Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on August 19, 2011 at 9:30am

Good info about REO - I wonder about those things - now I know.

Since you are having good luck with BOA these days and I find it the pits compared to 8 months ago, you should discount my findings.  I've rarely found escalating anything via equator email to be more than just frustrating.  I notify the negotiator when I want to be sure he knows something like all the docs are there - and clearly, they have a requirement to respond fast - that's good.

When there is a delay, I usually send a "any update? Need anything?" message.  That can be helpful.

There are times when that does nothing.  I don't bother with mgr, team lead, etc. just, as I said, I've found it doesn't seem to do a thing.  However, calling in, usually the SS rep will say that the negotiator is late for a task and send off a status request.

I have found those very good for the nudge, if I've had previous problems, I will send an equator message at the same time either asking about the issue or asking for status.  The combination of the 2 is more powerful.

I've rarely found the manager helpful - but, as I'm sure you know, the manager in equator isn't necessarily his manager, etc.

Because of good luck with some team leads in the past, I will sometimes use them, but if it is at that point, I will use John Ciresi or office of prez and at least get a real response.

Basically, except for the "what's up" occasional message to keep the negotiator alert to my file, I've found that calling in and letting the SS rep look at the notes is far better for getting a negotiator back on track...

 

Jeff Payne said:

Louise, hanging up and calling back is very wise.  Before equator I would do the call in and if that person sounded like they were having a bad day, I would hang up and call right back.  Since equator, I rarely ever make a phone call, I use the messaging system and escalate from there if needed.  If I escalate outside of equator I always send a message to the negotiator and CC their supervisor and keep working up the chain of command.  Usually the first one works but I sometimes do get to the VP level to get something done.  I have found MOST at BofA are not bad to deal with if you treat them with some respect or maybe even stroke their egos a bit :) 

I have a BofA REO account and if you think their short sales are bad, dont even think about listing their foreclosures :(  I would rather work a short sale than an REO anytime

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on August 19, 2011 at 9:34am

Hi Joe, I don't discount anything that you say :) I appreciate it more than you know because we are all in this mess together.  I keep alot of notes and when we meet with BofA, you better believe that I am telling them what others are saying.  John Ceresi is very helpful, the aforementioned Allen Seelenbinder introduced me to him.

joe beauchamp said:

Good info about REO - I wonder about those things - now I know.

Since you are having good luck with BOA these days and I find it the pits compared to 8 months ago, you should discount my findings.  I've rarely found escalating anything via equator email to be more than just frustrating.  I notify the negotiator when I want to be sure he knows something like all the docs are there - and clearly, they have a requirement to respond fast - that's good.

When there is a delay, I usually send a "any update? Need anything?" message.  That can be helpful.

There are times when that does nothing.  I don't bother with mgr, team lead, etc. just, as I said, I've found it doesn't seem to do a thing.  However, calling in, usually the SS rep will say that the negotiator is late for a task and send off a status request.

I have found those very good for the nudge, if I've had previous problems, I will send an equator message at the same time either asking about the issue or asking for status.  The combination of the 2 is more powerful.

I've rarely found the manager helpful - but, as I'm sure you know, the manager in equator isn't necessarily his manager, etc.

Because of good luck with some team leads in the past, I will sometimes use them, but if it is at that point, I will use John Ciresi or office of prez and at least get a real response.

Basically, except for the "what's up" occasional message to keep the negotiator alert to my file, I've found that calling in and letting the SS rep look at the notes is far better for getting a negotiator back on track...

 

Jeff Payne said:

Louise, hanging up and calling back is very wise.  Before equator I would do the call in and if that person sounded like they were having a bad day, I would hang up and call right back.  Since equator, I rarely ever make a phone call, I use the messaging system and escalate from there if needed.  If I escalate outside of equator I always send a message to the negotiator and CC their supervisor and keep working up the chain of command.  Usually the first one works but I sometimes do get to the VP level to get something done.  I have found MOST at BofA are not bad to deal with if you treat them with some respect or maybe even stroke their egos a bit :) 

I have a BofA REO account and if you think their short sales are bad, dont even think about listing their foreclosures :(  I would rather work a short sale than an REO anytime

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on August 19, 2011 at 9:36am

As for their REO, that is a whole different story.  The thing that tends to irritate me is that they hired me to sell their property and I have more difficulty with some of their asset managers than I ever have with a short sale negotiator. 
I have a theory that they replaced the BAD short sale negotiators with their good asset managers and vice versa.  Sometimes I feel like I am dealing with the old Countrywide short sale negotiators

joe beauchamp said:

Good info about REO - I wonder about those things - now I know.

