Western Residential Mortgage - Wholesale & Retail

This is a back-add for both of this Lender's business channels. From a number of recent tips, we have learned of the demise of Western Residential Mortgage and its wholesale arm, WRM Mortgage. Both of the web sites are down, but you can still view archived copies of their retail and wholesale sites. Based in Phoenix, AZ, Western Residential had five offices. Wholesale operated out of two offices in Phoenix and another in Allen, TX. Retail offices included Las Vegas, NV and Davenport, IA, in addition to 9 Loan Officers working out of the headquarters in Phoenix. There were a total of 78 employees listed on a June 2007 company roster we viewed. An additional wholesale office in Diamond Bar, CA that one source mentioned was not listed.

According to former employees we spoke with, WRM Mortgage ceased wholesale operations in November of 2007 due to the loss of their warehouse lines with Countrywide and The Winter Group (Terwin Advisors, LLC). The latest rate sheet we were provided was dated November 20, 2007. In an email (pdf) sent to employees on 2007-12-04, President and CEO John Richter wrote:

"I have a conference call with TWG and the warehouse company on Thursday morning. This call is to go over the final conditions of the warehouse line approval with the President's of both TWG and InSouth Funding. If this call goes well, the final site visit by InSouth at WRM will be on Monday or Tuesday of next week. We will then know by the end of next week when we can start funding again.

With that being said, I understand how difficult this must be for all of you. I can promise you that I'm working very hard to make this all work out... for all of us. I also need you to know that nothing is for sure and the warehouse line may not come to fruition. It seems like everyday another company goes out of business or another company posts huge losses."

It appears that did not "come to fruition" as one tipster wrote. "They had their last warehouse line with The Winter Group (Terwin) yanked early in 2008." Combined with retail originations, WRM Mortgage had been doing "30-45 million in volume a month" according to several sources. Monthly volume in 2006 averaged $34 million.

"They laid off [almost] all employees (70+) and kept a few real good Retail LO's to broker out loans," one source wrote. Western Residential Mortgage carried on its retail operation until April of 2008. We were unable to confirm the precise dates when each operation was shut down.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you can provide additional details.