BELLEVUE, Wash. -- One of the largest and most respected home lenders in the western United States has closed its doors, in a move that could send shock waves through the real estate industry nationwide, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.

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Employees rushed to pack up and leave the offices of Capitol Commerce Mortgage when the multi-billion dollar firm went of business.

Mortgage brokers descended on the company's Bellevue office, caught off-guard by the shutdown.

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Employees Scramble To Pack Up, Move Out

Broker Tim Kelly said losing a huge firm like Capitol Commerce means thousands of homebuyers could lose their loans and homes they are about to buy.

"They've got a huge amount of customers," Kelly said. "They did $3.6 billion in business this month, so that's probably about 1,500 loans."

Kelly marched in, trying to save his customers' deals, but the doors of Capitol Commerce were locked and the windows were quickly covered.

"Well, this is how they treat their customers apparently."

Brokers eventually got in, but employees weren't answering any questions.

Some of the people who work at the company left, not sure what was happening to the firm -- or their futures.

Worker: "Everything is kind of up in the air."
Question: "Have they told you if you're coming to work on Monday?"
worker: "They haven't said anything."

The same scene played out in offices up and down the West Coast and as far east as Texas.

Capitol Commerce's home office in Sacramento, California, said a news conference was set for Monday to explain what's happened.

But that left thousands of home buyers in limbo -- facing the possibility of losing that dream house they thought they already had.