That's No Moon...

It's a Space Station!

Back in 1977 I was sitting in the front row of the local theater watching Obi-Wan as the Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace and discovered a debris field where a planet should have been.

Oh and then there was this strange looking Moon...

This morning I can't help but think that we in the mortgage industry are like some of the characters in StarWars.

Today I was told that Diablo Funding, one of Northern California's largest brokerages will shut it's doors Tuesday. I had heard the rumors a week ago, but today it became official!

They are closing due in part to "buybacks". Meaning that they are having to buy back loans they brokered to wholesale lenders.

Here's the cliff notes version as I heard it through my sources. A Large Wall Street Firm that owns multiple wholesale lenders, one of them being a bankrupt subprime lender, requested that some (not all) of the loans they had funded through them be re-purchased by Diablo. This would be a very large capital expense for any business to take on. Not surprisingly, Diablo refused. So the Large Wall Street Firm then instructed all the other branches of it's lending network (the A and Alt A paper lenders) to not fund any loans originated by Diablo - period!

Like the famous line from the movie...

Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

Pulled from the DRE website, here's 437 loan officers who were suddenly silenced. Click on the image and you'll be at the DRE website. This is only the DRE licensed loan officers. Diablo also operated under the department of corporations and had unlicensed loan officers working under supervision that are off the radar.

Loan Officers

If you are a Displaced Diablo Loan Officer and would like to continue on - give me a call. We may have room for you.

One word of caution - we do things a little differently here. (This isn't Tatooine.)

Mike Mueller - (925) 288-9977

Borrowers

Did you have a loan that was in process through Diablo Funding? No guarantees, but I will probably match it, fund it and we'll all look back at this someday and laugh. I have many of the same wholesale lenders if not more. (and they aren't asking me to buyback any loans)

Mike Mueller (925) 288-9977

Real Estate Agents

Your wonderful loan officer may be gone. They, like Obi-Wan might come back in a different form. Or like Luke's Uncle, they might be gone forever. I'm here to pick up the pieces. Give me a call.

Mike Mueller (925) 288-9977

Technorati Tags: Diablo Funding, Loan Officer, out of business

NOTE: According to a phone call I received today from an employee at Diablo Funding, she says that the company has been bought by IndyMac. I'll keep you posted...
MM