Family First Mortgage Corp. - Net Branch Operation

Update - 2008-02-21: A post on our Forum appears to be from the (former) CEO of Family First.

In an interesting twist of the 'blame game,' he sums up the state of the mortgage industry,

"It is sad that our industry has been almost destroyed due to the greed of Wall Street and poor decision making by people at the very top."

Update - 2007-12-26: In an interview with The Daytona Beach News-Journal Family First claimed more than 1,200 employees in offices in 38 states as recently as September:

"...when Gregory L. Hill, company president, said in an interview that Family First was weathering the storm of the real estate slump well. "We can ride this out..."

Hill also stated "Everybody received severance pay," but he declined to provide specifics. We would like to hear your feedback on this if you are involved in this shutdown. According to Hill, Chapter 11 is not in their future.

Almost 9,000 page views have been read on our Forum topic for this Implosion. Our recording of the 'Your Fired' has message has created everything from outrage to total disbelief.

Original post - 2007-12-20: In a letter today from Gregory Hill, CEO & President, Family First Mortgage Corp. of Palm Coast FL announced a total shutdown.

"...after great consideration Family First Mortgage Corp. has made the decision to exit the mortgage lending business and cease operations. We will be ending operations on December 31, 2007."

Click here (.pdf) to read the entire letter.

Various reports have come in that Family First had over 390 net Branches (reduced to under 100), with thousands of Retail people now without jobs, or a very merry Christmas. Readers told us 40 Branches were closed on December 6, 2007, with a call to a telephone extension #115. As of December 19th this extension and the recording was still in use.

Click here (.MP3) to listen to the recorded 'your fired' announcement from Darren Murphy, Branch Development and Support Manager. There were apparently 2 versions of this. Click here (.MP3) to listen to the 2nd version. The link should open up in your default media player.

In a letter to the branches in November, Mr. Hill outlined problems with a Flagstar warehouse line that involved an old buyback. Explaining that "Our attorneys feel we will prevail..." he adds the following twist:

"Since, Flagstar did not give any reason for their actions; the most likely reason is financial problems on their part."

In an ominous note to the entire Industry, Gregory Hill ends the letter with:

"Many branching companies have gone out of business, you can be confident that you are with best company in the industry."

A discussion group has started in our Forum on this Lender. Please visit and participate.