Goodbye Amerihome, Hello New Opportunity

 Today I was a part of RIF #4 at Amerihome Mortgage's Retail office location in Irvine. They said it was due to the uptick in interest rates. 

On Fridays, most operations personnel are allowed to work from home and I was the only OPS person in the office today (because I'm, err was the post closing specialist that prepares, logs, and ships collateral every day, among other compliance tasks and occasional government insuring duties) besides the CD manager and she walked me out after getting laid off on a conference call with my personal belongings. Everyone else laid off today is having their stuff handed to them in a box at the front door once they surrender their electronic keys and computer hardware on Monday.

I am thankful that I got some great experience working at Amerihome to complement my post-closing, trailing docs experience, and MERS SME role working at Kinecta FCU for 5 years. I also ran the credit dispute desk there for a short time, updating their SOPS and bringing their administrative processes into compliance. As you can tell, I love the back-office jobs.

As the mortgage world turns

...and burns. Sprout Mortgage closed yesterday, 7/6/2022. And it wasn't pretty. And it wasn't kind.

The way this company left it's workers out in the cold is what makes people run away screaming when someone says ' mortgage job'. Harry Santos trying to make amends to the I don't know how many countless people affected post on LinkedIn was commendable.

Veterans Need to be on High Alert when Seeking VA Mortgage Loans

 

Many finance companies do a good job of providing accurate advertising that generates leads and can be developed into new business. However, the results below, even though well-intentioned, did not meet the criteria set forth by the CFPB.

This post consists of public information available on the websites of CFPB and BBB.

A great article about foreclosure and how it effected one family in Southern California...

A great article about foreclosure and how it effected one family in Southern California...

The Never Ending Foreclosure

Why you should avoid buying anything from an infomercial at 3AM

You have to be careful because everyone wants to separate you from your money. I think about this fact every time I read the emails that land in my inbox advertising for this or that.

And then there is all the commercials on tv. Buy our product because you're getting older, uglier, sadder and sicker as time rolls on and if you buy our products you'll be less of those things. But you need money to buy all of  those things. And when you don't feel like you have enough, people will go through all sorts of lengths to get it. So here I am, currently unemployed and wide awake at 3AM watching the latest infomercial selling the idea that life can be easier if you follow our system to be a real estate investor. Immediately, I'm skeptical. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Bait and switch. These were the things that were running through my head watching advertising for a seminar to get rich quick flipping homes cloaked as become a real estate investor.

So here's how it goes. You attend a seminar. You are baited by a book and some sort of minimal free giveaway of cheap electronic equipment they bought in bulk. You get some general information, but not enough to do anything with unless you buy into additional workshop. So you have to then buy into the workshop. And then at the workshop, you are sold access to the experts and walkthroughs. "This is how I did it and if I can do it, you can do it, too."Learn the steps to success and repeat these steps over and over again."

Doug Clark. Who is this guy? Someone from Utah that flipped houses and was filmed doing so to make a certain type of reality tv show. You can find this out if you search for "Flip Men" and watch shows on youtube. The tv show went off the air four years ago. Investigating further, the Better Business Bureau currently has a great example of what it's like to go through their learning process and you can read how these poor people from New Mexico feel like they were duped:

http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/seminars-and-training-wealth-building-and-real-estate-results-not-substantiated/doug-clark-in-lindon-ut-22364446/Complaints#breakdown

So how does this go for them? They buy an LLC. They make a business selling you the same LLC paperwork to you. You pay the filing fee. They call an infomercial company and create 10 minutes of script that's repeated 3 times to create a 30 minute show. They hire a host to ask scripted questions of spokesperson. The background for the host looks like a newsroom or a talk show stage. The spokesperson looks like they are sitting inside a beautiful home, but it can be a photo projected on a green screen which provides the desired appearance for you to think, "Yeah, I want what this guy has." In actuality, he's sitting in another part of the studio. Once the infomercial is filmed and produced, they rent seminar rooms in hotels around the country. They develop presentations at four different levels. One for the free talk to get you to come in (the infomercial). Two to provide some more information to bait you to buy the seminar. (They have to sell enough seminars to pay for the space they rented on credit cards.) Three is to buy the access to the process and techniques they are familiar with but you're not..Maybe even a website they feed with the foreclosures that you can get from newspapers yourself.  They prey on the fact that you're not confident you're doing things right because you're not gaining the expected results they tell you you should be having so... Four you get access to the experts... the people that keep you in the process so they can use any amount of success you may have to bolster what they are trying to sell in the first place.

You paid for a seminar, a LCC, you maxed out all of your credit cards and then paid for access. You haven't bought a foreclosed home yet which is what you wanted to do in the first place. You'll need more money to do that so you'll have to get others to pay for the purchase of a foreclosed home reducing your profit margin. You'll have to pay for others to fix the home because you're probably not a licensed contractor and then will reduce your profit margin more. If you couldn't find other serious investors, you went to a bank or mortgage company to get a loan and then the mortgage comes due between 30-60 days. That's the same time frame you have to fix the property and sell it. This is why you want a buyer on contract to get you out from under having to pay for that mortgage payment. They also forgot to tell you you also have to file two tax returns, one personal and one for your business. They also don't tell you that as a real estate investor, you're responsible for self employment taxes on all money you make.

