Posted on 05/10/2010 6:26:23 AM PDT by blam
60 Minutes Runs Feature On Walking Away From Your Mortgage, And Now EVERYONE Wants To Know How They Can Do It
Joe Weisenthal
May. 10, 2010, 9:09 AM
Did 60 Minutes prompt a big cultural and economic moment last night?
The weekly TV news show ran a big feature on strategic defaults, and from what we gather it made strategic defaults look pretty sympathetic.
It also acknowledged that it could undermine the recovery.
Either way, we know LOTS of folks decided they want in on the action. How do we know?
Because all of the sudden we got flooded with search hits from people searching for information on how to walk away from your mortgage.
They were all landing on this handy how-to guide we drew up in January.
Do you want to get in on it? Click here to find out how.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“Insurance companies base their rates on your credit score with people with lower scores getting screwed over for higher rates.”
There are some who do not.
“No one can FORCE anyone to BUY anything, it is a choice they make because they are greedy. “
The govt can make you buy insurance.
“Bottom line responsibility is on the buyer. They go willingly because they have the WANTS.”
Bottom line is its up to both parties to behave ethically.
Why did God put it in there? HMMMM.....Perhaps he just knew that both lender and borrower were Greedy and needed an out.
Did you ever wonder just when that year of Jubilation began. If you were a lender, I suppose you would not lend any money out near the end of that period. lol
I'm not familiar with the tulip market in Holland, so I cannot intelligently answer that.
What are the actual housing needs for Americans in the next twenty years in the wake of the retirement of the baby boomers?
Housing needs under what lens? My impression is that you believe everyone deserves a roof under which they can live. The cruel fact of life is that housing costs money. There are plenty of programs available to low-income folks to assist with rent/lease situations. No one is OWED a home. A home is an investment for those who can afford to invest. It comes with risks, as you see.
Your mortgage contract spells out what happens in a default scenario. Why is that?
A default scenario is enumerated in a mortgage as a way to protect the bank in the event that the signer of the mortgage is unable to pay. Many banks will work with you during hard times, but hard times are going to happen, as they are now.
Also, a lot of these folks who are losing their jobs are refusing to take low income jobs to make ends meet. When my mother lost her job when my brother and I were kids, she worked three jobs to make ends meet and keep her bills current. Nowadays, people believe they're owed a 401(k) and health benefits and would refuse to work at McDonalds or Publix to make ends meet.
When I lost my job due to cutbacks a few years ago, I went out the next day and applied for jobs at every local restaurant and grocery store in hopes of a way to just keep my head above water. Most people don't want to do that. Is that an acceptable mindset to you?
Do you believe in debtors prison? Why or why not?
Yes I believe in debtors prisons. Unfortunately, they're not around anymore due to cost and the obvious number of people who would be incarcerated on the public dime. Debt is not necessary to live life. It's not necessary to have credit cards or to finance flashy cars. It's not necessary to own a home to live. I personally live on cash (except my mortgage, of course).
If someone gets into debt and knowingly either defrauds the loaner or decides to stop paying for whatever reason, that person should be made to account for their reasoning, and if it's unacceptable (drug problem, illegal form of income like gambling or drug dealing, or otherwise), then yes, throw them in prison.
Personal responsibility is dead in this country. Everybody wants a bailout for irresponsible behavior even when a majority of people are perfectly responsible and capable of paying their debts.
That is really irrevelant to the Purchasers/homeowners who got themselves into their own financial mess, of which this conversation is about. No one can FORCE anyone to make those purchases, at least I never heard of a bank holding a gun to make someone sign.
“They really can’t, I just do because I don’t like lawsuits, only buy it to protect myself from litigation. “
No litigation, buy medical or go to jail.
“No one can FORCE anyone to make those purchases, at least I never heard of a bank holding a gun to make someone sign.”
No they do it with a carrot and lies.
That’s not always a bad thing to do, but, like anything, it has to be well managed and done the right way.
First and foremost - don’t run the cards back up.
Second - make sure you SAVE the money you’re “saving” w/the lower payment, actually put it in a savings account somewhere.
Third - leave some equity in there.
I’d like to see them try that with me - I’m as bald as a cue ball.
You visit www.zerohedge.com, don’t you?
Great site.
Thankfully we still have the opportunity to not participate. I’m at the point. I’ll live like my grandparents: within my means!
Because the banks were bailed out instead of the homeowners, the banks are reluctant to make deals with homeowners when the values dropped. At one point, I recall radio financial adviser, Tom Sullivan, saying that the amount the government spent on bailing out the banks could have paid off over 90% of the mortgages in the US.
That bail out and the complicated way in which these mortgages were packaged as financial instruments, were game-changers.
If there had been no bailout or leveraging of mortgages by the financial industry, the banks would have gone belly-up and the mortgages would have been sold at fire-sale prices to new mortgage holders. The new mortgage holders would have been eager to deal with homeowners and would have had a lot of financial room to make deals. But since, the banks are sitting on taxpayer money, banks don't have to deal with the homeowner and have been dragging their feet every step of the way -- they have the homeowner by the short hairs.
The game has already been thrown, so that homeowners who continue to pay on mortgages that are higher than their houses are worth, no longer look like the honest, honorable people that they are -- instead they look like (and ultimately are) chumps.
Bankruptcy is a legal manuever available to all Americans. If a homeowner wants to take bankruptcy I have no problem with that. The court will decide if it is legitimate or not. Most personal bankruptcies are decided very fairly to debtors in court. Plus, most jurisdictions give the parties the ability to mediate a settlement before going to court.
By the same token, if a borrower can have a contract voided or nullifed by a court, fine. If a borrower can negotiate an advantageous deal with a lender that’s OK too. What I have a problem with is borrowers refusing to pay a legitimate obligation when they fully have the ability to do so.
Your analogy is flawed because on one hand it has a borrower engaged in a legitimate legal process (bankruptcy) and on the other hand, this thread is about borrowers who have the capacity to pay but refuse to do so, just because the value of the collateral is less than the mortgage balance. In my view (leaving aside my opinion of the ethics) this is a very short-sighted strategy.
and that is a differant issue.
Carrots and lies: only if you want that carrot and most do WANTS it, then they listen to the lies and SIGN on the dotted line.
No one has a crystal ball. There are tons of people who bought a home they could afford, only to see their circumstances change, and they now have a house they can no longer afford.
The last economic downturn was hard on millions. Some managed to scrape by and not lose anything, and some lost everything. You can’t honestly say that everyone on the losing end was responsible for their own circumstances.
In the case of a mortgage, you're not obligated contractually to pay it. You're contractually obligated to pay the monthly premium OR surrender the house. The latter is always a legal option.
“Carrots and lies: only if you want that carrot and most do WANTS it, then they listen to the lies and SIGN on the dotted line. “
Not really, they’ve trained a whole generation that their lives revolve around credit and their credit score.
If you never borrow money you have a bad credit score.
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