Mortgage Grapevine

Option One to close doors

Sales managers were told tonight that it will be announced at noon tuesday via a company wide conference call that Option One will be shutting down.

They gave it a good run. Their AE's have been on a 8-10k monthly salary for the last 4 months while the company tried to get sold from hr block.

Good luck to the 150 left standing at the end. They are the best of the best when it comes to subprime. There just is no need for subprime in todays enviroment.


by sweetspot December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

Hold on to your shorts...
by GizmoBunny December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

Farewell Option One. You´ll be missed.


by TennesseeTuxedo December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

Hate to see them go. They had some awesome programs and a good prequal engine. Looks like the engine ran out of gas...
by ITHINKIKNOWTHISONE December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

Don´t be put off by the rally that will happen when the fed cuts rates next week. Hold on to those shorts.

Option One had the most f´d up guidelines I ever read. Risk upgrades if you had brown hair and blue eyes. Pick your credit score, but you can average it if the day ends in "y" and it works out better for you.

Lost in this mess is that CITI just shuttered their warehoues bank. There will be many more middle market aggregators that will go down in the coming months as their lines don´t get renewed and they can´t get any financing.

Good Luck and God Bless all that are affected by this mess we are in.
by GizmoBunny December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

The shit storm is gaining strength.


by AE-Secret-Informant December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

End of an era of excess. Kind of like watching Gordon Gecko go down.
by mudshark December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

What happened to "Run with the Big Dogs"?
by sink or swim December 3, 2007 12:00 AM

As in "run with the big dogs, or stay on the porch?"

They are going under the porch I guess.


by TennesseeTuxedo December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

LMAO Tennessee!!

People, the sky is not falling. Too bad about Option One, however there are plenty of other guys out there. You can find lenders right here that will do 80% ltv purchases with a 530 mid.....


and, GO PACKERS!!!!
by iclosedaily December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Less than two hours & counting.

Sweetspot - "Their AE´s have been on a 8-10k monthly salary for the last 4 months while the company tried to get sold from hr block".

You sure do seem to know everything about Option One. Are they going to give you a package when you leave?

by sink or swim December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Allways a top subprime lender in my book.

I just spoke to my rep a couple of weeks ago and he was excited about FHA.

Sad day...
by JJMotgage December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

sink or swim --I left Option One last year and opened up my own consulting business.

Still know many there as well as First Franklin, D1, Equifirst, SouthStar, etc.

I broke the news last night on the Vine 12 hours before hr block made their press release and the employees except for upper management still havent heard the news yet as their conference call is at noon today.


My information is always on point and usually ahead of the curve.

Get ready First Franklin- your package comes the week after christmas.




by sweetspot December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Sweetspot..dont think you are so special. Trust me, everyone at OOMC knew last night what was going down today. You just seem to be the one that is so eager to always post first. You seem a little too excited about a possible First Franklin closing as well although I dont think its a big secret that their closing is probable.
by weekkneedwilly December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

sweet - consulting business? Do you any job openings? What type of consulting would warrant leaving a good job at OOMC? The market had to be good while you were there. How do you stay ahead of the curve?
by sink or swim December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

You know, if everyone had just ran with the big dogs and stayed in the sweet spot, none of this would have ever happened.
by YourRep December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

KABOOM!

Sweet- Is Indy after FF? Please entertain us.
by sink or swim December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

For those ex employees on this thread that were probably in the 1st round of cuts months ago and are bitter about option one keeping the "best of the best" the details about the severance are that the AE´s will continue with their guarentee and benefits through march at 10k per month and then get a lump sum payment of 10k per year of service.

The average AE is getting over 100k in the next 90-120 days.

Cant complain about that. Sad to see the best of the best go.


by sweetspot December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Dec. 4, 2007

Today, Option One’s parent company, H&R Block Inc., announced that effective immediately Option One will cease accepting new mortgage loan applications.

However, it will honor existing commitments on approved loans currently in the pipeline. (All commitment-state* loans must fund by the expiration date -- we are unable to offer extensions. All non-commitment-state loans must fund by December 31, 2007.) If you have questions regarding a loan in the pipeline, please contact your local fulfillment branch:

Orlando (407) 618-5600
Houston (281) 203-6600
Irvine (949) 614-7400
As always, we are committed to providing you with a seamless transition and the same excellent customer service you’ve come to expect from our associates. Thank you for your loyalty and your contributions to Option One’s success during the past 15 years. We have appreciated the opportunity to work with you and to serve your business needs.


by dell don't tell December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

Sweetspot.... The best of the best? Uhmm, apparently you don´t have the entire list of AEs they kept. Same goes for the production associates. Stick with your consulting gig and shut your pie hole. You are an ignorant ass who just likes to stir up trouble and piss people off.


by save the drama for your mama December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

I agree with ´save the drama for your mama´ regarding Sweetspot´s analysis of the ´best of the best´. Uh, yeah, right, Sweetspot. Not sure why Sweetspot feels the need to "break" news of Option None´s closing. It wasn´t rocket science to know that this closing was going to happen.

