Unable to keep even a small office, Investors Trust Mortgage closes

<p>SANTA ROSA – After months of struggling to keep his doors open and his business going, Ed Ratliff of Investors Trust Mortgage is taking a break.</p><p>Losing tens of thousands of dollars a month for the past several months, Mr. Ratliff said he couldn’t go on in the current market and expect to survive. “I’m not doing any more business,” Mr. Ratliff said. “I am doing fine, but if I stayed in business I wouldn’t be.”</p><p>“I think that it will be at least two years before the market comes back,” he said. He had planned on consolidating and had downsized dramatically in the past year and a half from roughly 200 people in 21 offices to just a handful of people in three offices.</p><p>Mr. Ratliff started Investors Trust roughly 30 years.</p><p>Several people from other mortgage lending companies that closed their doors ended up working for Investors Trust. Mr. Ratliff had to tell them he too was shutting down operations.</p><p> “I found out why they closed their doors,” he said. “Nobody is making any money right now.”</p>