I knew what was coming when my supervisor quietly asked me to come into the Vice-President's office.  Everyone else had gone home.  It was almost 4 p.m., monday, Jan. 25th, 2010.  I saw the large manilla envelope stamped, "CONFIDENTIAL"  and my heart sunk.  The Vice-President of Production told me that because of new RESPA regulations that went into affect Jan. 1, 2010, my job no longer existed.  The regulations made the once simple job of getting the final lenders Hud1 from escrow, was now so complicated that each Funder would have to get the document herself and make sure it met all of the new legal requirements.  My once secure, boring but secure, entry level job was ELIMINATED.  I was given a tiny severance check for my four years with the mid-size San Diego based mortgage company and a government pamphlet on how to apply for unemployment benefits.  I was crying, so my supervisor got my coat and purse from my desk and I quietly went out the back door and walked to the bus stop. 

 

So much for stimulating my job.  I was unemployed. The irony is that just the day before I had clipped an article from the New York Times paper about how loan officers are getting around the new RESPA laws by making up a form of their own to give prospective home buyers; circumventing the new law. 

 

I am sitting at a coffeeshop on Adams Ave. in San Diego, Calif.     More later.  For now I will sit and watch the world go by.