Can Short Sales Really Be Automated Like Cookie Cutters- One Size Fits All?
The short sales that I have been exposed to have all required a 'human factor' to get the job done. Case in point--one that I'm working right now with BOA: I was told to fax in the package, then told to upload it into the REO-Trans system. I did so and kept noticing that the information was disappearing. After several very long phone calls to a Bank of America rep, I wound up putting the information into the system a total of three times before one finally was visable to them--why, I don't know, I could see it just fine! Anyway, last week, still under the 'generic negotiator,' we got results--two approvals and one decline! What, what, WHAT? This was the SAME file! Same documentation, same EVERYTHING! Of course, I was frantically trying to delete the decline and keep one of the approvals but, can now find no one who knows the system well enough to assist me!
It's been a crazy mess--and suffice it to say, I personally prefer the lending institutions to keep some form of human factor in this--all hardships are not created equally and automation is not going to be able to evaluate this, or the financials in a 'fair' manner.
My opinion, they should have trained their staff on the new automated system BEFORE rolling it out to the agents!
Can Short Sales Really Be Automated Like Cookie Cutters and become like one size fits all? I don't think so. Real estate agents along with NAR made their voices heard to the powers that be in Congress and in the banking institutions. Of course, it is a pain to not have guidelines and to be negotiating short sales in wild, wild west fashion but on the other hand the cream rises to the top so the agents with the talent of negotiating skills and the gift of listening and communication skills rise above the rest and have come to have very successful short sale businesses, they close their short sales and save many homeowners from foreclosure.
Be careful what you scream for, be careful what you wish for- it may just come back to bite you.
Let's look at what is really behind the automation so widely being sought after by agents and the NAR these days in regards to short sales:
California based Equator who changed their name from REOTRANS- has created and is implementing the very first short sale automation process for a large lender. The company will not come out and say in public who the lender is who they made this process for to begin with but anyone doing any number of short sales can see the obvious connection with Bank of America telling us that they are automating their short sale process and also with us already being given files to place into this automated system.
The company called Equator says the key to a successful short sale are:
- accessibility,
- responsiveness,
- communication,
- fulfillment
Equator says that by large lenders using their new automated system that the homeowner will have 24/7 access to their file and will be able to directly upload required documentation. They will also be given real time updates electronically.
They claim their system will comply with all governmental regulations and compliance, quick fulfillment times, faster turnaround times and will automate the decision making process.
Now that all sounds great and dandy but whenever you take out the human factor of emotions, making exceptions and taking the negotiations to another level you are not going to get the same approval ratios.
One size does not fit all. I am seeing the writing on the wall. You have several problems with this system even before they implement it.
First, you have to get all the processors and negotiators trained on the system. We are getting files already in this system but the customer service people at BofA and the negotiators are not even trained yet in using the same system. So chalk that one up to the learning curve.
More importantly when everyone starts to depend on an automated system there is less room for the human decision making process like for exceptions to the rule. We can not even count the number of times that a file did not 'fit' the system but we got the short sale approved anyways. When people depend on an automated system they tend to answer, " that is the way it is," or "sorry, the system says they are not approved," etc.
While real estate agents are screaming to streamline the short sale process homeowners may be pushed into foreclosure rather than doing short sale work outs just because some system says they are not approved for a short sale.
So at the end of the day the result may be faster approval times but a higher rate of rejections.
Can Short Sales Really Be Automated Like Cookie Cutters- One Size Fits All? by Coach Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
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