I worked for an appraiser from 2001 to 2004. We had about 30 mortgage companies, but the main one by far was Ameriquest.
What I did has made me just sick for the last few years.
We routinely over appraised homes for them. All the time, every day. Some were so bad I passed on doing the appraisal - I was finally fired for this.
Here's how it usually went: Someone from Ameriquest would call us with a request for an appraisal. They would already have a dollar figure - say, $180,000 - and they would demand we find comps to match this amount. Their numbers were always at least $20,000 too high. Always. Every time.
So, instead of finding suitable comps (within 1 mile radius, within the same development, sold within the last year, etc.) we would go way out from these parameters.
None of the homes I appraised were high end; in fact, they were always a bit shabby, and you could tell the owners were struggling. Lots of times we were appraising mobile homes.
Sometimes the homeowners would come into our office completely bewildered. They would tell us how they initially contacted Ameriquest in order to pull $20,000 or $30,000 worth of equity out of their home to pay bills or whatever, and now they were on the "Ameriquest train" (crazy train) with a whole new mortgage and tens of thousands in Ameriquest "fees". I never knew what to say...
I routinely saw people who had recently filed for bankruptcy getting teaser rates of 6%. They didn't understand this wouldn't last, and the Ameriquest people never explained it to them, not in a way they could understand. Just a lot of mumbo-jumbo mortgage jargon.
As for dealing with Ameriquest, they always acted rude and frantic. They always wanted everything yesterday, would routinely scream at me on the phone. Nothing was ever fast enough for them. Threats and bullying were the norm; I dreaded picking up the phone.
I think they wanted to rush people into these loans and refinancing before they could compare and/or get advice. The people from Ameriquest I dealt with regularly would be on the phone from 7 in the morning til 11 at night - boiler room mentality. They sought out lower income people, and would come into our office discussing them, laughing at them, talking about how easy it was to get them into way bigger loans than they originally wanted.
And the Ameriquest people were living high on the hog. $50,000 cars, $500,000 homes, luxurious vacations were the norm. And these were just the people writing the loans, not the higher-ups.
Anyway, I started questioning these practices and my boss didn't like it. Most of his business came from Ameriquest - they were like gods to him. Finally, since I wasn't being a good "team player", he let me go.
Ameriquest called me and offered me a job. I politely declined.
So, all this talk now blaming the mortgage holders for the mess we're in, is a bunch of crap. Ameriquest and all the others bullied, cajoled, sweet talked, and just plain lied to people, talking them into more than they could afford, so they could collect their "fees". They targeted those among us least able to protect themselves. Shame on them, and shame on me for not speaking up.
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