Paul Tharp writes in the New York Post yesterday on the plight of Countrywide Home Loan stock price taking a beating while the CEO, Mr. Angelo Mozilo, cashes in stock options worth more than $118 million! Anytime the executives start cashing out, you know there’s trouble.

Ditech Mortgage owned by GMAC Mortgage, is famous for their schlocky TV ads with a fat loan officer who always loses clients (even his own mother in one) saying, “Lost another loan to Ditech”.

These same ads pummel the viewer with the misleading, but very enticing $395 Flat Fee idea.

Wells Fargo Mortgage is a subsidiary of a Federally chartered depositor bank which merged with Norwest Bank in 1998 an has become the second largest mortgage originator.

Wells Fargo Mortgage is part of the $40 Billion Wells Fargo Bank mega-company that once again has been a darling of stock brokers and mutual fund managers for over two decades. It is no accident Wells Fargo has had incredible stock price appreciation mainly due to their mortgage operation.

Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, was called to give testimony as to the legitimacy of his stock sales and other CEO compensation shenanigans before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Mr. Mozilo’s statement is more rhetoric and excuses including everything from the woes of the subprime meltdown to an “unforeseen” housing market crash, and very little on his mega-million dollar payday.

Mortgage brokers heard rare support from the nation’s top banking regulator, John M. Reich at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Legislative & Regulatory Conference in Washington, D.C..

Some of the nice things said by Mr. Reich about mortgage brokers were:

Washington Mutual Mortgage along with eAppraiseIT, their appraisal firm, was accused of over inflating the appraisal values of homes by New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.

Washington Mutual Mortgage allegedly colluded with eAppraiseIT, an appraisal management subsidiary of First American Corp. to “meet the numbers”. The lawsuit said that eAppraiseIT succumbed to pressure from Washington Mutual Mortgage to use appraisers who overvalued homes allowing the bank to close more home loans.

Lenox Financial Mortgage is known for their ever-present radio campaigns touting “no cost” refinancing and is the prime example of what I call “deceptive or incomplete” advertising.

Refer to my article, “No Closing Cost Mortgage Advertising Is a Lie” to see how Lenox Financial and others pull the wool over the eyes of the average mortgage consumer.

A mortgage broker is the home loan consumer’s best choice. A mortgage broker locates and procures the funds. This means the mortgage broker must have multiple relationships with money sources.

Mortgage brokers can originate your loan but rely on wholesale lenders to provide the money to fund your loan. They go through a screening process to become an approved mortgage broker with the wholesale lender. Some mortgage lenders are very picky when selecting mortgage brokers and some let just about anyone in.

Mortgage stock prices are dropping like a stone creating a huge profit opportunity. I wrote a post 10 months ago on my ActiveRain blog showing folks how to “short” mortgage stocks to bank these profits.

Since then a most mortgage stock prices have literally freefallen. Right after that post, Novastar’s stock (symbol: NFI) dropped 40% in one day down to about $15 a share. Today Novastar has dropped even further down to $2.08 another 60%.

Countrywide Loans are the biggest mortgage lender and yet they are under serious scrutiny. Countrywide Loans are rumored to be under investigation on stock sales and on the verge of collapse.

Countrywide Loans are owned by parent company Countrywide Financial Corporation, a NYSE traded company under the symbol CFC. The mortgage division consisting of Countrywide Home Loans and Full Spectrum Lending, their subprime lending arm, which makes up to almost 70% of the revenue for the company.