Since you are having good luck with BOA these days and I find it the pits compared to 8 months ago, you should discount my findings.  I've rarely found escalating anything via equator email to be more than just frustrating.  I notify the negotiator when I want to be sure he knows something like all the docs are there - and clearly, they have a requirement to respond fast - that's good.

When there is a delay, I usually send a "any update? Need anything?" message.  That can be helpful.

There are times when that does nothing.  I don't bother with mgr, team lead, etc. just, as I said, I've found it doesn't seem to do a thing.  However, calling in, usually the SS rep will say that the negotiator is late for a task and send off a status request.

I have found those very good for the nudge, if I've had previous problems, I will send an equator message at the same time either asking about the issue or asking for status.  The combination of the 2 is more powerful.

I've rarely found the manager helpful - but, as I'm sure you know, the manager in equator isn't necessarily his manager, etc.

Because of good luck with some team leads in the past, I will sometimes use them, but if it is at that point, I will use John Ciresi or office of prez and at least get a real response.

Basically, except for the "what's up" occasional message to keep the negotiator alert to my file, I've found that calling in and letting the SS rep look at the notes is far better for getting a negotiator back on track...

 

Jeff Payne said:

Louise, hanging up and calling back is very wise.  Before equator I would do the call in and if that person sounded like they were having a bad day, I would hang up and call right back.  Since equator, I rarely ever make a phone call, I use the messaging system and escalate from there if needed.  If I escalate outside of equator I always send a message to the negotiator and CC their supervisor and keep working up the chain of command.  Usually the first one works but I sometimes do get to the VP level to get something done.  I have found MOST at BofA are not bad to deal with if you treat them with some respect or maybe even stroke their egos a bit :) 

I have a BofA REO account and if you think their short sales are bad, dont even think about listing their foreclosures :(  I would rather work a short sale than an REO anytime

Permalink Reply by Louise Dela Cruz on August 19, 2011 at 10:54am

I would LOVE to utilize the Equator system as it is designed and not have to make phone calls.

When i email within the system 9 times out of 10 I get no response, zero.

Of course I escalate the emails to the team lead and up the line.

This is the norm for me quite frankly.

the thing to take from our discussion seems to be there are consistent inconsistencies!!!!

On a rare occasion I have had extremely responsive pro-active negotiators and I sing their praises to them and anyone who will listen as it is a delight to work with a like minded individual.

When I call it's usually when the task is expired and no one is responding. Calling also assists with time lines i.e. how long is the "valuation" phase alerting me as to when (not if) I can start escalating.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL

 

 

Permalink Reply by Becky Martin on August 19, 2011 at 1:08pm

I have also gotten deficiency language removed by BOA on approvals by requesting it and pointing out the real distress of the homeowner...honestly a lot depends on your negotiator too - I have had some that are real nightmares and others that are very pleasant and helpful...

ElizabethWeintraub00697006LyonRE said:

I've experienced no difficulties thus far in my Bank of America short sales. In fact, when I received an approval letter containing deficiency verbiage, I emailed the negotiator and asked for the verbiage to be removed pursuant to SB 458, and he quickly obliged. Attorneys don't have all the answers. I closed a short sale a few months ago in which a lawyer was unsuccessful at getting Bank of America to release the seller, even after he wrote a letter -- so I wrote a letter to the bank and Bank of America responded to my letter and released the seller from liability.

 

Elizabeth Weintraub

Broker-Associate #00697006

Lyon Real Estate

Sacramento Short Sale Agent

Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on August 19, 2011 at 6:03pm

I find 9 out of 10 pretty unusual.  It is clear to me that they have a strong edict to respond rapidly.  All that I can think of is that you are emailing only when things are real bad and you are sending nasty messages.  I can't see otherwise how I get rapid response almost always and you don't.
The other stuff?  Well, Equator is poorly maintained - the basic idea is decent, it could use a ton of fixups and mostly simple enhancements.  On top of that, the forms, the tasks, etc. are done by bank teams.  It is beyond my comprehension why they will not correct bad grammar, unnecessarily ambiguous directions, useless "help text" of not what the field is for but to answer in dollars and cents.  Oh, not taking bottle caps today? On top of that they leave in stupid procedures like booting a file from HAFA to go back to .... borrower outreach ... to see if the home owner wants HAFA?? They cannot have a program to generate an approval where the numbers add up and the expiration date is in the future.  For over 2 years I have asked them to put the FACT that they demand a return of the signed approval in the approval as part of the instructions.  How can they defend that they will rescind the closing if you do not follow this unwritten demand?  I assume because they just like to rub it in everyone's face that they don't have to be civil or follow common law - they are BOA...

