Kevin and Christina Stevens aid

''A borrower should prove that he is capable of the loan they are granted.  Loose lending is what got real estate where it is today.''

Hi guys Loose Lending, I like that saying...A little to loose.

Here is my favorite link to mortgage news.

Real Loose Lending Link Below.

http://www.mortgagefraudblog.com/index.php/C9/

Vance

I'm sure you feel better now that you can place the blame on an industry that did nothing but follow your lead.  If you think that lending policies caused your disarray, check previous Real Estate market cycles over the years.  Better yet, watch the History Channel...you might learn something.

Make your own news !!!

You get what you expect.  Expect "another bad day" and that's what you get.

I expect my best year ever!

Christina,

I'm surprised to hear that no doc loans would be so easy to get in any area nowadays? My biggest problem right now is that a lot of clients don't qualify for conventional loans and no doc loans are no longer accessible for them. In my case it mainly affects contractors and self employed people who used to buy using 100% loc doc or no doc financing, would move in, use the cash they didn't have to use for a downpayment to fix it up, sell it and do it over and over again. And all that is now gone.

BTW, what was the ABC news about? I haven't seen it ... Can you give us more details?

Wow Phil.  A little sensitive.  Are you a mortgage broker???  I got this info from first hand experience.  In Texas lending is regulated very strictly.  In Nevada not so much.  Foreclosure rates in Nevada- top 5 in the nation.  I hold a license in both states.  This is a place for opinions and I thought friendly discussion.  Sorry I hit something personal with you.  Did not mean to.  Just wanted intelligent talk not a tongue lashing.  JUST SO YOU KNOW I NEVER FELT BAD ABOUT THE CURRENT MARKET.  I DO FEEL BAD FOR AGENTS IN OTHER AREAS.  THIS NEGATIVE PUBLICITY DOES EFFECT THE ENTIRE NATION.   I AM IN 2 EXCELLENT MARKETS AND ONE THAT CRASHED DUE TO THIS LOOSE LENDING.  DO YOU THINK A CASINO WORKER MAKING $40k A YEAR CAN AFFORD A HOME AT $250k WHICH IS THE LOWEST THEY CAN PAY TO BUY A HOME IN LAS VEGAS.  MANUFACTURED HOMES ATE $200K.  NO THEY CAN'T SO LENDERS MADE NO DOC LOANS A COMMON PRACTICE.  ARMS HAVE RUN RAMPID IN NEVADA.  Thank God I am back in Texas.  I never knew this blog was a place where we went to get nasty.

Michaela no doc loans are hard to get in Texas unless you put 20% down.  Almost impossible.  In Nevada you just sneeze and they will give you a home.  ABC nightly with Charles Gibson has blamed the market crash mainly on the real estate industry and the loose lending I spoke of.  The story is of course title the crash due to real estate yet the body of the story focused on the poor lending practices of banks across the nation.  The banks are even in trouble since loans are not being satisfied.

Lonn we have a really great market in both Galveston and San Antonio.  I just hate that nationally we are getting a bad rep for something that is not solely our fault.  I know Phil speaks of his real estate education brought to us by the history channel yet I speak of real life experiences in our current market TODAY.  I do agree wholeheartedly with your attitude.  The market is what we make it yet we are the number on reason the stock market hit the skids this week. What comes up most come down however.  That is the story of the market.  We had an all time high just a few weeks ago.  I guess real estate just makes an interesting news story.

Vance I  totally agree with you which is why I am for the most part against no doc lending and variable rates.  I did to like the e sound of loose lending.  Kind of has a nice ring to it.  Makes it a bit funny.  

By the way my husband is a loan officer but we don't practice both since I am not a double dipper.  I know some agents do and get a little testy about it.  I just wish the blame was equally on both real estate and lending.  I always hear the news story state that the real estate market is the cause.  Yet the lending institution was the #1 focus in the story.  Just not the lead in title of course.  Can't buy a home without a loan in most cases.  I guess the story packs more of a punch when they just throw the issues under real estate versus coming up with a title that encompasses the whole problem.

By the way Phil I know the market is cyclical and I do watch the history channel.  This is all par for the course and history does and will repeat itself.   I just choose to discuss the present.

If you don't have something beneficial to say, and half way decent then don't say it at all. I respect and LOVE a different opinion.  Just in a nicer tone.  I would never have been so rude until provoked of course.  I like coming to this forum and I hope other people feel the same way.  If we can't communicate like adults then we have no business posting.  I do appreciate the feedback.  Just address other is a tone that is respectful.  I have learned, and not for watching TV that a decent tone carries much more respect when expressing a difference in opinion.

Thanks guys for posting.  I appreciate it.  Sorry for my tangent.  

Christina

Christina, very few of us understand Phils' sense of humor. I just think he spreads sunshine and can't contain himself. Please don't let it bother you. He makes candid appearances here off and on. We are working on remodeling him. It may take a little while.

I wish I could move my clients to Nevada!

Christina, I think it takes a little while to get used to Phil's responses (no offense, Phil  :-) ... it took me some time as well :-)

Mary ... thinking alike?

Yep, great minds.

Phil...

Care to elaborate?  What would we learn?  Save us a day spent on the history channel and just spill it, please....  

BUT... try and share an up side.... K ?

Christina...nothing personal inferred or directed. Relax....it's only a blog. Maybe watching that TV channel where they show the Yule log burning for 18 hours might help calm down all those capital letters. And no, I never had the qualifications or skills to be a mortgage broker....just a Realtor.

Mary, I knew I was spreading something....didn't know it was sunshine.  Remodeling?? Why would you want to change my wonderful smile and my warm words. I'm takin' aback.....

