BOA Alleged Equator Fraud
I was recently advised that BOA recently restricted all agents of a large brokerage because one short sale file allegedly contained fraudulent document(s). Furthermore, when any of these agents jumped ship to another brokerage because of their inability to utilize Equator their accounts remained restricted based on their prior involvement with the original brokerage. If any document(s) were fraudulent they would have been provided by the Seller, not the listing agent. However, BOA appears to be holding the brokerage and all of their associates responsible. This has presented further problems in that this restriction applies to all other lenders utilizing Equator.
The question for this discussion is has this occurred to anyone that you have heard about? NAR is currently working to resolve this issue and we would like to know if this is wide spread or just an isolated situation.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tni LeBlanc (805) 878-9879 on
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Hi Jeff -
In response to your last reply, if you insist on being personally offended, I suppose there is not much I can do about it. It was not meant personally and I think I've been very clear about that. In logic, one would refer to your current argument as "ad hominem." I'm sorry that is has devolved into that.
I never attacked you personally, yet you believe it is appropriate to do that to me. In my experience, there is not much useful information that comes from that type of discussion and argument. There are plenty of "professional" Realtors, and I've said that repeatedly. In fact, I believe I am one of them and I am arguing for more professionalism in the field.
There is no way for me to say what I want except from my perspective as an attorney, but again, I make no apologies for being educated. Indeed, I do think I have additional insight on the matter since I've mastered the educational requirements for both fields. I know plenty of real estate agents who have come from other professions that feel similarly. It is about standards. Now again, I am talking about the profession, Jeff, not you personally.
Of course I market myself as a professional real estate agent, I just think it is a shame that I have to. I never had to market myself as a "professional lawyer." That would seem redundant and absurd. And I hope for the day when the same can be said for the title of "real estate agent."
Cheers,
Tni
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Permalink Reply by Dan thompson on
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@Tni, I think you hit the main point in your post. The Seller is hiring the Broker, not the Agent. Therefore it makes more sense that B of A would go after the Broker as apposed to the Agent. Why they would mark the other Agents for Short Sale death, not sure, still pondering that one. But in realty you are the Boss and you are responsable for us. I can understand why the Broker in Control, I mean in Charge (lol) would be the one resonspible. Years ago, when I was an Appraiser, VA had a saying. It was "On a case by case bases". That is what we have here. No more round peg and round hole to work with. Good luck to all on this one.
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Permalink Reply by Charles "Charlie" Brown on
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This is the problem when banks try to do Real Estate. This is why if they get into Real Estate it won't be a Professsion it will be a job. This way the banks can make more money. If the banks wanted to fix the housing market they would or could. Their to busy trying to figure out how they can benefit the most. This is not a Real Estate issue it's a BANKING issue.
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Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on
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Charlie, you are correct. There are too many people within the banks that "think" they have power and try to show their power and claim that agents are being fraudulent. The fact of the matter is that the longer they can service a loan, the more money they make. Until the banks realize that we, as professionals, are part of the solution and not part of the problem, we will continue to be in this mess.
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Permalink Reply by Cathy Ryan on
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I know that BofA keeps a record of the each agents transactions. They rate us based on performance. I have heard through CDPE of an agent doing ABC transactions being black listed, but not a whole brokerage. That is rediculous. We not only have worry about our transactions, making sure that all of the i's are dotted and t's crossed. Now we have to pray that no one else in our company does something stupid.
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Cathy, you are correct, they do have a way to check on you thru Equator. They use a score card for REO agents and I suspect they have a similar scoring system with Short Sale agents. My BofA contact knows nothing of an entire brokerage being disallowed from Equator. Maybe it was the broker of record that was accused of fraud? If that was the case I can easily see how the agents the Broker is responsible for would not be allowed to work BofA short sales. In the end, I believe we are going to find out that this is a rumor and not fully true.
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Tni, trust me it takes alot more than that to offend me :) I really could not care any less if you came from being a garbage collection professional or if you were the attorney general. It is irrelevant to me and to anyone else out there. We will continue to disagree as you believe that to be considered a "profession", the real estate world would need to require more education and I seem to believe that a "profession" is something that we engage in for money to make a living. like I said before, a profession and professionalism do not always go hand in hand, with realtors, attorneys, doctors, chefs, or NBA players. I do find it a bit odd that you think real estate sales is not a profession but you offer professional real estate services.
You seem to want to diminish "average" real estate agents by saying that they know nothing more than the average Joe on the street and I do not believe that to be true. The definition of average could be very debatable. Average in your market might not be average in my market. Assuming that the "average" Joe knows as much about real estate sales as the average realtor is a bit of a stretch. Even if the average realtor only sold 5 properties a year, they would certainly know more than the average seller who tends to live in a home for 7 years.
One thing we can agree on is that it is too easy to get a real estate license and too easy to keep a real estate license, I have been a proponent of making it tougher to get a license and requiring more education but that is not likely as long as NAR and the state associations are all about quantity and not quality.
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Hi Jeff,
Profession is a noun, professional is an adjective. You can apply "professional" to describe many fields but it does not transform what you are describing into a "profession."
Personally, I think your insistence that the status quo produces professional real estate agents diminishes us all, because it is obviously not the case.
And yes, we do agree that it should be more difficult to get a real estate license, so we should probably focus on that as that essentially is my point.
Cheers,
Tni
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Ok, here is the definition of profession:
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.[1]
As a real estate agent, we had to take a real estate course (specialized educational training although very basic), we supply disinterested counsel and service to others for compensation.
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists, forensic scientists, educators, and many more. The term is also used in sports to differentiate amateur players from those who are paid — hence "professional footballer" and "professional golfer".
As a real estate agent, we take on a specialized set of tasks to complete them for a fee.
It certainly looks to me like real estate sales is a profession, thus one who sells real estate would be a professional. No where does it say that there is a minimum number of years of education to be a professional.
What makes you or I a professional over a new agent who just got into the business or an agent who has been in the business for many years but chooses to close only a number of transactions per year?
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Permalink Reply by Smitty on
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This has been fun to watch today. I must say that up front... ;)
Can't one be in a PROFESSION - ie real estate and be UNPROFESSIONAL?
LM%O. Sorry, this was too fun to pass up. And for the record, Jeff, I'm giving you the points on today's thread!! Sorry Tni, you make a good case, but I'm team Jeff on this one.
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Smitty, yes one can be unprofessional and be in a profession. There are many people that do not act in a professional mannor in all walks of life, that does not change the fact that they have a profession. Because some realtors are not professional, it does not mean that real estate sales is not a profession. Amount of education is irrelevant
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Hi Jeff,
The reason people want to refer to real estate as a profession is to confer respect. Respect that the current educational and training requirements for real estate agents do not inspire. That simple.
Cheers,
Tni
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