The fact that TB&W was shut down this week did not create an earth-shattering news event.   The reason:   the impact of this bank closure is less like an earthquake than a tsunami—the wave of destruction hasn’t hit the shore yet.  This a behind the scenes implode and as yet has not completely reverberated to the ultimate borrower.   As a wholesale bank, TB&W was where mortgage brokers often went for the loans that no one else would do:   for instance the very difficult FHA-insured manufactured home loan.   TB&W was one of the diminishing loan options for manufactured homes and for those borrowers, shopping for loans, they may find the playing field significantly down-sized.   Just considering the loans that were likely already in line for underwriting, there are an anticipated 30,000 loans who now may be homeless.  And for some people that already were ready to move into homes ready to fund, they may be homeless as well.

For those of you that had your loans in the pipeline, your lender may be scrambling to place you.   There is the tick-tock of the appraisal shelf life,  your loan lock rate, your next mortgage payment due date—and now all is up in the air.   Any borrower who has a loan in the works needs to contact his loan officers and not just ask hard and fast questions, but demand them, “Where was my loan being placed?   Do you have a back up source?   When will my appraisal expire?  If you were putting my loan with TB&W, what is your back-up plan?”   If there is any sense of hesitation, any wishy-washy-feel-good responses, any skirting-around-the-issue stall tactic, stop right there!   It is time to take matters into your own hands.  (more…)