When it was a “Mid-Century Modern” bank, Washington Mutual served my clients well.
Jerry Gropp Architect AIA on 03 20, 2009
It provided market rate mortgages which it held in the branch’s own portfolio. (WaMu advertised that its “WM Mortgage Loans” were never sold). Your home is a place to live, raise your family- not an investment.
Whether it’s a MCM (Mid-Century Modern) or other, that’s the way it should be regarded, loved and cherished. And a good home mortgage, preferably locally held and serviced made all this possible for me and my clients. As did many other Seattle natives, I started with “School Savings” pictured as a mural on the wall of a branch.
WaMu and many other of the troubled banks and mortgage lenders got off on the wrong foot when they went after the derivative bundled mortgages that were in demand by big operative builders like Toll Brothers as covered in this very inclusive 10/16/05 NYT Magazine article- Chasing Ground.
About the Author: Jerry Gropp Architect AIA
I'm a long-time Seattle area residential architect specializing in what's known as Mid-Century Modern single-family homes per my WebSite- As you can see from this, most of my design work is in the Pacific NorthWest although I've worked as far afield as Hawaii and Argentina. I often work with homebuyers in evaluating possible purchases before the sale as well as advising how the homes being considered can be adapted to the families involved after the purchase. This is especially helpful and takes into account many factors including Building Codes, ease of maintenance, etc.. My Google "Knol"s have given me a great way to express my thoughts on a variety of design subjects. (Click) https://knol.google.com/k/knol/system/knol/pages/Search?q=Jerry+Gropp&restrict=general9 Responses to “When it was a “Mid-Century Modern” bank, Washington Mutual served my clients well.”
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I don’t have a lot of fond feelings about WaMU… I remember about 20 years ago, when I was in title insurance, doing a presentation with an agents team which a WaMU LO was also a part of, to investors…boy they loved the pick-a-payment option ARMs.
There’s so many times I’ve nearly closed my accounts with them because of Killengers comments about mortgage brokers too. Now it seems that Jamie Dimon is following in Killenger’s footsteps.
Rhonda- I guess all the good things changed about Washington Mutual when the name became WaMu and customers became “you guys”.
When the branch managers made the home loans and kept these in the branch, things were the way they should be- personal and friendly. Jerry
I think everything went downhill when they threw all the 5% passbook savings books in the trash
They were sucked into the greed train of easy money. To bad, they sounded like a great bank before that.
[...] JP Morgan Chase has a much larger local presence with the acquisition of WaMU and their network of bank branches. Will Bank of America do the same with Countrywide’s home loan center loan originators? I’m assuming that loan originators located inside a bank branch are not compensated the same. Banks could employ people with less experience and originators who do not have their own client base…they’re counting on consumers to just walk on in and apply for a mortgage….just trust “the bank”. [...]
As my above WaMu Post says- as far as I’m concerned, having the local Branch make the loan to its own customers and keeping said loan in house was a far better, more personal way to do things. As was my practice, early on I often checked out how much money we’d have to work with in doing the client’s new home project. Having the banker on the team was great! It’s time to get back to basics.
Jerry, you’ve just illustrated my point of what banks would like believe…consumers will blindly trust them. Having choices and competition is what keeps rates and costs down…having 2 or 3 banks for your mortgage selection will not be better for the consumer.
Rhonda, you’ve just illustrated my point. In the “good old days” architects doing custom homes (a distinct specialty then as now) considered it part of their responsibilities to help their clients through the myriad “choices and competition”. I do agree, this “is what keeps rates and costs down”.