Equator Starts the Day for a Sacramento Short Sale Agent

When it’s 5 AM in Sacramento, it’s 8 AM on the East Coast. I get a head start on my day by updating my Sacramento short sales before people start calling. However, I am finding it is increasingly difficult to write my blog uninterrupted on a Tuesday morning because all of the short sale negotiators in Equator are up and at ’em first thing. It’s like they don’t touch their computer all week or something. They wait until Tuesday. My inbox begins dinging with Equator emails at 5 AM. I could not imagine looking at a file only once a week, but that’s how some short sale negotiators seem to handle their workload.

Many short sale lenders are using Equator now for processing short sales. We’re all anxiously awaiting for JPMorgan Chase to join Equator but it doesn’t seem to be happening. I keep hearing rumors that Chase will be on Equator. First, it was last summer, then by this fall, and it’s just not a reality yet. But we do have the top 4, which are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GMAC / Ally and Nationstar.

The thing with Equator — as I was explaining yesterday in my presentation to the ballroom of agents at Lyon Real Estate’s FRED (Fun Realtor Education Day) event — is it over communicates. It used to send agents emails containing specific messages and those messages were also kept in a property folder on Equator. Now, for some reason, Equator generates an email to tell a Sacramento short sale agent that there is an email in Equator. And when the agent gets to Equator, the email directs the agent to a task. Except the task is not really always a task. I prefer the old method because I knew what I was getting into before I got there. It’s not always worth it to open Equator. Sometimes, the messages are pointless.

Not only are some of the messages pointless, the messages can also be “system generated.” A system-generated message will say things like somebody is reviewing documents. But nobody is really reviewing documents. Yet, I am not about to complain about Equator. No sirree. I know what life was like for this Sacramento short sale agent before Equator, and I never want to go back there.

It’s bad enough that I have to work on Bank of America FHA short sales outside of Equator. I don’t wish that horrible experience on any short sale agent. I love Equator and an Equator short sale. I am Equator Platinum Certified, not only for short sales but also for REOs. I received certifications for both. I don’t handle REOs, but you never know, one day I might. I have belonged to Equator since its transformation from REOTrans. It’s a lifeline for Sacramento short sale agents.