Guardhill picks up IndyMac retail division
December 11, 2008 03:15PM By Sara Polsky
Alan Rosenbaum
Guardhill Financial Corp., a Manhattan-based mortgage brokerage, has found new opportunities in a credit crunch that has led banks to scale back their mortgage lending.
The company, headquartered at 950 Third Avenue, at 57th Street, recently hired 30 new employees and plans to expand its New Canaan, Conn. office and open a new office in Jericho, LI, within the next several months.
"While many of the banks have been de-emphasizing mortgage lending, we've picked up [a] considerable market share," said Alan Rosenbaum, president of Guardhill, a 17-year-old company that employs a total of 80 people.
The new employees come from the retail division of IndyMac Bank, which filed for bankruptcy in July.
Rosenbaum maintained that Guardhill has remained in solid financial shape despite the problems in the mortgage industry because the company's clients tend to be "affluent customer[s] who can verify income and assets [and] have credit scores in excess of 700."
But Guardhill has still had to adjust to stricter lenders' guidelines in a world of tightened credit.
"We are being more cautious, making sure that we match the right lenders to the right borrowers," Rosenbaum said.
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Comments
jerry
is idmcq a good long term investment
Comment #1 Posted By: jerry 12/19/08
Anonymous
Weren't those the same loan officers who worked for IMB, who left the last week in July, complete with laptops for their use in the new IMB location, under the premise that they were going to work for IMB, only to end up in Guardhill's office? Another chapter out of the book, Lifestyles of the Rich and Pampered. Alan will have his hands full with this group. It will be interesting to see if they drain his organization of resources like they did NYMC and IMB.
Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 12/27/08
Anonymous
Yes Alan will be busy lining his pockets and emptying the companies. Good business decision, not
Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 12/28/08
Anonymous
Drain IMB resources. Are you kidding? They were never given sufficient resources from IMB to begin with. he staff that moved to Guardhill are the top of the top in NYC ( with a combo from MIT (IPI) and NYMC. Good move,yes for sure.
Comment #4 Posted By: Anonymous 02/03/09
Anonymous
"Drain IMB resources"? As a finance person we never saw any group make money for the company. The P&L's were more in the red than in the black. Would the REIT have sold such a profitable company to IMB? Hopefully Guardhill has a business model that works with the top of the tops that puts money back into Guardhill.
Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 06/14/09
Anonymous
Indymac was ill prepared to handle retail mortgage banking. they assumed they could run retailing operations just like their wholesale operations and could treat their retail loan officers as they treated their brokers (with an its my way or the highway approach) that does not, did not and never will work. Indymac's decline had everything to do with the toxic junk they had in their servicing portfolio from years of being exclusively a sub-prime and alt a wholesale and correspondent lender. Mike Perry's and IMB senior management's pure arrogance led to their down fall.
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 07/15/09