Skip to content
Home Blog News & Trends

Bank of America goes to Equator for Short Sales Processing

Winston Westbrook
2 min read

Have you dealt with Bank of America or Countrywide during this golden age of real estate? If you have, I am sure you received nothing but stellar service from them right? If you have received great service from them you better start blogging about it and praising who you dealt with at Bank of America and Countrywide, because all I hear from people around the country is that they are the worst in the business to deal with on short sales, let alone everything else.

Files go missing, are ignored, are misdirected and may even be burned.  Some may even be on a bus in Istanbul, for crying out loud!  On top of everything else, if you want to just talk to someone about your file, you’ll face super long hold times. It is my opinion that it has been nothing but a nightmare to deal with this institution as an broker, agent, investor, customer or human being.

I recently got word that Bank of America is switching the processing of it’s short sales to a company called Equator Financial Solutions; they were formally called Reo Trans (REOTrans.com). I assume that B of A/Countrywide liked the system that Equator had in place and decided to make the switch.

Will Equator Financial Solutions streamline the short sale process for Bank of America / Countrywide?

This is yet to be determined, but moving the processing of these files to anyone other than themselves, is a welcome sigh of relief for the the industry, for sure.

If you currently have a short sale file that been assigned a negotiator, your file will continue to be processed through the old system. If your file has not been assigned a negotiator then it will most likely be converted over to the new system at Equator.

One Very Important thing to know is that Bank of America is changing their legacy (banks that were acquired by or merged with B of A) loan numbers to a new 9 digit number. Without this new number you cannot initiate the short sale process in the new system. Customers should have or will be receiving this number shortly; contact customer service for the new account number if you have not yet received it.

In the meantime I recommend you go set up an account with Equator if you are:

  • Agents: You will now be able to upload and start the short sale process directly online with them. You can also benefit by getting access to do BPO’s and possible listings.
  • Investors/Buyers: Signing up with them allows you to get a heads up on current and future listings in your area. We always want the upper hand, right guys? Don’t forget it’s a free service; other companies charge an arm and a leg, so take advantage of the e-mail alerts.

Hopefully this new system will help bring  short sale closing times down considerably. Nothing but a win win situation for all.

Good luck in all you do America!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.