Short Sale: The Equator System and Bank of America: A Better Way to Process Short Sales? I Don't Think So.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 4:17PM June 24, 2010
Stephen J. Nash
Nash Law Firm
nash@nash-law.com
The Equator system is an automated system for lenders to process short sales. The system requires the borrower to upload the information needed for the lender to process the short sale. The system also provides assignments for the lenders and borrowers along with status updates. The CEO of Equator, Chris Saitta, was quoted in a January 10 , 2010 DSNews.com article as follows: "Short sales are a great alternative to foreclosure, but without a comprehensive automation solution many have simply avoided them. Equator's platform removes these barriers to entry and allows everyone to realize the benefits of a short sale." Saitta went on to state that Equator allows the short sale to be brought to fruition in dramatically less time.
Sounds great! But has the Equator system lived up to the hype? Does it speed up the short sale process? Does it make it more likely that the borrowers short sale will be approved?
One of the biggest lenders/servicers to use the Equator system is Bank of America. This article will discuss the practical experiences of dealing with BOA and the Equator system and will look at where BOA ranked in the recent Deutsche Bank ranking of loan services on speed of short sales.