A difficult ending – an exciting beginning

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Yesterday was an extremely tough day for me. The first half of 2007 has been disappointing for us as a company. The mortgage market is exceedingly difficult and competitive. Working with borrowers has gotten harder and harder as desperate loan officers promise the sky just to win loans. Bait and switch is rampant; fraud is out of control. Honest companies are suffering.

We’ve been suffering. My business partners and I had to make a tough decision. After taking a substantial loss for the first part of this year, we needed to make a change. We needed to put the expertise back in the origination aspect of our business. We needed to put the hunger, the professionalism and the desire back in to the most important part of business – filling the pipeline.

To that end we had to let go of nearly half of our remaining originators. They were not producing. They were great guys; but they were unable or unwilling to go for it, to go the extra mile to win business. They are our friends, and for that I feel badly – but I know that they will be better for being out of the business.

I know that we will be better for being smaller. The business is at the originator level now, not at the corporate or management levels. We kept our 4 best originators, my business partner and I are getting back on the phones where we belong – providing professionalism and excellence in a difficult, confusing market.

The six of us will provide a better level of service and bring more professionalism and expertise to the table for our customers. Our customers will be better off for it.

So while I am very disappointed that we had to let so many nice people go; I feel energized at the prospect of fulfilling our company’s (and my own) personal mission to provide a safe harbor for borrowers who are in a financial hurricane. I look forward to sharing my enthusiasm and guidance to those that will listen.

We’ve assembled our best team – we’ve put our best players back on the floor. We can only hope that our best shot is good enough.