BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:Striking out on their own

Despite slumping home sales, few signs of an imminent market turnaround and the near paralysis of home mortgage lenders this month, Ernest Tepman and Andreh Haftvani — who co-founded a Glendale-based home mortgage brokerage this year after leaving Countrywide Financial Corp. — believe their business is poised to take off.

As the residential real estate market exploded during the past five years, the industry was flooded with opportunistic buyers, sellers, real estate agents and mortgage brokers who needed little experience to see through profitable transactions, Tepman said.

Now, with large lenders squeezing their standards in the wake of rising delinquencies of mostly sub-prime loans, fewer borrowers are now able to qualify for loans, he said. And those that do qualify are likely to be more selective in choosing their broker, he said.

“This is the best of times. . .  it’s scary, don’t get me wrong, I’m on the lookout, but now, for once, I have value,” he said. “Now you need a professional who has made a study of this work — versus some guy who drove a cab yesterday and now he’s a mortgage broker — to get your loan through, because banks are doing their best not to lend.”

Tepman and Haftvani left their positions at Countrywide in February to follow through with what they said were long-seeded plans to start their own operation. Their move was not in anticipation of the drastic fallout at the nation’s leading lender that would ensue less than a week later, they said.

“When we left Countrywide, they were doing fine,” Haftvani said. “And then. . . ”

Prompted by a high volume of sub-prime loans going delinquent earlier this year, Countrywide’s stock, which was around $40 a share in late February, tumbled to about $35 by early March. And after a brief climb back to about $40, Countrywide’s stock has since been slashed in half. Shares were trading at less than $20 last week.

The reduction came as Wall Street investors, who had stocked up on mortgage-backed securities consisting of risky loan portfolios, unloaded a glut of nonperforming loans back onto their original lenders, Tepman said.