before therefore raising the amount due at closing for taxes by a huge amt. Can you believe it ? During the worst time in home sales in a very long time this city gave a 20%+/- INCREASE in value to a home that had been vandalized and left empty for a very long time? Then they said it was past the allowed amount of time for the seller to fight it!
I hope the training does make it to the processor level as this will facilitate many more closings. Many of my cash clients have serious fatigue with the process.
im STILL trying to close a BofA in equator, its been RIDICULOUS for 4 months (and its HAFA) just to get to the negotiator! they kept confusing the first offer with the second offer when the 1st one cancelled no matter HOW MANY times i corrected them!! SO ANNOYING! it was not until i finally escalated that i even got movement! please pray that this thing closes soon!!!
FYI – I am trying to put in a new buyer on one today and negotiator is insisting on starting over. He has no idea about this new poilcy. We sent him the email and he said from his experience it doesnt work that way – GOT TO LOVE BOA!
Oh wow… classic. They announce it to the World before their staff is trained on how to do it. You’d think they would send out a 5 min video and make it mandatory that they have to watch it before they start the day showing them how to implement the new system.
I wish big companies would use common sense… is that too much to ask?!?
-Trent
I am going thru this today and BOA is not set up to do this and has told me to start all over from scratch so I don’t know where you got this info but i challenged the negotiator and the answer is the same INITIATE a New Short sale!
Jill, about 50,000 agents all got the same email yesterday. If you check the email address that you used for your Equator account, you should have received the same email that we all got. Maybe you should refer your negotiator here: http://realestateagent.bankofamerica.com/content/documents/submitabackupoffer.pdf
Click HERE to read the email that BofA sent out.
-Trent
It is the best news I hope all the employees are well train it will make so much sense
Well, I wish I could say the new buyer substitution policy worked for me but it did not.
I asked the Bank of America representatives to help and guide me through the process.
I followed all of their requirements.
They proceeded to close the file and told me to start over from scratch.
The supervisor chaulked it up to “human error” and told me to pound dirt.
Now nobody calls me back and I can’t even get anyone in escalation to call me back.
help!
B of A short sale. I put in an offer on December 21st. I just got word that the negotiator is no longer on my case and the BPO has expired and I’m back to square one. If this is easier I would have hated to try it 2 years ago.
It’s not easier if the agent is not informed of how to keep the bank in check. For those of us who have been doing them for several years, certain banks are getting easier to work with. It also depends on the seller’s hardship, as now there are more people walking away who don’t have an apparent hardship, they just don’t like that their home does not have equity.
I’m not sure if you are a homeowner or an agent, but I am constantly trying to educate sellers of this simple fact: Short sales aren’t easy, that is why you have to be very picky when choosing an agent. You don’t just choose one who took a class and has a 3-4 letter designation behind their name that says they are “certified”. You want to dig deeper, talk to agents past clients who they’ve helped with a short sale, find out how many short sales they have done and if they are new to short sales. Find out; Who do they have training and helping them?
Just common sense stuff you would ask, just like if you had the option of choosing a surgeon. You want the best, the one who has been at it for a while and already made mistakes in the past or who has someone to help them to avoid those mistakes, not the new guy who just got out of school who now thinks they are the best and will make mistakes on you.
-Trent