Subprime Woes
Funding America Inc. of Houston has joined the growing list of subprime mortgage lenders that are shutting down in a brutal environment.In an undated notice on its Web site, the lender, a joint venture between its president, Neil Notkin, and the subprime servicer Ocwen Financial Corp., said it is discontinuing operations, "due to current market conditions in the mortgage industry."
The company is using a skeletal staff to process remaining loans in its pipeline, and it closing its offices in Chicago, Dallas, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, Fla., and Irvine, Calif.
"We will close those loans in as smooth a manner as possible," the Web site notice said.
Funding America, with 100 employees, was formed two years ago. A person familiar with the situation said it asked Ocwen for additional funding to stay in business and was turned down.
A spokesman for Ocwen would not discuss the matter. According to the West Palm Beach, Fla., company's most recent annual report, it has guaranteed to repay up to 5% of Funding America's obligations but is not liable to the venture's creditors for anything beyond that.
Another troubled subprime originator, Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc., has sent layoff notices to the 832 employees it put on furlough early this month, when it ran out of funding and stopped taking applications through its wholesale channel.
Last week the Middletown, Conn., company received a temporary
MLN has 960 employees in its remaining servicing and retail divisions.
Green Lending
Greenlight Financial Services Inc., a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender in Irvine, is offering discounts of up to $295 on home loan fees to energy-efficient consumers.To qualify, a consumer must fill out a questionnaire on the company's Web site. Discounts are granted if a home has solar paneling, is made with recycled material, uses green flooring materials such as bamboo, or has other environmentally friendly attributes, Greenlight said Tuesday.
Comings and Goings
SecoLink Settlement Services LLC, a vendor-management unit of KeyCorp of Cleveland, said Tuesday that it has hired John Cirincione as its chief appraiser.Mr. Cirincione was the national chief appraiser for Mortgage Information Services Inc. of Cleveland. Before that he had been the chief appraiser for Western Reserve Savings Bank. He also has worked as a consultant to the real estate industry and has held management positions in loan underwriting and servicing with People's Savings and Loan of Bucyrus, Ohio.
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a Melville, N.Y., real estate investment trust, said Tuesday that it has hired Doug Hatch to lead the Las Vegas branch of its wholesale division, American Brokers Conduit.
Before joining American Home, Mr. Hatch was a vice president and branch manager in the wholesale division at GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc. (Last month Capital One Financial Corp. acquired GreenPoint Mortgage's parent, North Fork Bancorp. Inc.)
The Santa Fe, N.M., REIT Thornburg Mortgage Inc. said this month that it has promoted Deirdre Rogers to senior vice president and national sales executive for the correspondent lending channel.
Ms. Rogers was in charge of Thornburg's correspondent lending business in the Northeast. She succeeded Ronald Chicaferro, who left the REIT.
Joseph Badal, a senior vice president and the chief lending officer at Thornburg, said in a press release that Ms. Rogers' "wealth of experience in correspondent sales and mortgage lending should prove valuable as we continue to grow our origination channel nationwide."
Her promotion took effect Dec. 15.
On Tuesday, Thornburg said it had hired Wendi Massaro its East Coast broker sales account executive.
Ms. Massaro was the founder and president of Quantum Mortgage Corp. of White Plains, N.Y. Before that she had been a senior mortgage loan officer at SLH Mortgage and Financial Services in Mineola and an intermediate financial analyst at Prudential Financial Inc.
Forms Add Function
Stewart Transaction Solutions Inc. of Houston has acquired Formulator, a desktop forms application, and WebForms, an Internet-based version of the product, from Realigent Inc., an Irvine real estate software and technology services company.The acquisitions complement Stewart Transaction's other online form offerings for lenders, the Stewart Information Services Corp. unit said Monday.
Stewart Transaction also offers SureClose, a digital file platform for mortgage transactions.
Quotable …
"There was a time when Wall Street firms were chasing you down and wouldn't leave you alone to buy loans. But now it's like they're doing you a favor."Raymond Eshaghian, the chairman and chief executive of TMSF Holdings Inc., the Los Angeles parent of Mortgage Store Financial Inc., in an interview this month.
