{"id":2485,"date":"2008-01-11T10:04:29","date_gmt":"2008-01-11T17:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2485"},"modified":"2008-01-11T10:16:02","modified_gmt":"2008-01-11T17:16:02","slug":"buying-countrywide-why-bank-of-america-is-the-wrong-buyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2485\/buying-countrywide-why-bank-of-america-is-the-wrong-buyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying Countrywide: Why Bank of America is the WRONG Buyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Countrywide (CFC) has been acquired by Bank of America<\/a>. This should come as no surprise to Bloodhound readers; we discovered the weakness at CFC last Spring<\/a> and speculated about the price last Summer<\/a>. Robert Kerr, Matt Heaton, and Bob Wilson, all Bloodhound readers, tipped me off to conjecture, asked all the right questions, and provided insightful commentary as I chronicled the descent; it was a demonstration of the power of weblogging. The Bloodhound community got this story correct while Wall Street was still starry-eyed about the strength of the “Mozilo franchise”.<\/p>\n

Stock picking is not our mission at Bloodhound; industry analysis is. The Countrywide acquisition will be a nightmare for Bank of America (BA) for one simple reason- they really don’t know the mortgage business. BA is a bank, and a damned fine one at that. Their grew their asset base by acquiring regional banks. Bank of America is not and will probably never be a real player in the residential real estate finance arena.<\/p>\n

Why? They’re bankers. It’s a cultural thing. Bankers react while brokers (Wall Street) create. Bankers imitate while brokers innovate. Let me give you some examples:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. BA lauds it’s Teacher Flex<\/a> and Neighborhood Advantage<\/a> programs as innovative thinking. The not so secret reason is that these loan programs were REACTIONS to the NCNB merger<\/a>; NCNB had a less than enviable lending record in lower-income census tracts. The creation of those loan programs was a direct response to mandates imposed upon BA. BA was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the “homeownership mandate”.<\/li>\n
  2. BA botched their sub-prime mortgage product line. They entered a business they didn’t understand and sold it at the worst possible time<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. Bank of America alienated over half of the retail origination channel when it cut off mortgage brokers<\/a>. I think they bought CFC to shore up their weak retail origination business. That will fail, also. The cultural divide between these two companies is huge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here’s the dirty little secret for REALTORS; BA is not your friend. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Countrywide (CFC) has been acquired by Bank of America. This should come as no surprise to Bloodhound readers; we discovered the weakness at CFC last Spring and speculated about the price last Summer. Robert Kerr, Matt Heaton, and Bob Wilson, all Bloodhound readers, tipped me off to conjecture, asked all the right questions, and provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-lending","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2272,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2272\/countrywide-bankruptcy-likely-not-while-the-feds-are-bailing-them-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":0},"title":"Countrywide Bankruptcy Likely? Not While the Feds Are Bailing Them Out","author":"Brian Brady","date":"November 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a Countrywide watcher. It's size and reach in mortgage loan origination is worthy of any mortgage originator's respect and admiration. I had a lot of confidence in Countrywide as it marched to becoming America's largest originator of home loans. I liked 'em so much that I had a piece\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2550,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2550\/helocs-frozen-preserving-american-homeownership\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":1},"title":"HELOCs Frozen: Preserving American Homeownership","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Preserving the American Dream is a position paper authored by John Dugan, Comptroller of the Currency. \"Preserving American Home Ownership\" is the \"initiative\" rumored to be pondered by Countrywide Home Loans, IndyMac Bank, and Washington Mutual. N.B.: The following is rumor; something that was \"heard on the street\". Jeffrey Smith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3317\/farewell-countrywide-how-the-bank-of-america-merger-will-keep-wells-fargo-as-the-mortgage-origination-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":2},"title":"Farewell Countrywide: How The Bank of America Merger Will Keep Wells Fargo As The Mortgage Origination Leader","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"WARNING!\u00a0 Long commentary about the Bank of America\/ Countrywide merger ahead: Bank of America Press Release from July 1, 2008 (italicized) with my commentary: CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 1 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Bank of America Corporation today completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. to create the nation's leading mortgage originator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1828,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1828\/sub-prime-borrowers-got-lucky-they-didnt-pay-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":3},"title":"Sub-Prime Borrowers Got Lucky- They Didn’t Pay Enough","author":"Brian Brady","date":"August 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I floated an idea about a federal bailout, along the lines of Chrysler in 1980, of Countrywide Financial Corporation. I wanted to highlight two things in this post: Countrywide is in trouble and their trouble is our trouble. My premise is that the collapse of CFC goes beyond the 55,000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16038,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16038\/but-weve-got-to-have-some-regulation-how-else-are-insiders-going-to-get-their-mitts-onto-sweetheart-mortgage-deals\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":4},"title":"“But we’ve got to have some regulation!” How else are insiders going to get their mitts onto sweetheart mortgage deals?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Regulation is rent-seeking, Rotarian Socialist graft, and that's all it ever is. Who sold out the housing market? The regulators, of course. AP: Countrywide won influence with discounts. HousingWire: Investigation reveals Countrywide VIP program scope and influence. Bloomberg: Countrywide Used Loans For Favor With Fannie Mae, Report Says. I love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5900,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5900\/investor-sues-to-block-mortgage-modifications\/","url_meta":{"origin":2485,"position":5},"title":"Investor\u00a0Sues to Block Mortgage Modifications","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"December 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle over the mass modifications of troubled mortgages has begun in earnest. On Dec. 1, William Frey, a private investor in mortgage-backed securities, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court alleging that the proposed modification of some 400,000 home loans originally underwritten by the defunct lender Countrywide\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}