Don’t hate them all: Some brokers want to help

It’s easy to blame mortgage loan officers and brokers for the subprime lending crisis. And the mortgage industry certainly does deserve its sharge of the blame for the record number of foreclosures sweeping across the country.

But don’t forget: The housing slump, and the resulting slowdown in mortgage lending, has been particularly painful for the honest, hardworking mortgage professionals. Thousands have lost their jobs as business dries up.

Surprisingly, though, several of these displaced mortgage pros have ended up in an unusual place: They’re working for housing-aid organizations dedicated to helping homeowners facing foreclosure hold onto their homes.

Maggie Gilmour, of BusinessWeek, wrote an interesting story last week, which you can read here, about this trend. She highlights the story of Jose Pletz, a former mortgage loan officer who, after losing his job due to industry cutbacks, now works for Neighborhood Housing Services, a housing-counseling agency based in Chicago. His job now is not necessarily to get people into homes, but to keep them from losing them.

The point here? Yes, it’s easy to blame the wave of foreclosures on those mortgage loan officers who did put people in homes they couldn’t afford. But realize that not everyone involved with the mortgage industry was crooked. And realize, too, that many of them have suffered during this housing slump.