Lonn......speaking positively, in the sunshine, with the birds chirping behind me having my best century ever ("up" enuf?), there's no need to elaborate.  The statement is on point.  You cannot fault the lending industry that supplied a demand we created.

Phil?  Is That Really You?  

Writing about Sunshine?  Birds Chirping?  Best Century Ever?

Better be careful... You might get a reputation for being positive.  That might even have an impact on referrals and commission income too ; )

I think if blame could be assigned, which I don't because there are an infinite number of factors that contribute to any market, culture, social climate, conventional wisdom, 'zeitgeist' or lack thereof:

The mortgage company providing the loan with bad terms and the mortgagee's representative, the mortgagee for not being smart enough to know when they need a loan or whether they have the ability to pay over the long haul are all playing the lead roles.

PS. I foresee more lawsuits over the next few years over what level of liability the buyer's agent has and  'the financing' becoming a due diligence item.

Lombardo v Albu 2000 in AZ changed a lot of things for us. Buyer's agent has a good degree of responsibility for disclosing the buyer's ability to close.

I could see someone trying to sue their broker for not advising them they saw signs that they were getting into a bad loan program when buyer can't pay back and loses their home.

Uh... perhaps the blame lies with the consumer who takes out a loan he/she cannot afford or who goes further into debt after taking out the mortgage loan to begin with.  We are all products of our previous decisions.

Amen to that Tim . . . stupid once again is not a protected class. Still, I've seen agents encourage their clients to get into bad loans. I don't care who my client finances with as long as I go on record advising them to review their GFE very early in the process. And avoid short term solution for long term problem. Time flies in that introductory period, LOL!

<<We are all products of our previous decisions.>>

Port Saint Lucie is a town of foreclosures because of bad loans and bad decisions. I try to convince my client not to take a loan I think is too much for them. I have turned clients down or referred them. There is just so much you can do if they still want to move forward with the loan and purchase. I am now selling the foreclosures and short sales and I do feel bad. I try to help them sell the homes so they at least break even. Maybe the next boom will have a better loan and better protections in place. I have had a father say that trying to get his daughter in an adjustable loan with a mortgage broker friend of mine was illegal (she wanted out) and we were pressuring her. So I had to get the mortgage guy to back off , even though he did nothing wrong. Buyers are seeing it as a liability issue and it scares me. I am not sure who is at fault but I don't want to be in the middle.

Melissa Langridge

Sorry for the tangent Phil.  I relaxed.  I have had a bad week.

I just saw such a sad situation developing in Nevada.  I am just sick of the angle the journalists take.  Why don't they say another bad day in lending versus real estate.  i know it is all basically  the same in retrospect.

I just feel so, so sorry for the people who should have the sense not to bite off more then they can chew.  Unfortunatly these innocent by ignorance victims exist.  Look at Melissa's story.  She did the same thing I would have done yet somewhere the mortgage broker was offering the party a loan they could not and should not afford.

Where is the accountability on the lenders behalf.  We are stuck signing disclosure after disclosure here in Texas.  I just am annoyed by the ease of loans in some areas.  I hated the Las Vegas market.  It just took advantage of innocent victims who only dreamed the American dream of owning their own home.

Phil i was to lazy to go to law school so forgive me when that side of me comes out.

Thanks to everyone again for responding.

<< I just am annoyed by the ease of loans in some areas.  It just took advantage of innocent victims who only dreamed the American dream of owning their own home.>>

Wait a minute.  

A LOT of years ago when I was looking for a home I was told that I could get a loan for $160K based on my income/debt ratio.   I KNEW that if I bought a home for that much I would be house poor and have to hang sheets in my windows for curtains.  I bought a home for much less.  MY decision.  MY responsibility.

Where is the responsibility of the BUYER??  Seems like buyers created the raise in home prices as they all saw a trend of "buy & sell for a profit" and all wanted to cash in on the trend.  Well, too bad for them.

Buyers took the gamble that prices would continue to raise and greed played a little part in the fact that buyers were willing to pay more & more for homes as builders built more & more homes and buyers wanted to move up, move up, move up into homes they really didn't need.

Agents and mortgage lenders were just there for them... doing their job.

I run across TOO many people wanting to sell their home after living in it for a 12 to 24 months now days and I have to tell them that their home is worth less today than what they paid for it 18 months ago.  They look at me in amazment and tell me I'm crazy.  HELLO.... don't you EVER read the paper or watch the news???  Maybe tune into a HGTV show once in awhile?

Reminds me of the crazy DOT.com days when all the guys in my office were buying stock in yahoo and other dot.com companies and laughing at me because I didn't think it was a good idea.  "What are you actually getting when you buy stock in a web portal?" I'd ask them.  You're buying air.  There's no product.  Of course I had the last laugh as I watched them loose their butts when the stocks tanked.

"Why did you pay $250K for that home Mr Buyer?"  "Because I can flip it and make $30K in TWO months!"  Oh no can't.

It's my opinion that PEOPLE who were buying all these homes on the upswing (myself included) and not having enough sense to stop it when they should have are the primary cause of all this.  Not the businesses (you and I) providing the services to assist them in doing what THEY choose to do.

As usual - what goes up must come down.  The market is correcting itself and we ALL feel the effect.  My 2400 SF home that I bought one year ago for $350K is worth $50K - $60K less today because the 3000 SF home across the street and another next door to me just sold for $350K.  BUT... I only loose money IF I have to sell.  Which I don't.  So it doesn't matter to me.  Yes, I feel sorry for people who HAVE to sell IF they have to bring money to the table.  No, I don't feel sorry for people if they think thay can make $75K - $50K a year in appreciation on their home and just want to sell to cash in.  Those days are gone too.  Back to MAYBE 5% a year after all this smoke clears.

Whew... my 2¢!