Hi folks. Today I want to clear up one big misunderstanding about the Equator.com system. For those of you that aren't familiar with Equator, Equator is the online portal that Bank of America and GMAC use to help expedite their short sales. Quite often I hear from agents, buyers and sellers that......"Equator accepted our offer" or "Equator denied our short sale." In fact, here's a question I pulled off of www.ShortSaleSuperStars.com this morning.
- "Equator accepted our counter. Then 5 days later said it "made a mistake" and rejected our offer, after it accepted. Has anyone seen this before?"
MY RESPONSE:
Equator is nothing more than a software program to help lenders/servicers process short sales. They don't have negotiators nor can they make decisions about short sales.
When a short sale is entered into Equator, the servicer (usually Bank of America), is looking at the deal and trying to negotiate a short sale that they feel the investor (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and others) AND the mortgage insurance company (MI) will accept. Once a short sale in Equator is "accepted" it is then passed on to the next entity (investor and/or MI) for their approval. This entity may very well come back and continue to negotiate or even reject the deal that was already "accepted" by the servicer.
- ***Until an actual written short sale approval letter or denial letter is issued the transaction is still being negotiated and the terms and conditions can change.
When you receive a counter offer in Equator the Seller has 3 options.
- Accept: If you accept the deal is passed on for final approval (or counter).
- Reject: If you reject....the file is closed and you have to start over. ***Warning Will Robinson!!*** NEVER reject!!! Rejecting in Equator is not something that can be retracted. If you choose that option in a fit of passion you have to start over. DON'T DO IT!!
- Counter. Unless the deal is acceptable...counter. Countering is where you have the opportunity to dispute a cash contribution, or a promissory note. It's also your opportunity to dispute the value of the property by uploading market data.
But whatever you do, just remember, you are NOT negotiating with Equator. Make sense?
By the way, here's a sample offer and counter offer from the Equator system. Hopefully this will help.
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Thank you for the post and the advice. I agree it can be misleading .
Great explanation of the Equator system Bryant. Excellent job of clearing up any confusion.
Involved in my first short sale using Equater. Im the buyers agent. See how it goes. Our original offer signed by the sellers was rejected the same day. We came up on the price and it went through. Day 7. How long will it take to here back from them now? Thanks, Ian
H Ian, be sure to pop over and join us at http://ShortSaleSuperStars.com The equator group will help a lot.
Thanks Randy!
Hi Gita. I hope all is well with you.
Thanks Bryant...I have been able to work through some really tough short sales by referring to the Short Sale Super Stars site...this is great info for anyone working with sellers caught in this situation.
Ya'll be sure to join us at....
Just Click below...it's FREE!!!
Thank you Bryant for the blog, it is of great help I have had one easy and one hard one so far. I still don't think they want to help anyone. :)
Thanks Bryant. I just listed a possible short sale and this will be the first time I'll be using Equator.com.
Bryant, thank for clarifying this. There are so many sides to a Short Sale that many get confused.
Good of you to clarify. When we started using Equator, I think that there was some general confusion in this area. They send you all sorts of information about the system, but I do not recall if they ever mention this important kernel of information.
More great stuff on short sales in general and Equator in particular. You are a great teacher and a coach BB!
Sadly, this is a blog that needed to be written. It's funny that agents think Equator is an entity capable of accepting or denying sales.
BB - artifical intelligence is pretty amazing these days but it doesn't extend to Equator. But what if it did? What if Equtor could make decisions? Would there be more acceptances? Would things happen more quickly? Or would this be a disaster for the bank. Science fiction taken to a new high, or low.
Strange why people would say that... it sort of goes without saying.. like saying I'm going to the ATM Machine.
This is great information for folks in all markets! Equator reminds me of the AUS we use for loans!
Broker Bryant, I already commented on your Facebook note, but heck I don't get 25 points there.
I'm surprised you have to explain this. People have their financial futures in the hands of these agents. Scary.
Lots of laughing... Short Sale Odyssey 2010... ;)
This has not been a really helpful thing for us....Wisconsin is a little differnt and the fill in the blank approach when we don't do/have this charge but do have one that is not there...urgh....
Your explanation and experience with this system definitely helps to understand what it is and what it isn't.
Bryant - Your post is sure to help many US real estate agents who use Equator.
Thank you for that information. I am using the system right now on a deal so it will be very helpful.
Nice and simple, straight to the point. Thank you. Now if only the negotiations were like that.
First, thanks for the shortsale superstars website. It's been a great help
Second, apparently the other thing equator can't do is get you in touch with a real live person that actually knows what's going on. Had one recently where my docs kept getting rejected. Reason - other. Tried 4 times, rejected, reason - other. Could never get a response via email from any of the emails that (supposedly) came from real people on the "exact" why and when I attempted via phone, nobody at BoA knew what was going on.
