No Bailout For A-1

by Talk Business & Politics ([email protected]) 70 views 

Remember that cover story in our last issue about the folks from Georgia who were going to bail out A-1 Mortgage Co., the troubled Rogers lender?

Well, forget all that. It didn’t happen after all.

The way we hear it, Reggie Johnson, the vice president with First Colonial Bank Services Inc. who had moved to Rogers to handle the takeover, stormed out of the business days after the article was published. Apparently, he and Tom Waggoner, president of A-1, disagreed over the role First Colonial would play in the bailout.

Now, Waggoner is telling the few remaining employees of the company that he is signing a contract with Allied Mortgage Corp. of Houston to become a branch of that company. Supposedly, Allied would process mortgages for A-1, pay commissions to A-1 loan officers and settle the company’s overdue debts by September.

Not so, says Jim Hodge, an officer with Allied who has been in contact with Waggoner. Hodge says Waggoner came to Houston last week and made a presentation to the company.

“We have elected not to be involved,” Hodge says. “We just didn’t feel like their company fit in with what we are trying to do.”