Despite the overall pounding mortgage companies have taken over the last year, Tennessee-based Franklin American has escaped the bust, largely through the foresight of its CEO, Dan Crockett.
Crockett says his company didn’t offer sub-prime or alt-A mortgages during the last few years, when he says those accounted for over 60-percent of the market in 2006.
Crockett says his company was burned by a similar bust in sub-prime mortgages in 1994. He says there never should have been a market in the first place for the no-money down, low-interest payment loans. Crockett says both lenders and home-buyers share responsibility for the current mess.
“We are not doing our consumers any good by allowing them to come in and get in—we are setting them up to fail. We know better. But I will also tell you this. And we don’t hear this enough in the media…The consumer ultimately has some responsibility. And we do not ever want to blame the consumer. It’s always the big Wall Street guy. It’s always the big mortgage banker.”
President since 1994, Crockett bought the company when it had 4 employees, and has grown the organization to over 550. While many other companies have either filed for bankruptcy or have had their profits tank, Franklin American saw its highest profits ever in the first quarter of this year. It’s expected to have 15-billion dollars worth of sales this year.
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