What to Do with Displaced Mortgage Brokers
Theresa Boardman, of the always excellent St. Paul Real Estate Blog, muses on the fate and future employment prospects of the growing list of unemployed mortgage brokers in the Twin Cities. (2600 0f 4000 mortgage brokers did not renew their licenses this year):
[W]here will the 2600 local lenders who decided not to renew their licenses go?
I have an idea. Perhaps the over worked REO* departments at some of the local banks will add staff. That would help the economy by providing jobs and by making it possible for the banks to actually sell the properties that they own instead of leaving them abandoned and vacant becasue there isn't anyone at the bank who is actually available to return a phone call or make a decision.
On the one hand, this is a pretty good idea - put all these people to work in the loss mitigation and REO departments - they obviously need the manpower. Supply meets demand and all that.
On the other, we can assume that a goodly portion of these these 2600 + brokers were the amateurs that flooded the market to make a quick buck, and also were inflating appraisals, dotting the "i's in liar loans, and involved in the other sketchy behaviors that got us into this mess in the first place.
Though the idea of having those that made the mess help clean it up appeals to our sense of irony and poetic justice (in a "make the war criminals dig their own grave" sort of way) we're not sure that this is who we want running Loss Mit/REO depts. Especially if the standard is "actually available to return a phone call or make a decision" since these are THE specific skill sets that the crap brokers universally lack.
To the Realtors out there: Do you really want those half-assed brokers (who would never give a straight answer, never return a phone call, and screw up your deals) on the sell side, where you HAVE to deal with them? Didn't think so.