Started one on Equator first part of December. Seemed plausible. Then went to HELD status.
Called in several times in regards to HELD status.....Customer service reps kept saying all looks good, yes we have everything, negotiator is working on it....
NOD had been filed unknown to me when I took the listing. Nothing showed up in Foreclosure Radar. Title company did not see anything. (Seller forgot to tell me the letter came in after I put on MLS) OOPS!
In either case, multiple phone calls to negotiator as well as emails and to his manager and no response. Every time I called Equator everything was peachy keen.
Then a week ago monday I found out about the Trustee sale, called the title company again, who for some reason did not see it right away but eventually found it and emailed foreclosure radar as to status since they did not show anything---they finally found it, and updated their system....told me there was nothing else I could have done has they had to have their plant do a thorough research before they even found it........sigh.......Title company had to research it several times........I do know there is a backlog due to layoffs and hours cut back at the county .....perhaps part of the mayhem.......
So since the negotiator was over 6 weeks late in completing task with two escalations I emailed the office of the president. They responded promptly assigned a new negotiator this week BUT the investor will not call her back but she did look at notes and the investor will not accept anything below a certain amount.........fine except the comps do not justify that amount. Negotiator tells me on thursday the 12th ,wants buyer to raise offer to price investor indicated in notes (I think these notes are from the prior offer!) Which tells me that the first negotiator DID NOT properly send in my new information.
The 2nd negotiator kept asking me you are not the original agent ? NO, I am not.
Buyer says no to increase in purchase offer, cancels.(WILL stay in if the offer is accepted at price originally provided)
Backup offers will not go that high.......comps do not justify.
Oh , did I mention the trustee sale is this coming tuesday the 16th?
Background of this condo, seller had listed with another agent approx year ago who had offer rejected by BofA.
Again, appraisals were not based upon the current market value of several of the units sold in this particular complex but compared to luxury condos elsewhere.
Seller, starts communication with bank and tries to work something out and calls me in November to relist as short sale again.
BofA was given all of this info upfront and that I was a different agent and agency.
Instead of just letting us know up front and/or giving us the amount they would accept they allowed 3 months to go by and wasted everyones time and efforts. (The homeowner by the way, has kept up their HOA fees )
So to BofA I say this-You wonder why agents think poorly of you? Go back and read above.....simple communication at the onset could have avoided the lengthy wait.......Playing games and instructing your customer reps to mispresent the facts is inexcusable.
The majority of realtors and agents try to operate in fair play and expect the same back.
I do not think Equator is a bad thing...I even took the ReoTrans Gold Certification...it does have some bugs and if you get lost up front in the system it is hard to rebound. In fact, the recent conversations I have had with the powers to be suggested the same thing. I know of several agents who have closed transactions. That is a good thing.
When you call in and ask specific questions and are led to believe that all is peaches and creme I really take exception to such......It has nothing to do with the thousands of short sales you state you have......Regular short sale dept would not talk to you as it was loaded in equator.
It has everything to do with proper training, communication and honesty and letting the investor know up front an offer that came in and not wait til the very end to let the investor know about an offer ... particularly after NOD was filed.
Plain and simple......let the listing agent know the facts up front and not dump on them at the very end.
Please know I have closed several BofA transactions....the longest took up to 9 months.
Now someone tell me about all of the negotiators that are buddy buddies with various investor groups who hs a special relationship with various investor groups to come in waaayyyy below market value and close the short sale? I understand some of these negotiators make bonuses working these various investors......
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So revived ........Seller is bringing in contribution for the 2nd at COE.
The key to escalating is to make sure you send in a detailed but compact list of actions taken or not and show you made every effort to go thru the normal channels before escalating. I found the office of the President to be helpful and fair in terms of listening and responding and reacting.
The issues I had with Equator is the negotiator never returned my emails or messages or phone calls and neither did his manager. Was escalated twice. Yet thru the whole thing I was told all was fine.
Then came the trustee sale and I knew all was not fine. For whatever reason ours got lost in space.
I have heard others have done very well by equator.The new negotiator has been right on top of it and even though we may not have agreed on some levels I felt she was doing her job and following thru and paying attention. That is all that I ask.
Remember I was told the investor WOULD NOT STALL or POSTPONE and the sale was inevitable.
I sent another email with cc's to the new negotiator(whom I did feel was trying to help) to the Office of the President and laison customer service who originally intervened and outlined from the beginning as to what happened and the lack of communication and refusal of the first negotiator to tell me what was exactly going on.
I am sure the first negotiator felt it a lost cause because of the investor and did not want to waste his time communicating with me BUT at the same time was LED TO BELIEVE by customer service reps that all was fine. Remember I escalated twice for the first negotiator to finish his task that was due on Feb 2 and missed deadline and would not respond to the customer service reps either(at least that is what their notes stated)
I do not want to waste the time of all involved again based on my conversation last monday if the investor is going to VETO everything since it appears this particular unit would fall under the government bail out where 90% of the original loan would be guaranteed to the bank to which would turn over to the investor and they would then turn around and sell and make more money off of it and not care what price it goes on the market for.
This is one where the investor apparently has 100% control of final decisions. ALL they had to do was tell us this upfront in December as from what I could gather this has been a KNOWN fact all along and when I presented the offer there was more than ample opportunity for the negotiator to relay this info. Explains why he and/or his manager never responded on Equator or by phone or by outside email.
Stay tuned........I will let update you after I hear back from my latest inquiry sent.