Comments on: Bank of America goes to Equator for Short Sales Processing

By: Bonnie McKinzie

Bonnie McKinzie — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:53:55 +0000

Where do I go to get my Short Sale Packet so I can get started

By: Kathleen Couch

Kathleen Couch — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:27:00 +0000

Anne,
What you need from Bank of America is the short sale approval letter. They do not actually set the closing date. The approval letter will give you a deadline date. If they give you 45 days that is good. That means you have from the date of approval to that deadline date to close. Also, sometimes they will give an extension of the closing if there are legitimate reasons.
I think what may have happened is the listing agent who is handling the short sale, is not as knowledgeable as they should be on handling a short sale. The amount of time yours has taken is pretty much unheard of. Although, they do take time.
You are a very patient lady, to still be “on board” as the buyer. I hope everything works out soon. Send me a message if I can help.
Kathleen

By: ANNE KLEINE

ANNE KLEINE — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:29:10 +0000

Sorry, I’m not in the realty business. I meant the agent that listed the property for sale. He is the only contact we had with Bank of America so expected to be able to trust what he was telling us. As to the appraisal, we were assured by the “listing” agent that my purchase would close in time to take advantage of the federal homebuyers credit that was set to end (originally) in June 2010. We were told by the “listing” agent that the short sale approval would be forthcoming. Even though we had heard this numerable times before from him, we went ahead with our appraisal so the closing, in time for the credit, would not be delayed because of something we did not do in a timely manner. We’ve since decided that we cannot count on everything we are being told as to be truth and have not ordered a new appraisal. At the time we did the first appraisal in late May 20 10, I found that there was a family living in the unit even though the owner had been evicted. I imagine that was one reason why I had not been able to view the property again since seeing it originally in June 09 even though I had requested to do so several times. I received notice Dec 29, 2010 that we had 48 hours to submit more items to Bank of America. Nothing bOfA has done was accomplished within 48 hours. On Dec 2nd we were told that BofA had EVERYTHING they needed to close this and would be hearing in 5-7 days what the closing date would be. Did not hear from them until the 29th AND they want to extend it another 45 days.

By: Luis Salas

Luis Salas — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:55:24 +0000

Good morning,

I am just wondering, why, as a buyer, you ordered an appraisal without having the written approval from BofA. I would have waited until getting the approval in my hands before spending any money.

BTW, when we (Realtors) say Selling Agent, we mean the agent that represents the buyer, and the Listing Agent represents the seller. Is that what you meant when you say “selling agent”?

Last but not least, people think that because they have a checking/savings account with certain big bank that will make a difference in their loan/short sale. It does not.

Good luck to you…

Luis Salas

By: Kathleen Couch

Kathleen Couch — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:26:17 +0000

We closed on the short sale mentioned above on Dec. 27, 2010. I’m still doing flips!! But after that post, our buyer backed out after it was approved. We were lucky to have a new qualified buyer waiting for the opportunity. The new buyer and new price were submitted just before Thanksgiving, and BOA and I got it completed. It was not without some oddities instead of everything going smoothly. The worst was the closing officer was working with me on the Preliminary HUD for closing, and went on vacation without giving me notice, or someone else for me to contact. On the 27th I had to make 6 phone calls, and send 20 emails to get action. But we closed at 4:00.
A couple new things I have noticed is that they are sending short sales to other places instead of their Ca. location. They are smaller offices and are more personable in most cases. They use Equator, but actually communicate also. You can even send an email and get a response.
Another thing on Mon. that I noticed is that they have the phone # you are calling from when you call in now. Not from the file but from their computer, like caller ID.
If anyone needs help with a short sale anywhere in U.S., I can help. No charge to the homeowner, or any tricks. I have just done enough with BOA and other lenders that I can get results. I don’t promise a very quick process, but I can get it done. I am not an agent. I work with the listing agent, and handle everything with the bank.

By: ANNE KLEINE

ANNE KLEINE — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:05:49 +0000

I am a buyer. I entered in to a purchase in June of 2009. My offer slightly over asking price was accepted by the seller. I innocently assumed this was a good thing. My previous purchase was a short sale and closed within 30 days. I had at least expected to be in my new place by Christmas 2009. Well, 2011 is now dawning and I am still not in my place. I have been a customer of Bank of America since the 70s and never expected to be treated with such incompetence and disrespect. I have been repeatedly told by the selling agent that the closing was imminent. He was (I’m assuming) getting his information from B of A. I was assured that the sale would closed in time for the federal homebuyers credit which was first set to expire in June 2010–it did not. The credit was extended till Sept 30th and again was assured by the selling agent that it would close in time to take advantage of it–it did not. The Calif state credit expires at the end of 2010–it will still not close by then. I have already paid for one appraisal back in June–that is no longer valid so will have to pay for yet another appraisal. The deal has been “escalated” (poor choice of terms) innumerable times. Information that has already been uploaded seems to go missing each time a new negotiator is assigned and takes weeks before they request new copies and then weeks before they discover that they still need something else. The so-called BofA “helpline” is of no help to buyers. On Dec 2nd I was told that the bank had everything they needed (again) and would take 5-7 days to review. Then on Dec 28th I find that they are mssing something that had already been uploaded and yet a new negotiator is assigned. My loan had been accepted back in 2009 and I was ready to close then. At this point I have very little trust and faith in Bank of America and their equator system.