Equator makes it clear that BOA would rather throw away millions of investor money than spend $100K to fix up inefficient screwy use of Equator, and Equator fixes.  Because it is a techy program, these fixes are very easy to envision (for me, at least) and are an indication of the commitment to short sales at BOA overall.  If they won't spend a dollar to fix this, then they won't spend a dollar to fix other aspects of short sales, right?

Louise Dela Cruz said:

I would LOVE to utilize the Equator system as it is designed and not have to make phone calls.

When i email within the system 9 times out of 10 I get no response, zero.

Of course I escalate the emails to the team lead and up the line.

This is the norm for me quite frankly.

the thing to take from our discussion seems to be there are consistent inconsistencies!!!!

On a rare occasion I have had extremely responsive pro-active negotiators and I sing their praises to them and anyone who will listen as it is a delight to work with a like minded individual.

When I call it's usually when the task is expired and no one is responding. Calling also assists with time lines i.e. how long is the "valuation" phase alerting me as to when (not if) I can start escalating.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL

 

 

Permalink Reply by Jeff Payne on August 20, 2011 at 3:21am

I agree that they could enhance Equator very easily.  There are alot of things that certainly could be streamline for sure.  Have you talked to Chris, the CEO of Equator?  He is a really good dude and I have talked to him many times and I do know that he tries to get our suggestions to the lenders but most of the time they don't really follow his suggestions which is sad.  Send him an email sometime and introduce yourself, he visits this site so he may recognize your name

I never understood why they dont just put a dang signature line on the approval letters.  We started just having the seller sign every single page of the approval letter just to make sure that BofA doesnt have a reason to kill the approval.

joe beauchamp said:

I find 9 out of 10 pretty unusual.  It is clear to me that they have a strong edict to respond rapidly.  All that I can think of is that you are emailing only when things are real bad and you are sending nasty messages.  I can't see otherwise how I get rapid response almost always and you don't.
The other stuff?  Well, Equator is poorly maintained - the basic idea is decent, it could use a ton of fixups and mostly simple enhancements.  On top of that, the forms, the tasks, etc. are done by bank teams.  It is beyond my comprehension why they will not correct bad grammar, unnecessarily ambiguous directions, useless "help text" of not what the field is for but to answer in dollars and cents.  Oh, not taking bottle caps today? On top of that they leave in stupid procedures like booting a file from HAFA to go back to .... borrower outreach ... to see if the home owner wants HAFA?? They cannot have a program to generate an approval where the numbers add up and the expiration date is in the future.  For over 2 years I have asked them to put the FACT that they demand a return of the signed approval in the approval as part of the instructions.  How can they defend that they will rescind the closing if you do not follow this unwritten demand?  I assume because they just like to rub it in everyone's face that they don't have to be civil or follow common law - they are BOA...

Equator makes it clear that BOA would rather throw away millions of investor money than spend $100K to fix up inefficient screwy use of Equator, and Equator fixes.  Because it is a techy program, these fixes are very easy to envision (for me, at least) and are an indication of the commitment to short sales at BOA overall.  If they won't spend a dollar to fix this, then they won't spend a dollar to fix other aspects of short sales, right?

Louise Dela Cruz said:

I would LOVE to utilize the Equator system as it is designed and not have to make phone calls.

When i email within the system 9 times out of 10 I get no response, zero.

Of course I escalate the emails to the team lead and up the line.

This is the norm for me quite frankly.

the thing to take from our discussion seems to be there are consistent inconsistencies!!!!

On a rare occasion I have had extremely responsive pro-active negotiators and I sing their praises to them and anyone who will listen as it is a delight to work with a like minded individual.

When I call it's usually when the task is expired and no one is responding. Calling also assists with time lines i.e. how long is the "valuation" phase alerting me as to when (not if) I can start escalating.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL

 

 

Permalink Reply by joe beauchamp on August 20, 2011 at 5:05am

I find the chat rep at Equator useful.  Usually I get honest answers (a couple of times not).  They know that they have an issue with firefox - I don't know what is different on a couple of PC's, but if I try to upload a file as part of a task, Equator will be happy even though it would not take the file - the task actually closes w/o its file.  The bulk loader gets around whatever issue this is.  I think this is why they added the bulk loader to some tasks.

