Hello,

Now you know why volume has been so bad on Altisource since Dec 2012! I suspect they bought equator just for the platform to connect to Agents.and to charge fees, fees, and more fees ..Maybe the new normal is make everyone "pay" to do business with the many vendors....Looks like the REO/BPO industry is just like any industry I have seen..... lots of players at first, lots of models...and then in a few years....you have the Cartel and Heisenberg.....What are your thoughts?

Joey Singh
Ameritax BPO Inc.
Business Development 

Tax and Business Consulting
AmeriTax Inc.
Learn how we can increase your business with our marketing help!
www.TheAmeriTaxWay.com
JSingh@theameritaxway.com
Skype: Ameritax1
1 212 801 2390 Office Ext 888
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/joeysingh     

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  • - Bottom Line is this- when companies merger there is a "synergy" and the first thing they tell investors is - We are going to CUT costs first..by combining expenses...eliminating redundancies etc....so since Arnold pointed out the suction (not a typo)  fees are still 5%- guess where they will get their "cost efficiencies" from? So it will turn out that REO dispositions will be another industry crushed by mergers, acquisitions, technology, and outsourcing...

    Time for Realtors to go out and market yourself as a "brand You" again to actual, living home sellers for regular sales AND short sales..

    Joey Singh
    Ameritax BPO Inc.
    Business Development 

    Tax and Business Consulting
    AmeriTax Inc.
    Learn how we can increase your business with our marketing help!
    www.TheAmeriTaxWay.com
    JSingh@theameritaxway.com
    Skype: Ameritax1
    1 212 801 2390 Office Ext 888
    1 516 881 0126 Direct Operations Floor Line
    1 800 689 6028 Fax
    1 917 859 4400 Cell
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/joeysingh     

    • /joey - they all are just greedy scumbags trying to figure out how to get their thumbs in the trillion dollar real estate pie. Of course all the plums they get will come from the pockets of the lowly RE agent trying to scrape up a living wage.

       

      I do not play any of the games. I pay $74/monht to two RE listing web sites. That's it! Business is great and they all can stick their thumbs where the sun don;t shime. They will not get any of my hard earned money. You, pay 'em of you want to. See what you get in return.

  • I have a strong feeling Altisource will use Equator for their short sale platform. Altisource have already hubzu.com exclusively dedicated to their REO listings. Hubzu also entertain other independent agents to list auction traditional as well as short sale listings. Unfortunately, Altisource does not support the Realtors community well since they do not list to local REO agents.... On another issue, NationStar is using auction.com for short sale listing agent as a condition for the short sale approval.

    • Arnold,  So  since NationStar/SolutionStar has gone the Auction.com route and I suspect that SolutionStar is going to be  a "referral Fee" addition  much like HSS   the actual commission is likely to get smaller..DO you agree?  

       

      The viability appears to be less and less

      http://Auction.com/
      • Jay, I see NationStar using Homesearch.com as their exclusive REO auction listing portal and the sad part is they pay only 1% to the cooperating selling boker, and most likely 1% also to the property managing listing broker. But the portal is charging 5% buyers premium to be paid by the buyer in addition to the winning listing bid. The auction company looks like is the one making the commission money while the agents make a pity 1% each. This commission is also published in the local MLS as 1%..

        I see also that NationStar uses Auction.com as the outlet for approving agents short sale listings and offers have to be submitted through biding. Selling agent is usually paid 2.5 as published on the auction info. I see also Chase and BoA starting to put their REO assets and short sale at Auction.com and not even paying commission to selling brokers, and of course, plus the 5% buyers premium. AltiSource's Hubzu.com still pays 3% to the selling broker but who knows if they will reduce it too. For now, AltiSource is not using local listing broker but their own in-house broker.

        These auction trending is kind of changing again the industry how properties are getting sold, and the trend is paying less and less to the agents but these banks and mortgage companies want your loans. This is what I suspect is the direction of AltiSource buying Equator, to be their outlet for short sale approval. And again, Equator is becoming also as a consumer website compared to as an exclusive RE professional website when it was started.

        Watch out also for another portal, Sold.com. This appears to be owned by the same owner for Auction.com.  I see Sold.com is heavily advertising on the internet soliciting homeowners to list directly saving the agent commission. Of course, there will be the 5% buyers premium to be paid by the Buyer in addition to the winning price, which is the fee for Sold.com

         

  • NOW----- there will be sky-high fee's....... they don't like paying us.....

  • This is the same company who outsources everything to India, while we need the work here in this Country. Case in point, I serviced an REO for PAM; it was a CFK where the seller had ALS, a pretty lengthy and heart wrenching situation. After 3 months, I was told by PAM, the asset is being reassigned, however I would continue to retain it and sell it. When the seller finally moved out the asset was in the REO no-man’s-land, PAM was not in charge and no new AM was assigned. When the seller moved out, I handed them the check I had from PAM, and changed the lock as was the procedure and continued  my weekly inspections. All of a sudden the lock was changed to an Altisource lock and I had to eat the lock change I paid for plus the 5 month of servicing. Of course you cannot get in touch with anyone at Altisource to find out who will do the reimbursement. We finally fired PAM, sick of their negative reinforcement,  and would never work for Altisource. Had I know 5 months earlier it would be reassigned to Altisource I would have quit 5 months earlier. In regards to Equator, don’t get sucked into paying for zip codes in anticipation for REO assignments  and any of their certifications, in  my opinion you are wasting your money.

  • Joey, I love your Breaking Bad reference, especially being in Albuquerque where the showing is based. I agree with your assessment. I think the REO business as we knew it years ago is gone and likely never to return. Time to get back into traditional real estate. I loved REO but going from closing 50 sales a year without platform fees and little to no referral fess to paying through the nose to get a handful of listings a year at greatly reduced commissions and/or huge referral fees is a bad way to try to make a living. I recently had two closings a couple weeks apart. An REO listing and a buyer I picked up from my website. By the time I paid platform fees, referral fees, invoice fees, technology fees and unnecessary overcharge fees I made four times as much on the buyer sale with less work and more fun. And guess what, the buyer actually said thank you at closing.  

  • It is interesting to note that Ocwen spin-offs, with Altisource being the largest, continue to make acquisitions and now is shrinking the relatively competitive platform market.   Altisource has even bought servicing rights FROM Ocwen.  With these companies incorporated off shore, I wonder what laws they have to follow in regard to anti-trust - not that this transaction fits.

  • This came from Equator at 8:09 am:
    "Dear CECILIA 'CECE',

    We are excited to announce that Altisource®, a premier marketplace and transaction solutions provider for the real estate, mortgage and consumer debt industries, has announced it will acquire Equator. We expect to close within 30 days.

    What does this mean for our agent network? Equator will not be changing our name, our offices or our management team. There will be no changes in the way you transact business today. In the near future, we will be even better equipped to provide you with value added services, technology and relationships. Equator and Altisource have a highly complementary set of technologies and services which will enable us to provide a more comprehensive, integrated solution and build new products and services to better support your business.

    We are excited to launch this next phase of our company and our agent network, and are deeply grateful for your ongoing support. You can continue to look to us to provide you with the same great service and technologies you have come to expect from Equator.

    Please feel free to contact us personally should you have any questions.
     
    Sincerely,

    Christopher Saitta
    Chief Executive Officer
     
    John Vella
    Chief Operations Officer"
    I haven't used Equator for years as most of my clients stopped using them years ago.   
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