Substitute "pets.com" for "Ameriquest" and you'll have some serious deja-vu
As the realtors, mortgage bankers, builders, appraisers, developers and others connected to the corrupt real estate industrial complex get their pink slips, you'll see serious hurt and disruption in the "real estate cities" where 20% - 40% of all jobs are connected to the the home business - Phoenix and Miami being ground zero, as Silicon Valley was during the last bubble pop.
Ameriquest Parent to Lay Off 3,800 Workers
The parent company of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and Town & Country Credit said Tuesday it will close 229 branch offices and lay off 3,800 employees nationwide.
The downsizing came as rising interest rates have put a damper on the once-booming loan refinancing market, particularly the sub-prime business, which is often geared toward homeowners looking to cash in equity to pay off mounting debt at a lower interest rate.
Ameriquest is the nation's largest sub-prime mortgage lender.
May 03, 2006
FLASH: Dot-com to dot-condo: Here come the mass layoffs
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17 comments:
Recently, Ameriquest was fined millions of dollars for predatory lending; their own employees blew the whistle since they were being harassed by management to meet certain quotas by committing fraud - see L.A. Times archives. I guess the branch closures will help offset the cost of those fines.
I hate to see people lose their jobs but Ameriquest is a VERY shady corp.
whoopsie
"...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country."
-President George W. Bush, June 17, 2004
ALL offices are now closed. LMFAO!
Heard WAMU is shutting down whole "Home Loan Departments" in Seattle too.
Last winter they shut a bunch of branches all over the US, but made it sound, at the time, that Seattle was "safe" from job losses.
Ha!
There's nothing wrong with owning your house. It's a good thing that creates stable communities. The problem is when people get in over their head and buy more than they can afford or start speculating in RE.
I blame the buyers, banks and regulators for allowing the insanity to continue so long. The banks should know better than to allow unqualified people to borrow so much money. The regulators should have never allowed I/O and neg-am loans. The buyers should have done more research before buying. As usual, the mouth is bigger than the stomach.
Ameriquest is not a "Shady" corp. The are just the largest "Sub-Prime" corp and take the heat for the rest of the industry. I'm sure everyone you know in the industry charge as much or more than Ameriquest but they don't make the news because they are nobodys.
The "Ground Zero" of the real estate crash will be Orange County, if you aren't in mortgages here you are living with your parents or married smart.
"By eliminating its branch offices, the company is shifting toward a business model that emphasizes Internet and phone service over sales associates who interact in person with borrowers."
What does that mean? India!
Yes, they are sending the jobs out of the country. Didn't say in this article but it's the truth.
Hey Anonymous boy,
What are you basing your claims on when you say Ameriquest is sending jobs to India? Did you just pull that out of your #$%@?
Please get the facts or provide a "Credible" source.
Thanks
You mean I won't be gettng 2-3 phone calls a night asking me if I want to re-finance my loan? What will I do? Last night's call, I told the loser to get a real job before I hung up on him.
SNAP was created with help from Tavant Technologies, a software development consulting firm with offices in Santa Clara, Calif., and Bangalore, India, that Ameriquest uses partly for its offshore development resources.
Tavant also developed the unique loan origination system that coordinates workflow, system intelligence and imaging. Representatives make underwriting decisions faster. Productivity is up. And borrowers have a better process experience.
_______________
Moreover, we tune and maintain Ameriquest's systems from our offices in India to extend this end-to-end solutions suite over its lifecycle.
_______________
It's just like the dotcom bust. The media are reporting record numbers for growth and projecting a bright future forever. Meanwhile, in the real world the layoffs and closings have started.
We have dozens of small builders around here that seem to have trouble selling their $750K houses. Many have workers living in them (the ten year old pickups in the driveway and Redi-Shades on the windows are a dead giveaway) or are renting them to relatives so they aren't hit with huge insurance premiums on unoccupied properties. The question is how long will the banks wait before they turn on these poor bastards and demand payment?
RE flyers are showing 10%-15% drops in the asking prices even though inflation is supposedly over 10% a year now.
Yes, the worm has turned here in CO, it's over for this cycle.
Re Ameriquest.
They ARE shady but they can afford to be. They are privately owned unlike most other lending institutions so they don't have a board to answer to. He can do as he pleases as long as he can afford the fines - And the bad press.
All subprime lenders are shady to some degree...It is the backwater of consumer finance!
You moron....it had nothing to do with the market slowdown....they had to pay back $295 million dollars in settlement charges back to consumers that they had ripped off! The company also agreed to pay $30 million to those states participating in the settlement agreement for costs of the investigation, consumer education and enforcement. Just goes to show you how stupid you are and how easy you can turn a story around to make it seem like something else!!!
Riskbabe,
I see you live here in Irvine also so you might actully know someone who has worked for Ameriquest. I have. I've also worked for several other lenders and they are ALL the same. Several brokers I know gouge clients worse. Please let me know of any Subprime lenders who you know for a fact are not "Shady"
Thanks for helping make my point by not answering.
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