I had a higher regard for Equator prior to the mid-March release - they could not have tested their changes - the 1st thing I did broke it.  I assume as they have added banks, that they are making a ton of $$ on this product - yet can't be bothered with either thinking through or testing before they foist it on everyone?  (Oh and unlike everywhere else, the GIF image in my MLS cannot be uploaded - has to be jpg.  I suppose extra insulting because my principle analyst created GIF and I have my fingers in it, too...HA!)  So, no, I haven't looked at Equator as anything more than a mediocre effort pleased to be another ho-hum money maker in a poorly organized (and making tons of money) industry.  I suppose having written an OS, written network code, managed these things, etc., I feel that I can see what takes minor effort and major and what you need to be vigilant about.  When you don't care about the quality of a release, you drop to about zero on my reliability and longevity scale.

Seeing BOA's personality and getting a ton of bull from them, I believe that Equator is blamed for things that BOA does or is way too lazy to do correctly or fix - so I give Equator latitude on that score.

Equator is just the engine. The forms, many decisions, etc. are done by some BOA team and out of Equator's hands.  Those are supported to a level which seems equivalent to a company with a $10k budget - definitely a track record that is not going to win any award.  I cannot understand how BOA can do such a miserable job of something that appears to me to be pretty important and capable of costing many manhours by doing things wrong.

So, feeling that Equator is not tested much before a change is released and that the majority of the system is the piece done by a clearly woefully under budget or uncaring BOA team, I have fairly backed off wasting time asking for fixes, etc.

If you agree, give me your yes or no answer here - please answer in dollars and cents.  (Yep, for over 2 years I've been trying to get BOA to reword their commission question like that... That could cost someone $20 in time to correct, eh?)

 

Jeff Payne said:

I agree that they could enhance Equator very easily.  There are alot of things that certainly could be streamline for sure.  Have you talked to Chris, the CEO of Equator?  He is a really good dude and I have talked to him many times and I do know that he tries to get our suggestions to the lenders but most of the time they don't really follow his suggestions which is sad.  Send him an email sometime and introduce yourself, he visits this site so he may recognize your name

I never understood why they dont just put a dang signature line on the approval letters.  We started just having the seller sign every single page of the approval letter just to make sure that BofA doesnt have a reason to kill the approval.

joe beauchamp said:

I find 9 out of 10 pretty unusual.  It is clear to me that they have a strong edict to respond rapidly.  All that I can think of is that you are emailing only when things are real bad and you are sending nasty messages.  I can't see otherwise how I get rapid response almost always and you don't.
The other stuff?  Well, Equator is poorly maintained - the basic idea is decent, it could use a ton of fixups and mostly simple enhancements.  On top of that, the forms, the tasks, etc. are done by bank teams.  It is beyond my comprehension why they will not correct bad grammar, unnecessarily ambiguous directions, useless "help text" of not what the field is for but to answer in dollars and cents.  Oh, not taking bottle caps today? On top of that they leave in stupid procedures like booting a file from HAFA to go back to .... borrower outreach ... to see if the home owner wants HAFA?? They cannot have a program to generate an approval where the numbers add up and the expiration date is in the future.  For over 2 years I have asked them to put the FACT that they demand a return of the signed approval in the approval as part of the instructions.  How can they defend that they will rescind the closing if you do not follow this unwritten demand?  I assume because they just like to rub it in everyone's face that they don't have to be civil or follow common law - they are BOA...

Equator makes it clear that BOA would rather throw away millions of investor money than spend $100K to fix up inefficient screwy use of Equator, and Equator fixes.  Because it is a techy program, these fixes are very easy to envision (for me, at least) and are an indication of the commitment to short sales at BOA overall.  If they won't spend a dollar to fix this, then they won't spend a dollar to fix other aspects of short sales, right?

Louise Dela Cruz said:

I would LOVE to utilize the Equator system as it is designed and not have to make phone calls.

When i email within the system 9 times out of 10 I get no response, zero.

Of course I escalate the emails to the team lead and up the line.

This is the norm for me quite frankly.

the thing to take from our discussion seems to be there are consistent inconsistencies!!!!

On a rare occasion I have had extremely responsive pro-active negotiators and I sing their praises to them and anyone who will listen as it is a delight to work with a like minded individual.

When I call it's usually when the task is expired and no one is responding. Calling also assists with time lines i.e. how long is the "valuation" phase alerting me as to when (not if) I can start escalating.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL

 

 

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