Trying to register on their site, but right off the bat there is the visa sign. Are they one in which you have to pay to play? If so, is this a good idea? Here is the page I am on in case anyone is wanting to know.
https://ava.altisource.com/webtop/registration/default.aspYou need to be a member of REO Pro Network to add comments!
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Just get on Equator, they send us assets all day long.
I have been on Equator since it's inception. Equator is a platform not an asset management company. Some of the banks that have REO properties use Equator as their work platform. Equator does not assign listings to agents, the banks that use Equator do. You have to be an approved agent to get listings on Equator. Just signing up on Equator will not get you listings, sorry.
Do you have any idea how many new customers I got over the years just being on Equator? Lenders and servicers seem to find us just fine.
Yes I am not saying you can not obtain new clients on Equator. You do have to already have an account with at least one lender already established on Equator. I started with one and now have 11 . But if anyone thinks that they can just pay the Equator fee and get REOs assigned with out any previous experience or a client already on EQ , well that just does not happen.
Originally EQ charged 800.00 per year to be an agent on the EQ system. If you had a client who moved to EQ as their platform then that client could pay that fee for you and you could be assigned listing through EQ for that client. Recently, in the past 2 years a lot of REO company's left other platforms and now use Equator. They all can see your scoring and experience on EQ. They use this to decide which agents to assign listings to. But you can just pay to be on EQ and that will not do much for you unless you have a client on EQ and REO experience.
Altisource is not a bank or a lender. Ocwen stopped all lending activities years ago so that they could get out from under the lending laws. They have been strictly a servicer for years which allowed them to spin off Altisource as well as their real estate sales companies now called Home Servicing something or other. I am unsure how the new acquisitions position them in the market of lending and servicing but their goal has been to simply expand servicing.
I currently have one Wells pending sale/listing that came from Altisource. It has taken their foreclosure attorneys forever to get the deed filed so we can complete the deal. No real effort on my part so I didn't care much about the commission. I just put it in the MLS and have the buyer agents deal with the website. Ocwen was my largest source of listings up until about 2007-8. I currently do a lot of Altisource BPOs.
I know Altisource has a firm " mask or cloud" in place to make it seem like they are no longer in the lending end of things. I really question that. Their menu on the phone calls asking for the mortgage loan number and dept that you are calling about and some of the disclaimers on their calls leads me to believe other wise. If they are "servicing" current loans which they originated under OCWEN, then IMO they are still "dabbling" in the lending industry. They have just found a lope hole.My original mortgage loan was with Ocwen . They sold it in 2006. At that time I was also doing REO listings for them. I don't feel they are totally out of the lending end, but are using a sister company in that area. Most of their files when the name change went to Altisource were Ocwen files. They were already servicing other lenders as well at that time. Then suddenly the name change on their brokers offices from the Alitsource name. The affiliation with Going homes....auction site (and that is what it is) and the affiliate disclaimer included with every listing and sales package leads me to believe there is much more going on there then they care to discuss. Simply put I see it as a Foreign entity getting around the federal laws with a lot of questionable foot work to make it look like they aren't breaking any laws. If it quacks like a duck.....and walks like a duck...it most likely IS A DUCK.
As for their BPO, I turn down hundreds a month from them. They put them out there for any agent registered with them to do and the first agent who accepts gets the BPO . Then the follow up calls and e mails start. As many as 3 to 6 per day checking on progress. That wastes a lot of time just assuring them every couple of hours that I am working on their 45.00 BPO . Then there is the billing fee they keep from that . The entire reason they still let agents do BPOs is they have not found a way for their in house agent to do all of the YET.The same with the preservation. They pay 6.00 per trip for a person to go take photos for their agent who never even sees the property.
When you get a listing at the 800.00 commission you have months of trying to keep the sale together because they can not ever close on time or even 30 days after. The time and calls you have to deal with along with all the other crazy things they do or don't feel the need to do is just not worth my time. I have more self respect than that, ....sorry. I think all of these REO asset companies are beginning to treat Real Estate Agents like lower class required but unwanted people. Altisource has found a way to USE agents at will and when necessary while abusing them and devaluing them. For me I think we are valuable , knowledgeable and necessary professionals who should be treated that way. If I wanted a minimum wage job (or less even) I would go be a store greeter and forget the expensive dues, required education and all the mental and physical work required in an REO listing. I think it is time for all agents to stand up and regain the respect we deserve in this industry. But that is just my opinion.
I absolutely agree.....If you ask me, most of these asset management companies have become a joke.
I was a leading agent for OCWEN for 7 years. When they changed to Altisource and began their miss use of their agents, I quit doing business with them. ALtisource takes a small service fee on each BPO submitted so you get about 43.00 each. You do get about 6 e-mails and 4 phone calls on each BPO you accept from them in the 48 hours turn time for each BPO assigned. They keep checking to see if you are doing the BPO as you agreed. I find that far too irritating and time consuming to deal with . Sort of harassment to get the BPO done after you accept it. IMO
I don't know what state you are in but most of ALtisource's listings are in house now. They have their own Brokerages in most states, so you can not get listings. Occasionally they will assign a very problematic listing to an outside agent when their in house agent refuses to take it. The commission is around 800.00 total on almost all of these listings. By the time you do all the required tasks they give on these problem listings you feel like the 800.00 was really far to low. The you get the referral fee surprises when it gets sold!! They will occasionally assign a property , assign tasks and when you are done doing the work, they take it from you and give it back to their own in house agent, paying you nothing for all your work. They are all difficult to understand, unresponsive and have a lot of issues , making your listing difficult at best. They use agents as much as they can and compensate as little as possible. They do not honor the listing agreement at all and the wording in it gives them the right to charge 2 referral fees from the listing commission. Even though it states you will get a minimum of 800.00 (on all listings no matter how much the property is sold for) the 2 fees take a large portion of the commission. On 1200 commission a fee of 397.50 and the second for 400.00 on a 27 K property. This left the listing commission at 402.50 on the sale on a terrible property I worked on for over 6 months.
They assign some properties and then take them away with out compensation at the time they list the properties. This is after initial BPOS, photos, lawn work and initial checks and trash outs are done or arranged by the agent.They did this to me on 3 properties and then said too bad.
I do not know why any agent today would want to allow any company to use and abuse agents the way ALtisource does. They have found a way to use agents and agents keep signing up for more abuse. We all should value our profession much more than that. Say no to ALtisource's BPOS and Listings(if you get one) and absurd treatment and eventually they will have to value Real Estate agents , as they should or find some other way to sell their assets.This company is really not worth working for and if you read the past posts on this blog I think you make think twice about signing up for anything from them.
Good luck...you have been warned.
I took one listing from them, though in my state their agent lives about 2,000 miles away....so this was a crap house that wouldn't sell. I looked and saw they had two other agents prior to calling me. I knew it wouldn't be a good thing, but I took the listing just to have that experience. We did a price drop, I drove about 90 miles round trip to install my sign. 2 weeks later they auctioned if off. I got a "sorry, but your contract does allow us to do this and not pay you crap" email. Well, I am sure it does.....no doubt there!! I haven't even returned to get my sign. The $175 it cost me is worth going back up to get it, but my feeling is that it was trashed when it was auctioned. I do so wish there were laws about how banks operate when they are lending money in the US. I know they are the "owners' of the properties so MLS can't really step in, nor can our states...but the whole having their team in India...ught! I hate dealing with it.
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