With the merger, Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers will immediately have use of both banks’ ATMs for free.

Bank of America’s $2.7 trillion in assets after the $19.4 billion purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. made it the largest U.S. bank and nation’s fourth-largest bank by assets. The combined bank has more than 6,713 outlets in 40 states.

Regulators had been pushing Wachovia to find a buyer after being crippled by housing loans.  San Francisco-based Wells (NYSE:WFC) agreed to buy Wachovia which topped a bid by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C).

Wachovia’s 2006 acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp. of Oakland, severely hampered Wachovia’s balance sheet and cashflow.

With the merger, Wells Fargo said it expects to write down $71.4 billion in assets acquired from Wachovia.

BofA (NYSE:BAC) said it expects to cut 35,000 jobs in the next three years as it absorbs Merrill Lynch.

Somehow I think Wachovia stock will end in the green tomorrow after all the disappointing news come out. We’ll see. Although AMEX and APPL aren’t helping the market much right now after hours.

here are some letters sent to the employees today…

Hello All,

As of this Friday July 25 will no longer be accepting any more loans. We will honor all locks up to that date. Yes, Wachovia wholesale will no longer exists. It was a pleasure working with each and every one of you. Thank you!

—————–
Dear Brokers:

We wanted to give you notice that Wachovia has made the decision today to no longer orginate loans through their wholesale channel. We will be
accepting applications for your borrowers on our portfolio and
marketable/FHA side until Friday July 25th, 2008 3pm. All loans need to
be registered, locked, and submitted in the pipeline prior to July 25th in
order to be honored. If you have been working with a borrower that you
were planning on submitting, please get the loan submitted immediately. We will be available to help you in any way possible in getting these loans
closed out in a timely manner. Once I have more details regarding our
operation closing, I will be sure to let you know.

To remind you again, our website for submission is www.wachovia.com/insite.

If you have any questions, please contact (DELETED).

Thank you for your business,

——————————————–

Sad to hear more people losing their jobs all stemming from the idiotic lending practice.

When real estate is foreclosed upon, it opens a world of opportunity to buy your dream home or condo. The cost is only a fraction of the real value! Read on, and this article will help you in finding these foreclosures online.

The foreclosure process begins when a homeowner does not or cannot make the payments on a home loan or mortgage. At the end of the process, whatever company that loaned the homeowner the money will seize the property and sell it to the highest bidder. The money from the sale goes to paying the difference on the loan debt. The bank doesn’t care about profiting– they just want to get their money back. Because of this, many home are sold for much cheaper than the house’s actual market value.

Foreclosure rates are a popular subject across the country, as they are rising at breakneck speed. Due to this situation, many Web sites have drawn up lists of available foreclosures across America that update daily. Of course, not every Web site is as good as the next, so you should be careful and do some research before establishing a membership with any of these sites.

Many companies will provide a free full-access trial membership. Usually the time frame for the trial is seven days, but this will help you retrieve information about your locale and any available foreclosures near you. This is also where your research about the company will take place.

If you use the free trial, you will be granted access to all of the information on the Web site. It will help you acquire some knowledge and get to the best sites with no cost to you.

After the trial is over, you must decide what to do– either continue to use the Web site (paying, of course), or you can sign up for the free trial on another site to see what’s available in the foreclosure market.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low for the third straight week in late January and borrowers took advantage of the drop, sending new applications soaring. Average rates on 30-year fixed mortgages drops to 5.1 percent, with some rates found below 5%. There is no better time to purchase homes whether it be through repos, hud, bank owned, foreclosures, for sale by owner, or your regular MLS listings. Mortgage company collapse from the likes of Countrywide and Wachovia ensure the mortgage standard will not falter and drag down the real estate prices in the near future.