By: Kathleen Couch

Kathleen Couch — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:52:28 +0000

I have found that the Equator system has possibilities. But what some of us did not realize is that you still have to work with the employees. At times I have gotten very quick responses, and others not. I recently sent a note with the offer for a Jr. Lien that I needed to hurry with this. “Bad move.” I hope they are more professional than being spiteful, but it was transferred to 2 different negotiators without them responding or doing anything. Then it was transferred to a third. Of course, that person was not on the job yet. The phone # and email they gave me was incorrect. It was two weeks before they were on the job. During this time I escalated the file by sending emails to everyone on the list, and by calling in and requesting it. Finally I started getting phone calls. Either because they were tired of hearing from me, or because I told them I am a writer, and wrote an article on the internet that was somewhat negative on BOA and Equator. I said I was hoping to update it with more positive information, but they were making that not possible.

By: Reggie

Reggie — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:46:18 +0000

Equator has it’s pros and cons. The upload is simple and painless, the communication is no different from the fax machine. The reject your documents and use the reason other. Then you are left to figure out what the problem may be and can only assume how to correct the issue.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:04:17 +0000

B of A’s system, Equator, is hands down, the worst I’ve ever worked with. They constantly reject documents with no real reason given. They use a single word as justification to reject, the word is “other”. The word “other” is an adjective, sometimes a pronoun, but it’s not a reason. When you call in to find out what “other” means, it’s usually something silly, like saying that the docs are illegible when they’re perfectly clear or that the file wasn’t submitted in a PDF format when it was, etc. If, while you’re trying to negotiate a short sale, a buyer walks away, you have to start the entire process again, from scratch as if no work had been done on it up to that point. Their closing statement doesn’t match a real HUD, which is puzzling because that’s a standard Federal form, so for some fees on a HUD, there’s nowhere to put them on the online form that match the real HUD. All you can do is mash numbers together, add them where you think they’re most likely to make sense and then hope that whomever is on the other end with B of A is able to make out what was going on once they compare their form to an actual HUD. Often it seems they can’t though. They also want to nickle and dime the fees and argue about things that are standard seller paid items like pro rated property taxes or title insurance. I don’t expect them to pay for home warrantees or buyer’s closing costs, because it’s a short sale and most lenders won’t do that, but nitpicking over standard seller fees….sheesh. You can try to email a negotiator though Equator, but don’t hold your breath for a response because you probably won’t get one. If you call in and ask for details you get a run around with the staff, as sweet as they usually are, not being able to give any real status updates except to say that a negotiator is still within their time to get whatever task done or that they’re past due for it and a message will be sent to the negotiator and their supervisor. Since this system has been put in place, I’ve had several homeowners get fed up and just quit the process and most of the Realtors I process short sales for want nothing at all to do with it because they see, from the messages they receive, how difficult it is to get anything done. B of A has made it abundantly clear that they don’t want to work with 3rd parties such as me, they only want to work with Realtors and sellers. Consequently, I have to log in as the Realtors I work for, check to see what’s been rejected or is being picked apart, call in to see if I can get it straightened out, then log out and log back in as another Realtor I process short sales for. I appreciate what B of A was trying to do, but it’s failed miserably and, in my opinion, is causing more foreclosures than it’s preventing.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:20:45 +0000

Every time a short sale is initiated in Equator, as part of that process, they ask for the buyer’s date of birth and the 1st 5 digits of their SSN. There’s no reason at all that B of A needs that information as it’s not germaine to the short sale process. I never give it to them. I simply enter all zeros for the SSN and a bogus DOB, something like 01/01/00. It’s far too intrusive of them to ask for that information, at least in my estimation it is.

By: Luis Salas

Luis Salas — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:56:13 +0000

Hello all,

I have a friend what works at BofA offices in So Cal. I have heard from this person that the training that short sale personnel gets is about 2.5 hours long. That’s it. Are you wondering then why when you call, nobody seems to know what is going on? They can’t tell what is in the contract, how to read a HUD statement or the seller’s bank statements.

BofA used to have us (agents) sent the entire package to India. They were supposed to get it back all sorted out. That did not work as planned, so BofA hoked up with Equator. Now, Equator is processing short sales for Wells Fargo, ASC and another company, besides BofA.
I have seen some progress. It takes 4 months instead of 9 months to get an approval nowdays. I guess you could call it progress.

However, not ALL shortsales (for BofA) are going through Equator. After months waiting for some notification from Equator (with the help from misguided phoney jockeys at BofA) I learned that nothing had been done on my offer. We are in contract now, but I almost lost the home to Foreclosure.

BTW, it seems BNofA is using Equator for their REO transactions as well.

Luis Salas

By: John

John — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:46:19 +0000

Good God. Over a year later and this dog pile of a mess is still around. What is it about BofA that keeps them in existance? I have been negotiating on a house since mid April with BofA/Equator and it’s been a month since all parties agreed to BofA’s last counter. What the hell is going on? My wife and I are first time buyers and are preapproved. The sellers are anxious t0 let go and we were excited about buying our first home, but are down right fed up. The listing agent any my realtor are at the ends of their ropes tool. I’ve been following these forums for a couple months now and am frustrated enough to take my vent out here. BofA tried to get into my wife’s job to attract employees to open accounts and she refused them! We’ve looked at two dozen houses and keep coming back to this one in question. Will this ever end??? -Agrivated!