The bad news continues. More homes go into foreclosure everyday; the blame game continues. I don’t think any single group or party is to blame for the mortgage meltdown of 2007. “Too many cooks…” as it were.
That having been said, let me say this (as I’ve often said before) about the “professionals” in the mortgage business: please, please, PLEASE, if you haven’t already applied for that fast-food-burger-flipping job, please do so now, and get going on your exit from our industry. Yes, I’m talking about the quick and easy money seekers who jumped on the mortgage bandwagon in the past few years, lied to people, trashed our industry, purchased their luxury cars and expensive watches (all of which, now in hock!), and contributed greatly to the meltdown and the ever-eroding consumer confidence in all things mortgage-related. Get out.
Here’s a good example of the kind of things these slimebags said to consumers to convince them to sign loan applications. The quote is from a National Public Radio show, “Marketplace.” If you don’t listen to this most excellent business report, you should start tonight.
Before I post the quote, let me say this about me, my business practices, and my career: I never said anything so ridiculous. I will certainly have advised a client that traditionally, over time, and accounting for the cyclic nature of real estate markets, homeowners can look forward to reasonable market appreciation of say, 4% a year. But I would never advise a client to take a high-cost mortgage only to have to refinance a year later. Absurd. You cannot peg your ability to make mortgage payments based on the notion that your property will appreciate forever and you can just refinance over and over again. Yes, truly absurd concept.
“And they would say stuff like, you know, you’re in a prime area and property is going to keep going up and up and up, and you’ll be building up equity.”
I never said that. Ever.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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[...] Still, I stood firm. I knew what was waiting down the road for any client with these types of loans and I simply would not, and could not, in good conscience originate these radioactive loans for my clients. Too, I never subscribed to the “…your house will go up 25% in value and you can refinance next year…” theory, either. No, I never said that; not ever. [...]