I was in the mort business very briefly, right near the peak, and one day I attended a breakfast meeting for Countrywide, to roust the troops. I worked for a broker where we had maybe 80 different funding sources. I walked out of that meeting thinking I could qualify a goldfish for a home loan, I was actually dazed.
They had 4 or 5 programs. 1, was 20% down, they hated that one.
The next one was 5% down.
The next one was 2% down, do not state your income and no paycheck stubs.
The next one was 1% down, do not state your income and omit any paystub information, allow the agent to fill in your social security number.
The next one was “Call the regional manager and he will personally and manually approve your loan.
Honestly...I felt that I could qualify trees and rocks for home loans.
Yeah, for awhile there if you could fog a mirror you got a loan. Honestly, Countrywide was one of the worst actors in the industry. They were known for inflating appraisals using staff appraisers and “creatively” making loans work that should not have.
As a Broker I was always amazed how we got blamed for inflating appraisals. Whenever I would submit a file, my appraisal always got reviewed, no exception. I couldn’t have cheated there if I had wanted to, which I didn’t.