I was thinking about getting certified through Equator, but now I'm wondering if the expense is justified ($499 annually for platinum). For those who have been certified, did your workload increase significantly? Would you recommend it to others (obviously outside of your market)?

I did not notice any increase in my existing business and have not received any new business from new contacts that resulted from this Certification. In my opinion, the certification process was rather foolish and elementary. Secondly, if one passes the exam the first time, why should you have to take the exam a second time when you renew other than to provide Equator with another $499.00. Once you become certified, you should remain certified as you are with any other professonal certifications. My certification will expire next month and I do not plan to renew.

It's a waste of money. It's just a way for REOTrans to dip their hands into your pockets. The AMC couldn't care less about the certification.

Ok, thanks for the responses. Another person in my area swears by it, but I thought perhaps she had an ulterior motive (to see me waste my money on it). Any other certifications that you would recommend as a worthwhile investment/effort?

I cant think of any. The only ones I've done are the ones Citi required to work for them. Besides that I don't bother with these companies useless certifications.

On my last Five star conference in '09 we were at the lender's open house, there was a AM from a new company I believe he was the owner too,he claimed his father is/was a Realtor and he was telling us how bad he felt about us and the people that are going after our money, he said they assign throughout Reotrans he advised us not to spend money on this certification thing as they are careless about it, they only look for Realtors on the zip code where the property is located and how is the history on the assignments. Que tal!!!

Just a big waste of money. $499 for certification and for that much money they still want .03 a day for every zip code you service. But if you want your picture, add an extra .04 per day to the mix. what a rip off.

I have 2 clients now through Equator, and I've never gotten the certification.

But I'm wondering if they should call their advanced levels "Tropic of Capricorn" and "Tropic of Cancer".

Just thinking out loud here.....

Thanks for the input to all who have contributed. It sure saved me the $499 to get it (and I had planned to do it this week). Forums like this certainly make the experience worthwhile.

What you need to do is put your efforts in trying to get approved with the banks that work on REO Trans, directly.

Here it goes...

$499.00 Training

overall thought- WORTHLESS

DETAILED THOUGHT
The training is 95% how to use the equator platform. 5% rudimentary REO knowledge.

You don't have to even have watch the modules to pass the tests. You can simply take and retake the exams until you pass.

after half a day of watching the videos, i passed all the exams with little to no real educational value, unless you call learning how to upload photos to a website and informative.

upgraded profile 60/year

My profile was viewed a measly 28 times in 9 months, no reos as a result. (it was viewed 18 times the year before with no 499 fee, so yes it was viewed more, but did it really lead to more work...no)

BPO's 50/per month

i get about 20 bpo broadcasted emails monthly. i would compare this to M2M. In that by the time emails are received the bpo's are already accepted. I spent about 6 months actively trying to catch an order. I only ever saw 2, which happened when i randomly checked for bpos, but by the time i hit accept, and entered captcha, they were gone. (i am very good at catching the M2M orders, i would say equator is about 20 times as hard due to increased amount of agents and less amount of orders available. i would say i see about 1-3 broadcasted every few days. now for 50 a month that doesn't make much sense to me...

to recap i was about 900 dollars in before i cut my zip codes back down to just my home town. Its been 9 months into the paid platinum certification, and i have not received a single bpo or reo.

But, I'm sure most of the people that read this are skeptical or stubborn (like me) but at least i can feel good about myself for trying to help out struggling bpo agents. This is definitely not for anyone new to bpo or reo, and even for the experienced agent, beware that you could easily go thousands of dollars in and receive no work like me.

the only other site ive paid for was
FAS 299, i called in biweekly and received 3 bpos over 1 year...i had heard mixed reviews about equator and I'm stubborn so i ponied up the money, and now regret it.

compare this to my free accounts which average 200/bpos a month...and the choice is simple

persistence, quality work, on time reports and i now receive 200 bpos a month

VS
$499 certification fee +60/year for bold and photo + $50 a month for exposure and chances to get bpos and no results

299 FAS fee (maybe this was less i dont remember it was a long time ago. and maybe not even fas... it was my rookie mistake years ago... but point is i paid some company hundreds and recieved only a few bpos.


But hey maybe your experience will be better, i mean 1160 isn't that much right... only takes me about 20 bpos and about 20 hours of work...ugh i hate thinking in bpo terms...

When it comes down to it, im not telling anyone what to do but

All i have to say is

Caveat Emptor

I just changed my account back to the very basic one yesterday. No more paying for my picture, bold title and blurb. I'm saving my money. Never have received a bpo or REO. I think I signed up with them in 2008.

Moneymike, thanks for the detailed info, that's exactly the type of informative account/experience I wanted to know. You made up my mind.

Platinum is a RIPOFF! I never got anything from it and I got the cert last Sept. Save your time and money! Basic is all you need (if you have clients that use the platform). I can't believe that Equator expects us to actually pay this ridiculous fee "annually" to maintain Platnum status!

Just received an e-mail from Equator promoting their Short Sale Certifications. Anyone see any value in this? Mike did an excellent job breaking down the packages but not sure anything has changed.