House of the rising Moonglum

I generally have doubted people’s claims that “oh it’s all the lender’s fault, they didn’t tell me all the details”. I mean really, if you are going into $300,000 in debt, aren’t you going to figure out how much it is going to cost you? Aren’t you going to look at worst case scenarios? And if you aren’t, don’t you think you are being a little greedy and reaching beyond your means? Well, my mind has started to change a bit on that. First of all, I’m sure people thought that if they got in trouble they could always sell. Turns out it is pretty hard to sell a house right about now. (Ask my neighbor who had to move, couldn’t sell for 6 months and is now renting his place out.) An mike pointed out recently, that people who we are set up to trust really are giving out bad advice. Now it looks like some of the things that these companies were doing were so bad that Madigan is getting in on the action. Outright lying to lenders, and as if that weren’t bad enough lying to the approval agencies. When someone pulls their number together and gives you pay slips showing 2k a month, and you report 9k a month, something actually wrong is happening there.

The borrower still has some responsibility because they should know what they are going to be paying month to month, but to be lied to directly about that. Ouch. I guess that is why I would never buy an ARM. And why I get mad at my bank for trying to get me to take out a home equity loan.

Let’s say you are meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time. That first handshake with dad might mean more than you think.