I´m going to take a gander at Sweetspot´s identity...let´s see... "left" Option None a year ago and currently a self-employed consultant...

I´m going to say, Rich, that you didn´t ´leave´ Option None, Option None ´left´ you. Many office in GA and vicinity were shutdown 12mos or so ago with all personnel laid off. What´s that say about you as far as the ´best of the best´? If you were one of the ´best of the best´ wouldn´t Option One have found you a position in the Company?
by calling it like I see it December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

It´s 1:45am, Sweets typical time to check out the Vine. So your name is Rich & you worked for Option One in or around GA, but you were laid off a year ago? You´re a consultant now & not in the mortgage business? Does "calling like I see it" have this correct? What did you do at OOMC?
by sink or swim December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

My name is not Rich but that would be an adjective to describe me thanks to Option One and a few other endeavors.

I am east coast but further up from Georgia. Think National Accounts and you would be able to figure it out.

I left about a year ago on the 2nd comp cut that was going to cut my commissions from 50k per month to 20k. The 3rd comp cut was on the table for a march rollout which would have cut it down to about 10k per month not too mention the elimination of products and alt a which would have made working not even worth it.

My departure was one of the reasons why there was a retention bonus paid for sales associates to stay till May. People got scared when I and a few others left.

Anyways -- i have my own company now doing consulting work and living off investments as well as mortgage securities.

I have no ill feelings toward option one, good times and red headed sluts ( the drink and maybe the occasional account manager on a sales trip ) were fun times.

I really wished block would have taken the 800 million offer they had on the table from Citi back in January and 6000 good people would still have jobs today.

Good luck to everyone effected by the greediness of Earnst dabbling in an arena he knew nothing about.


by sweetspot December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

Well????
What´s the severance?

by girlyloan December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

Hello Jeff M., er, I mean sweetspot.
by Go_Rhinos December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

Sweetspot - be a man and own up to who you are. Don´t hide behind an alias afraid to make an ass of yourself (because you already have).
by CrackerJack108 December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

Wow, $50k/month, that is or was sweet. If you would have rolled three years earlier, OOMC could have almost been able to give every foreclosure borrower a dollar to help them get back on their feet this year.

So, what is your take on Indy? Any insider info you can share?
by sink or swim December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

I am an ex OOMC associate. Yes I guess I was one of those best of the best. I have been watching these boards most of the year and have held my responses. So many things I see that are wrong about what we were and what was happening to us.
I feel the need to defend the company I have worked for 12 years.
1) This company had integrity ( seriously I do NOT want to read the comments about all that has happened this year...we were the FIRST lender to introduce NET TANGIBLE BENEFIT to our brokers and lost a lot of business because of it)
2) They truly cared for their associates
3) they were HONEST with us thru the entire process, they could not tell all but they told a lot
4) we were all aware our demise was imminent as earlier as 30 days ago, we were just waiting for the annoucement.

So why did so many of us stay after all the comp changes and the insanity of this year? Please refer to the above. This was a company that was built on associate satisfation. We were the most important thing to them. Yes we were in it for profit so please don´t go there either, my point is that the leaders cared about us and how we were treated. As the company grew we did lose some of that but that is what always happens when layers of additional mgmt are introduced
As far as the severence and the salary....yes we were put on a guarentee that helped soften the lack of commisions (BTW we WERE 100%, no draw, no salary) and yes they are continuing to pay us that. As far as the severence, what has been posted is not entirely correct and honestly it is no one´s business what we received but suffice it to say it was fair to us.I am PROUD to say I worked for this company as long as I did. I have heard many horror stories from my competitors regarding the way they were treated during and after their companies closures, how about MLN? New Century? And now god help them all FF. These people only wished they had worked for OOMC. Everyone has an opinion and that is fine that is why we choose to live in the USA, but honestly unless you had worked for this company you have no business trashing what you think they did to us or how we were treated. Every, let me stress that, EVERY company has a disgruntled employee or 2 we also had our share but I will tell you if you ´clicked´ in this company it was the best place to work, kindness, compassion and cash. They took very good care of us and there is a huge number of people that would return should our leaders reinvent and form a new company. How many other ex employees of any of these imploded lenders can say that?
PS redheaded sluts were good but I preferred the lemon drops in between the singing of the Piano Man!


by luvOOMC December 12, 2007 12:00 AM

Reply