Goodbye Bryco!

Well, according to Aaron Krowne and crew at the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, Bryco Funding has closed up shop and joined the ranks of defunct lenders.
Those of you who have been around for a while may remember this name coming up here on a number of occasions in recent years.

Here's a quick chronology:

Back in September of 2005 (two and a half years ago!) after seeing a Sunday morning TV commercial for home equity loans, the now memorable Thank You Bryco! post was released into the Blogosphere:

Well, it looks like all the home equity lending risk management guidelines are working wonders. As you'll recall, five federal agencies issued these guidelines back in May. At the time we likened this guidance to fitting a patient suffering from back pains with a back brace, while a cancerous tumor was growing inside, impinging upon his spinal cord.

It looks like the patient isn't even wearing the back brace.
...
We don't know if what Bryco Funding is offering the public is typical of others in the industry - our sample size of one is probably too small, but here it is:

If you are backed up against the wall financially, and you own a home and have a mortgage, there is a simple easy way to get fast cash.

Even if you've been in your home for six months, one month, or a day, Bryco Funding can use a new appraised value to get you cash instantly.

Credit scores as low as 500, bankruptcies, or foreclosures are not a problem. You don't even need proof of income or past tax records.

Call Bryco Funding now to pre-qualify, there's no obligation and there are no charges or fees for pre-approval. And since Bryco Funding lends their own money, they can make instant decisions and approvals.And, they can wrap up your loan in as little as ten to 14 days.

Stop worrying and screening phone calls from nagging creditors. Help Bryco help you today with a quick-cash loan. Just call the toll-free number on the screen. Our number one goal is to say yes.

At Bryco Funding we believe in loans, not limitations.

Yes, things are much better now that five federal agencies have weighed in on home equity lending, and Bryco must have some very cooperative appraisers to work with. While not stated in their advertisement, we can reasonably conclude that the minimum requirements for a home equity loan from Bryco are a home with equity and a pulse.

There were lots of comments on this post, some by former employees, and it somehow worked its way up in the Google ranking for "Bryco Funding" where it remains today:
Some company officials spotted this and sent an email my way about a year later resulting in "What to do with the Byco post?" which was a really smart-ass reply to a ham-handed request to squelch freedom of speech in one little corner of the internet.

It's not clear what should be done with that old post that keeps popping up when Bryco Funding is Googled. In a sense, maybe that's what makes the internet great. The comments for and against Bryco both seem compelling in their own way and perhaps leaves potential customers walking away better informed than they would otherwise be.

On the other hand, this may be affecting the company's bottom line, so maybe strategy sessions have been held where management figures that if they could only get that blog post down, then business would pick up and they won't have to lay off Suzy in accounting.

What was remarkable about the comments on the original post was the defense offered up by a 60-something retiree - a defense that many commenters felt was not genuine.

I corresponded with company officials over a period of time during which they pleaded for me to take down both posts but I never did.

Based on site statistics, it appeared there were only a few inbound queries per day from this Google search and when advised of this, they said they could live with that.

What I did agree to, however, was to not talk about Bryco again, which I haven't - until now.

The last I heard on the subject was almost a year ago when another former employee had heard they were going under but had no confirmation of such. Now that the Implode-O-Meter has confirmed their demise, this matter can be wrapped up.

Goodbye Bryco!