The Truth about Family First closing.

Dud? Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 1

There has been a lot said about Family First closing, most of it false. The truth is the company did not close due to financial problems or due to lost of business. The decision to close the company was based on the number of new and pending laws targeting branch network companies. It is sad that a number of companies, who broke or would not follow the rules, caused such a problem for the companies like Family First who followed the regulations to the best of its abilities.

Most the managers and their staff that worked for our company were honest hard working professionals who have come to our defense and said so many great things about our company. We miss working with all of you.

All of our managers and others were paid their commissions and monies due them per their employment agreement.

Many have wondered why we tried to close the business so quickly without a great deal of notice. It was to protect our managers and their commissions. Also, we did extend our closure twice to protect borrowers and managers who may have been harmed by not doing so.

Sadly, some States like Georgia although we have enjoyed an excellent reputation for years when we surrendered our license they decided instead of just accepting the license they wanted to perform a lengthy and involved audit of our company. Keep in mind we had passed all former State audits. Since, there were no borrower or other complaints I can only assume this was to generate much needed revenue for the State. As we no longer had the staff to comply we were forced to accept their cease order.

In my opinion this is a glaring example of wasting tax payer’s money and an abuse of power which in the long run will harm the people who live in those States.

We have some other States pending who may take the same action however most have accepted our closure and we remain in good standing including HUD.

Those who have spoken out with lies about the company or have claimed of not being paid were either termed for violating their employment agreement or in many cases owed the company money.

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.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out, remember mortgage brokers came into existence due to the Savings and Loan Bank collapse in the 1980's. I believe it will be very hard to exist competitively as a small independent broker; the banks would like to see and are working hard to put the brokers out of business.

To survive in the future I believe you will have to be a banker or a branch of a federal banking network and of course offer FHA until the market comes back in time.

Those of us who have been in this business of a long time know how much and how many people we have helped along the way and that is a good feeling knowing you made a difference for the good.

Again, it really was a pleasure working with some of the best people I have ever known.

FFMC-CEO

Flash in the pan Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 26

What a load of P Embarassed

P.
You cut off Hundreds of MGRs without any explanation or regard of there situations right before the Holidays. Not to mention all of the Corp Staff who were laid off without notice.
It is nearly impossible to communicate with anyone now and many of us have unanswered questions.
THE major question ALL of us have is what you are doing with the Illegal reserve accounts (WELL above $1million) that you are holding from all of these former managers you loved to work with.
It does not state any where in the Employee contract that you will hold this after YOU close the doors...

Many have already started the process of contacting HUD for an explanation of the Illegal Reserve account. StayTUNED.

Also, many of us have been charged ironious fees even after we were not working anymore which took the remaining balances of our operating accounts and now we can not get any explanations from you.....So don't preach that you paid everyone what you owe them.

I loved working for FFMC and was grateful for the opportunity to work with many fantastic people; however it is a joke that months after you did this to your "Family" you are now trying to save some face in a public forum when you still have not contacted any of us.

C-4 Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Posts: 1235 Location: Nashville

Morts4life...

I do not know you so don't take this as an attack on you.
I was an AE for a lender that they were approved with. In my territory I had several FFMC branches. I would have to see your original "Contract" that was used to set up your Net Branch and your employment agreements to actually comment on each case individually; but, it is customary for franchises that sell commissionable products to set up reserve accounts as a buffer account to mediate "Returns", "fees", "Chargeback’s", "commission splits", "volume discounts", "Rebates", "incentives", "appraisals", etc...

Now I am not saying there was no abuse. I am merely pointing out that the accounts are set up to insure that managers have a stake in keeping everything tidy and if they don't they lose the "Reserves" that they deposited. Just like bitter teenagers in Panama City who trashed a hotel room and still wants their Cash Deposit back, they won't get it and they will be mad.

Any disputes will be mediated or litigated if there is enough to worry about.

Flash in the pan Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 26

No i don't see it as an attack...i see it as an outsider who doesn't know the whole story. (that is not an attack - either on you or anyone else who decides to comment on this thread....)
Shocked

You have some obvious points; however there is much more to the story than I have time to comment. We had a seperate operating account to cover most of those expenses if incurred and than the reserve on top of it. Which we have been told is illegal- haven't verified this yet but it is in motion.
Mad

The PROBLEM:

It is the lack of communication on every level that has everyone so upset.
I know people who have been out of the company for over 6 months who were told they would get their reserves in the 6 months after leaving as stated in their contract but still don't have it or have any communication on when to receive it....

I don't believe in discussing this in a public forum....but when i saw the coward CEO who decided to do it after months of not answering any of our requests it was disheartening....I hope he does make good and pays alot of people he owes...i guess we will see. Question

Dud? Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 12 Location: MI

2 words Mr. "CEO" . . . . . . spell check.

Wrecking crew Joined: 16 Mar 2007 Posts: 1685

Assuming that the writer is who he claims to be, the message loses credibility for me with the Mel Gibson-like "Blame it all on Wall Street" mentality.

Having run an organization that at one time had to lay off a significant portion of its work force in order to assure survival, you have to take SOME accountability for the decisions that were made that led you to that point. The writer takes none.

Fight On!!

Schumpeter Reincarnate Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 4761

This is not any different from the dot com implosion where everyone blamed the irrational exuberance of wall street. So why should he have to man up to take responsibility? The problem is more to the point of the mortgage markets allowing these goof ball net branch concepts to exist in the first place.

Nitroglycerin Joined: 17 Oct 2007 Posts: 801

I always had a problem with these "net branch" concepts. After reading this it appears that the concept is being scrutinized on a state by state basis.

Can anyone fill me in on the details?

Wrecking crew Joined: 16 Mar 2007 Posts: 1685

I love the irony of a guy who couldn't SURVIVE NOW offering his opinion as to how to survive in the future. Only here.

Fight On!!

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:20 pm

trojan49 wrote:

I love the irony of a guy who couldn't SURVIVE NOW offering his opinion as to how to survive in the future. Only here.

Fight On!!

Which guy would that be Troj?