You don't need to buy someone else's seminar to know that everything you do involving a home is expensive and you end up paying for it in the end. You don't need to buy someone else's seminar to tell you that if the mortgage payment is more than the going rental rate, you'll forced to sell. Guys like these love to sell seminars like these in states where the real estate is expensive so you have no recourse when you fail because you didn't follow their program.

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.

Finance in the News w/e 1/9/16

Finance in the News for the week ending 1/9/16.

This is my first financial post of the new year!

1)
Just when you think the country has gotten passed the ridiculousness of the subprime mortgage crisis and learned its lesson having to bail out under capitalized financial institutions, Fannie Mae has devised a way to entice those desperate to own a home with another high risk mortgage product:

Fannie Mae Rolls Out Easy Mortgage, Catering To High-Risk Immigrants Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010716-788747-government-wants-to-lend-more-to-high-risk-immigrants

https://www.fanniemae.com/singlefamily/homeready

2)
Powerball soars to a new record high $800M with a drawing tonight at 8PM. Image having an extra $400M laying around after taxes. Wow. And remember, you can't win if you don't play.

http://www.powerball.com/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/powerball-drawing-clues-previous-lottery-winners/story?id=36143401

3)
Millennials are debt averse. I should know. My twenty-something son, who still lives at home, is one.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/these-millennials-are-socking-away-15-of-their-salary

1st Day

Today, August 10, 2015, I have started a new chapter in my career working back in Orange County again and closer to home. Today is my first day at American Advisors Group, the largest reverse mortgage originator in the U.S. and I'm the new Inventory Control Supervisor.

Dear Diary 03/06/2015

Dear Diary,

I don't think anyone really reads this blog unless they *really* know me or trip over it while scanning for something to read in general on Blogger being nosy and peaking into others lives or even living vicariously through them, so here it goes.

Yesterday was the last day of my physical therapy. It was twelve sessions of a routine structured by my physical therapist in order to gain back the flexibility and strength in my left wrist. My left hand is still weaker than the right one, always has been, but I've got full flexibility and can move with no pain which were the main goals.

So along with doing this routine, I have unexpectedly been getting to know my physical therapist.

On the first day, he seemed excited that he met me... a woman who was around the same general age he was and he started to talk about moving to Irvine and how bad-bad-bad the traffic is driving around LA. And then, whether he realized it or not, he insulted me and my decisions about morality. "What in the hell...", and "Where does he get off...", was the running through my mind as I was hooked up to the electric muscle stimulator/ice pack wrap for the next 20 minutes. I couldn't just walk out, I didn't want to create a scene in the therapy room by ripping off the pack and electrodes as I already did that online by writing a bitchy review on Yelp.com about deceitful practices, wait times and patient privacy in the clinic. In my mind, I knew I had a finite time for therapy and then I wouldn't have to deal with Mr. Insensitive ever again.

Most of the time when there were other patients in the PT room, I'd just sign in and do this routine: stretch on the tabletop both ways, twist the red rubber rod both ways, exercise my fingers to gain strength with devices that look like clothes pins, wrist rolls with 1 and then 2 lbs weights (100 reps each way, front, back, and vertical), wall push-ups, picking up and putting down a weighted wooden box, then 10 minutes on full body cycle. After other patients left, he'd talk to me more and more.

And like I stated before, yesterday, was the last day of therapy. He talked about his HAMP refinance, his interest rate, his sister, his parents, his friends marriage and how his wife doesn't cook or clean, snow in Utah, San Francisco, Texas, the bonus money he got by working in Texas, taxes and deductions, eventually moving to Seattle, his parents and the fact that he's working on Torrance per diem this weekend. I'm not a psychologist, I'm a human. If people feel the need to talk to me, I'm a good listener. I'm not sure if it sunk in that I'm not going to be coming to therapy anymore with this guy. I asked for a printout reflecting that I went to all of my therapy session so show my employer. And we said our goodbyes and he said he would see me on the 17th when I have my appointment with the Ortho doctor, which confused me. I asked if he'll be at the appointment, and he said he's be here.

With all of these discussions, I feel like I'm getting sized up for a bigger role in his life as though he he's interested in me and wants more than just the therapist/patient relationship, but hasn't directly expressed this to me. Why do guys send out signals like this?

Back in the financial sector...

http://www.occ.gov/topics/consumer-protection/foreclosure-prevention/correcting-foreclosure-practices.html

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/08232013_mortgage_servicing_cfpb.asp

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/08212013_oig_gses_fhfa.asp

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/10261295/Goldman-Sachs-Signs-of-a-slow-recovery-in-the-eurozone.html

More Financial Links:

http://moneyning.com/mortgage/how-to-recast-your-mortgage/

Recast. Maybe you've heard this rarely used financial term before and didn't know what it was. Well, what a recast basically is is a principle reduction plus a re-amortization of the remaining balance on your loan. The above link which takes you the MoneyNing blog by David Ning explains it all.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-practical-moves-avoid-problem-080054368.html

Good advice on how to gain control over your finances.