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The O.C. Mortgage Bust
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Michelle Patterson did exactly that. She left her job at an international recruiting firm about two years ago to join New Century, which filed for bankruptcy protection this year. She took the job while waiting for her non-compete agreement to expire so she could start a recruitment firm.
"I duplicated my earnings and then some," said Patterson, whose job at New Century was to drum up business from mortgage brokers. Around the time New Century's fortunes began to shift, Patterson co-founded the recruiting firm TouchPointe Solutions. Of the 20 people there, about a quarter are from the mortgage industry, she said.
The transition has been rockier for Kelly Markham, who earned $200,000 in commission in 2005 as a loan officer at an Irvine mortgage brokerage. When commissions dried up, she began looking for another job to support her six-month-old baby and hang on to her $600,000 home.
"I've signed up for work at a temp agency, but all I've gotten is five hours of work in the past four weeks stuffing envelopes in some office," said Markham, 34, as she perused Starbucks job listings online one recent afternoon.
Ventimiglio is also struggling to get back on track, although he considers himself lucky because he has enough cash reserves and connections to start his own business. He was offered a lower-level job at Homefield after the 400-person company downsized. But he declined it and left a few months before the firm closed in July. He has formed his own firm, California Mortgage Advisory, to focus on reverse mortgages, an increasingly popular type of loan for elderly homeowners.
He also considers himself prepared because he's been through this before. A Pittsburgh native and the son of an autoworker, Ventimiglio's family suffered through strikes, layoffs and financial struggles familiar to workers in that city's numerous auto and steel plants.
"Out here, there aren't too many who have seen that side of life, where there's no Christmas because Dad's been laid off," Ventimiglio said. "For them, this is emotionally traumatic. Anybody under 40 has not seen a real tough time."
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