Bryant, filling out the "Offer Worksheet" can make or break the deal. It pays to be thorough and still might not go through.
Great idea adding the counter offer form into the blog. There is a lot of confusion about the short sale process. Thanks for helping to clear it up!
Roger. rejected documents could be a whole bunch of things.
Just go back through the documents and check everything. Also, you have to call the servicer and have them check the reason. Again this is NOT Equator rejecting the documents it's the servicer. That's who you need to call.
Great info as usual. Equator is just a software portal like Res.net and Reotrans. The lender is the one making the decision.
I just closed a short sale with Bank of America on Equator.com and it was a roller coaster transaction. During my particular file they were having email notification problems so things were getting changed on the system but I was not being notified and this was a giant pain the tail because the file had to start over from the beginning. If you have a short sale processing through Equator.com I recommend watching that site like a hawk.
Bryant: Excellent post. I did a deal with Equator a few months back, and it caused me new gray hair. I wish I would have been able to read your post BEFORE my deal! I felt really alone and in the dark because I didn't really understand what Equator's role was. Thanks for posting this.
Also, loved the counter offer form in your blog. Will you tell me how to do this for other forms? I'd love to upload other example forms like that into my blog... Is it through "scribd?"
Thanks again & God Bless
I actually like Equator. As long as you know to "watch it like a hawk", and also to submit ONLY complete, matching documents, it does seem to speed things up a bit. The Counter offer format is not great, and as pointed out, don't reject, unless you really WANT that deal to die. I have done this several times and when I uploaded the new offer plus info, it went forward quicker than my original offer. Sometimes, the servicers just don't "get it", and sometimes they do. Short Sale Superstars rocks!
Don't you just love the default commission? Pretty sneaky, I say. I wonder how many agents don't realize that they can override it? Probably a lot.
Bryant - excellent post about equator being an on line portal. Good comments here and it is important to log on regularly in the event that you are not emailed of a response.
Bryant, excellent explanation. And yes, NEVER REJECT! It's just a program to facilitate. Humans make the actual decisions!
BB...
Thank you so much for this. The misinformation about Equator has been pervasive, and this is the most realistic assessment that I have ever read on the program!
Bryant - I am working on submitting an offer on a BofA short sale today so I was glad to see your link for ShortSaleSuperStars - I'll have to hop over there and get myself up to speed!
BB - Good information as we are in the midst of one of these currently. I think I am going to pass this along to the attorney who is handling our short sale as I believe he needs this info.. Thanks again
Bryant:
Great post, and I agree with your premise for the most part. I could be wrong but I believe Equator can reject an offer if it is way too low. We have had occasion to input lowball offers into Equator in the past (much against our better judgment) and received an instantaneous rejection upon hitting the SUBMIT button - "This offer is too low for consideration". I believe Bank of America may be able to input a value on a property which has to be surpassed in order for the offer to be considered. I say this because the rejections came back way too fast for there to be human intervention on the other side. This one possible exception aside, Equator is just a piece of software in between you and real people making all the decisions.
It's unfortunate that the software has to be explained at such a basic level. However, the reality is that short sales could be heavily automated to account for the various ratios needed to "approve" a short sale. As long as there is no error in the application, an approval should be no more complicated than a credit app.
It's unfortunate that the software has to be explained at such a basic level. However, the reality is that short sales could be heavily automated to account for the various ratios needed to "approve" a short sale. As long as there is no error in the application, an approval should be no more complicated than a credit app.
Steve in Boston. That is still not Equator rejecting the offer. It's Bank of America. Equator sets the program up based on parameters given them by each indivudal lender.
I think it is a very easy online tool to use for short sales but can be frustrating when you can't speak with anyone. I think timing and getting the right buyer onto equator is very important to get the file successfully closed.
Thank you for the information, we appreciate these kinds of updates and clarifications.
Great information! I would like to repost your blog.
Is that like the bank approved my loan?
No the UNDERWRITER approved your loan and yes now you can move forward. Banks are bricks and mortar. Equator is just software. We still do need people in the process!
Equator will more and more become the standard of the lender industry for short sales. Considering that BOA has over 60,000 applications per month for short sales this year, and only 2800 people to handle them, the Equator system is a streamliner in a diicult system.
GREAT INFO!! Thanks Bryant!
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Check out my website www.BankRealEstateSolutions.com
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Thanks, I have been pretty happy with the Equator system so far...a definet improvement from dealing directly with BOA.