Washington Mortgage Lender Abruptly Closes Up Shop

A well-regarded home loan lending wholesaler that rode a record boom during the subprime (bad credit home mortgages) market has abruptly closed after a market reversal, leaving 300 people out of work.

Employees at Mortgage Investment Lending Associates told The Herald of Everett that the workforce was notified Friday by e-mail from founder, owner and CEO, Layne Sapp.

The staff was given only moments to confirm the development with superiors at the Washington mortgage lending wholesaler before leaving.

“It is with deepest regret that due to ongoing negative market conditions, MILA is forced to close its doors at the end of business today,” the e-mail read.

The mortgage brokers who worked with MILA, which was founded in 1989, said they also had no warning of the closure.

In the past two years, MILA trimmed its work force and tried to move into the less risky prime and Alt-A mortgage market.

“There are a lot of reasons why this happened,” said Jason Bloom, co-founder of Elliott Bay Mortgage and vice president of the state’s mortgage lending trade group, the Washington Association of Mortgage Bankers.

“You just have a combination of things happening that created a perfect storm environment.”

And so the bad credit mortgage carousel turns.

SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer