In an effort to speed up the short sale process, some lenders are choosing to automate the way approvals are given. Bank of America is using a new system to automate the approvals of short sales, called Equator. It uses an Automatic Valuation Model (AVM) like Zillow.com to determine the value of the home, and any offer must match that value to be accepted. As anyone using Zillow knows, AVMs can be fairly inaccurate, often estimating a much higher value than it really is worth. Read the rest of this entry »