Premier Mortgage Funding - Net Branch Lender, Mortgage Banker

As ml-premium subscribers already know, Premier, the Clearwater, FL-based lender (with reportedly 500-600 branches) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the middle district of Florida on July 3rd. The notice of filing, accessed from the Federal court records system, follows:

United States Bankruptcy Court
Middle District of Florida

Notice of Bankruptcy Case Filing

A bankruptcy case concerning the debtor(s) listed below was filed under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, entered on 07/03/2007 at 08:56 AM and filed on 07/03/2007 at 08:56 AM.

Premier Mortgage Funding, Inc.
3001 Executive Dr., Ste. 330
Clearwater, FL 33762
Tax id: 30-0030026

The case was filed by the debtor's attorney:

Buddy D. Ford
115 N. MacDill Avenue
Tampa, FL 33609
813-877-4669

The case was assigned case number 8:07-bk-05713-CPM to Judge Catherine Peek McEwen.

...

If you would like to view the bankruptcy petition and other documents filed by the debtor, they are available at our Internet home page https://ecf.flmb.uscourts.gov or at the Clerk's Office, Sam M. Gibbons United States Courthouse, 801 North Florida Avenue Suite 727, Tampa, FL 33602.

...

The filings also show that Premier gives its assets as $0 and liabilities as in the range of $1-100 million. The creditors list is quite formidable, including Barclay's, Countrywide, Deutsche Bank, Fremont Investment & Loan, First Horizon, Fidelity & Deposit Co., Eagle Vision Capital, Home Loan Corp., Washington Mutual Bank, Wells Fargo, and many many more.

We have been hearing about Premier for a while. Here is one of the more detailed messages, from back in May (the 21st):

The Company is "Premier Mortgage Funding, Inc." The Corp office.

I worked in the Banking Department and was laid off in March along with others.

Friday, I got a call from the VP of Banking and he said that the Banking Division is no more.Everyone was let go and escorted out the door! He was also let go.

Premier is pretty much down to a skeleton crew. If you check out records in Pinellas County Clerk of Circuit Court, Florida and Michigan, you will see some of the lawsuits regarding this company. Also, check out www.pmfunds.com. You can see on that web page that funding has ceased.

Please let me know what other info that you need. This company is very well known for laying off employees all the time. I heard through the grape vine, don't know yet if it is true or not, that they are going to file BK. It is not confirmed as of yet.

Pmfunds.com has had the following message posted since perhaps mid-April:

Welcome to Premier's
Mortgage Banking Division

Effective immediately, Premier Mortgage Banking (Premier Platinum and Banker Direct) is temporarily suspending all correspondent fundings until further notice. This temporary suspension is made necessary due to market conditions and warehouse restrictions. We will notify everyone immediately once the suspension is lifted and fundings resume.

We recommend you flip your loans to broker status with the correspondent lender it is currently submitted to. This should minimize the inconvenience you may experience and will be much easier then re-originating the loan through an entirely new broker lender.

If for any reason you choose to re-originate the loan through a different broker lender, we recommend using one (1) of our strategic broker partners. These broker partners will be able to provide you with competitive pricing and superior service. For contact information, please visit www.pmfunds.com and click on the "Strategic Broker Partners" link.

Respectfully yours,

Senior Management
Premier Mortgage Funding, Inc.

Please write in with further elaborations, if you can.