Where WaMu went wrong

[SeattleMoose]

They dug their own grave. Too bad for the many who are gonna feel the fallout from the actions of the few. Common theme these days.

[Ubersalad]

[deejayoh]

[Ubersalad]

I was referring to pre-2006.

[Cougar]

WaMu annual meeting: director Pugh resigns, executive bonus plan to be
revised - I'm not surprised, easy out, whose next? Does that mean she's off the hook and won't be held accountable? I hear Starbucks needs a good "director".

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... amu15.html

[gobubblego]

Given that Wamu was one of the biggest originators of high-risk loans - subprime, option ARMs, liar/no-doc/NINJA loans, etc. and that it was based here, I'm having trouble reconciling why Seattle has one of the lowest percentages of subprime loans in the country, according to the below link:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/200 ... xlarge.jpg

Anyone know why? I can't imagine Seattlites having much better average credit scores than the rest of the nation. It seems somewhat puzzling to me.

[Ubersalad]

All of this took place after 2005-2006, which could also be one of the reasons why Seattle is behind by few years.

Of course I don't have solid data to support this.

Another thing to add, WAMU had a list of disapproved appraisers, which none of other lenders have. Although I think this sort of backfired in recent months...

[deejayoh]

[Ubersalad]

[Cougar]

``I understand it hurts,'' Killinger said yesterday. ``No constituency is happy. I'm not happy. I want people to calm down, have a little faith. I know it's tough.''

For those who have lost their job at WaMu - can they come to your house for a warm dinner every night?

For those who have lost their homes - can they take a shower too?

I would love to have Killinger relocate his office to the street corner on Second Ave to "feel" how much it hurts, to calm people down and give them faith. I certainly would stop by and give him a piece of my mind!

[deejayoh]

Ubersalad - do you work at WaMu? You seem really adamant. Just wondering what your source is that you are so vociferously calling BS on that story.

I don't really care one way or the other when they started screwing up. Same difference, they are toast anyway. I just thought it interesting that the story showed up on the same day you said things starting going downhill in 2005.

[Ubersalad]

[ira s]

In most cases, appraisers get paid a percentage of the price paid for the appraisal, often 50%.
I suspect that the reporter got stuff screwed up, but maybe WAMU was offering a larger percentage for each one if more appraisals were done.
I took classes from Richard Hagar, who is mentioned in the article. He goes all over the country teaching attorneys general about real estate fraud, and he is an absolute riot. His real estate fraud class was exceptionally entertaining, as well as being highly instructive.

[lamont]

[deejayoh]

well, you got me curious. "wamu appraisal process" fed into google reveals that WaMu did at least intro a new system in 2001 that "Streamlined" the appraisal process.

http://newsroom.wamu.com/phoenix.zhtml? ... highlight=

and a quick search on "optisvalue" (the name of the new system) reveals that the system was a dog - appraisers hated it, it appears - and costs were unacceptably high (and they were losing share) so they dumped it in 2004, laid off a bunch of appraisers, and started looking for other ways to cut cost.

which probably led them to do as you suggest and throw caution out the window in 2005-ish.

http://news.alamode.com/04/0727.htm

interesting. gotta love the internet.