My feeling better, less stressful, enjoying Good Friday because I quit my job yesterday life in Orange County!

There are ways to leave a job gracefully and then there are sometimes when you have to save yourself and just walk away. Yesterday, I quit after 6 months.

My accomplishments: I hired 3, fired 1, promoted 2, trained 3. I recognized gross risk issues surrounding safekeeping of original notes in case binders and had purchased fire-proof cabinets for storage. I wrote the compliance draft for safekeeping records... because they didn't have one. I suggested an electronic key card for the file storage room when I first arrived, but I was told it was too expensive. Once the new CRO was hired, it's back on the table, but with a wood door... to save money - so clueless. I started a collateral workbench project to take the #1 funder of reverse mortgages off of spreadsheets to track collateral prep between funding and shipping. I started the discussion about record retention and found out the table was out of date and they were sited for it at least once. BCP is out of date 3 years. I started to work on MERS 3 weeks ago after a visit from the relationship manager, and come to find out no reconciliation of the rejects, warnings, RI and RH reports have been done for years.( Probably since Margarita Harrison left the department. Last year, I found her at Carrington supervising a group of reviewers recertifying B of A Ginnie Mae correspondent collateral after B of A publically got slapped on the hand by Ginnie Mae for non-compliance.) I started to socialise the fact that they don't have to pay for registering mini-corr loans in MERS because the company not only has to pay the registration fee but puts them on the hook also for the MERS compliance. I organized the MERS project. I gained control over the MERS training and MERS production accounts. I set-up the security correctly and reactivated the secure questions. I created collateral qa check sheets for retail, wholesale and Advantage lines of business because again... they had none. I revised the hoc shipping desktop procedures. I ordered more carts to move files traveling through three floors of office space. My group took in processing collateral for the Wholesale group, including correspondent and mini corr (PA) loans. I enforced the clean desk policy in the suite. I gained control over the Iron Mtn account. I stabilized the file storage data and archived data for loan files stored at Iron Mountain. I collaborated across departments - with Facilities to promote safety and security, with File Management to reconcile workbenches and missing documents from the loan file, with funding to ID, log and deliver closing packaged and follow-up docs to the funders daily.

I learned what a HECM can do for 62+ seniors that have enough equity in their homes to access it, otherwise if short to close get nothing. After appraisal if their repairs cost money they don't have, get nothing. Many seniors are under the assumption that if they get a reverse mortgage, they don't have to pay taxes and insurance anymore, but that is not the case. Because HECM loans under their state's loan limit threshold are FHA insured, they pay upfront MIP a year in advance, plus recurring taxes, insurance and are required to keep up the home to FHA standards.Heirs can have the home if they pay back all disbursements plus high interest, otherwise it's sold and any work done to make it sellable is charged back to the dead borrower's heirs, because, hey, it's a violation of the terms of the deal.

What it came down to was I had a manager that hung her hat on quality assurance and knew little about the business and compliance side of post closing. She's never reviewed the custody agreements the team delivers to so she doesn't even know what's the right thing to do. She was excluded from new business meetings and didn't know or care enough to ask as it came down the pipeline, she sat on her hands before I got there and did nothing about the lack of department PNP, the MERS mismanagement, the need to secure original documents and the guidelines surrounding them until someone pointed it out to her. I even saw it in action in one of the record retention project meetings when before we got started, the discussion was about HUD petr reviews and she didn't know that the de underwriter would be dinged if the loan was deemed incurable, defective and uninsurable. She thought a broken loan is broken and just a loss to the company (period). She flooded the Santa Ana HOC with loans that didn't clear MIP and then they called her on it after I complained for two days. A strategic move she said. To see how loud and how many times I would complain about it because each one was landing on the reports my team was processing? Change management skills were minimal. She'd get a directive to change all of our collateral processes because one new warehouse wanted it a certain way. What? I called her on it and because she had called all of us in her office, I had to be tactful about it and come to find out I was right. And there was no thank you, how did you know, or empowerment over any of that. I described working for her as a white water rapid ride and every time I didn't get the information needed to do my job, I felt like I was getting bumped hard to the side of the boat almost being thrown overboard. It was a gut feeling, and I should of listened to my gut sooner, I should of stopped and thought that it was weird after the manager of the dept who worked under her up and quit and then I was called for a lesser role. Hind sight... She kept telling me I was slow to manage my staff and staff attendance problems. Well, slow just came to a hard stop yesterday. And I don't have to deal with it or her anymore.