Today's lesson from the Washington Mutual's seizure comes in the form of a haiku:

Mortgage guys "retire"
and never tell their clients,
who then miss rate dips.

Story goes like this, folks.  Mortgage guys are leaving the business in droves.  Some leave because their company failed, but many more leave for other reasons.

And when they leave the business, loan officers aren't just leaving their career behind -- they're leaving their client database behind, too.  It's a major disservice to American homeowners who rarely find out that they've been abandoned, their mortgage details forever trapped in a secure database somewhere.

In the industry, we refer to this condition as being "orphaned". 

An orphaned mortgage is a home loan that is no longer managed, monitored or watched for refinancing and owners of orphaned mortgages are at a tremendous fiscal disadvantage versus other homeowners:

• When rates fall, there is nobody there to tell them
• When pricing policies change, there is nobody there to advise them
• When mortgage guidelines change, there is nobody there to make a new plan with them

Consider that 90,000 people left the mortgage industry last year and more will be gone after this one.  It adds up to a lot of orphaned mortgages and a lot of abandoned homeowners.  It pays to know when you've been orphaned.

For example, think back to September 8 when mortgage rates fell by a half-percent.  Owners of orphaned mortgages didn't get the news until the next morning, but by then, rates had already bounced back.  This entire class of homeowners missed the dip.

And then the same thing happened September 15 and 16.  Orphaned homeowners missed the dip again.

Now, you better believe that rates will dip a third time sometime soon.  And to take advantage, you need to have somebody looking out for you.  Proactively.  Markets move too fast to rely on the @mortgagereports Twitter feed. 

So, if your mortgage has been orphaned, take a minute to find somebody who'll "adopt" your mortgage.  Ask a friend, ask your real estate agent -- just ask someone.  And if you can't find a good loan officer on your own, fill in this 4-question form and I'll be happy to take you under my wing.

Mortgage rates and guidelines change every day and a homeowner whose mortgage is actively monitored will always get the lowest rates, lowest payments, and best mortgage planning guidance available

By contrast, owners of orphaned mortgages don't get anything except another monthly payment for the next 30 years.

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Dan Green is an active loan officer. Email or call 513-443-2020. Dan is on Twitter at @mortgagereports.