Props to reader seattle price drop for spotting this story about Ameriquest Mortgage skipping town:
A banking giant shut down all of its branches in Western Washington on Tuesday, leaving thousands of local customers in the lurch, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.
Ameriquest Mortgage is closing 229 branches nationwide, including 26 branches in Washington state.
Peter Demerick of Bremerton thought all he needed to do was fax his mortgage papers in to Ameriquest. But he didn’t expect to get a disconnected number, and now he’s still trying to get answers.
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"This is absolutely crazy. Ameriquest is one of largest mortgage companies in the United States," he said.
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Ameriquest is closing all 26 offices in the Puget Sound area. About 4,000 employees nationwide were let go Tuesday and told to take their belongings and go home.Demerick is sure his mortgage broker had no idea. "I’m sure he was totally shocked. If he knew about this yesterday, he was a great actor. At this point they’re cutting and running."
I expect we will see a lot more of this kind of thing in the coming years as real estate begins its decline.
In other news, I caught this story via the 360Digest blog:
Homestore Inc. this week rolled out a new look for its Move.com home-search Web site, which features existing homes, new homes and properties for rent.
Move reported a net loss of $2.04 million in the first quarter compared to a net loss of $395,000 in first-quarter 2005.
The company reported that the quarterly loss is related to a new rule issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which relates to public companies’ accounting of stock options. "Excluding stock-based compensation expense related to the adoption of (the rule), net income would have been $1.3 million for the first quarter of 2006," Move Inc. reported. Total operating expenses were $55.4 million in the first quarter, up from $44.3 million in first-quarter 2005.
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Total revenue in the first quarter was $69 million, up 22 percent from first-quarter 2005.
Move.com doesn’t have anything to do with the Seattle area, but I found the story interesting because their soon-to-be "Director of Consumer Innovations" happens to be Dustin of our favorite local real estate blog, Rain City Guide.
(Alison Grande, KIRO 7, 05.03.2006)
(Inman News, 05.03.2006)