Time Sensitive: Do Realtors Owe Anything To Those Hit By Housing?

Dawn - As they said in the sixties "Right On!"  I wish I was paid for all of the times that I have worked for nothing.  Lately it seems like we can't get a deal done unless we give up some of our commission.  Of course I would rather get something than nothing, but don't bash me at the same time that we take less to get the home sold for our sellers.  Also what is wrong with getting paid and making money.  A doctor doesn't not get paid because he treated you for the same thing last year.

A couple years ago, as a newer Realtor, I had the opportunity to meet an interesting individual who had come here from another country to set up a nonprofit organization (which qualified through government funding and matching donations) that would help low income first-time home buyers obtain American Dream of owning their own home. However, the prequalification was that the 'clients' had to take a minimum 20-hour class regarding home ownership, financing, budgeting, etc. prior to embarking on the home search process. I toured the facilities, saw the class room, the coursework and was absolutely amazed with it! I LOVED IT! I thought EVERYONE who is a first-time home buyer should be required to take a class prior to buying their first home, low income or NOT!

How many of us understood what it meant to buy and own a home when we bought our first one? How many of us were taught this in high school or college? How many of us even knew how to balance a checkbook? Many of us didn't understand, so we paid our loan officers for their professional skills to lead, guide and direct us properly with regards to a home loan in order to purchase a home.

I compare this mess the health industry, which let us down by writing millions of prescriptions to patented drugs instead of focusing on total wellness for the patient through instruction on diet, exercise and proper nutrition. The lure of the Big $$ trumped all. Soon the consumer caught on, and as a result, many people decided that, instead of depending on the professional knowledge of their physicians, they would become proactive and take responsibility for their own health and educate themselves to total wellness.

Now the government is handing out a tax credit to first-time home buyers on a silver platter, and they don't even have to pay it back! That is MY hard earned money given to these new homeowners without so much as asking anything of them in return! I'm not against stimulating the economy, here, and I certainly didn't like the government bailout of the banks that caused this mess in the first place. But in my opinion, if the Buyers are getting a handout, they should at least be required to produce a certificate that says they took a class and passed a test of the RESPONSIBILITIES of home ownership, financing, budgeting and the like. It's called PREVENTATIVE MEASURES! Let's prevent this from ever happening again! That's how we can fix this mess! Otherwise history will only repeat itself.

Lending is a Business, Real Estate is a Business, and though many years ago the health industry used to be considered a Ministry, it is now considered a Business. We are all in the business to make $$ people! Don't fool yourselves. I make money by educating my Sellers and Buyers with the materials and statistics they need to make an informed decision with regards to purchasing or selling a home. If I've done my job well, I get paid. Then and only then is that $$ well earned. Yet I'm not in the business to tell someone they can't buy a home because they may be extending themselves, though many times I DO! But many times I don't even know how much available cash my Buyers have in their bank accounts, and some of them don't want me to know. It is the Loan Officer's job to take care of the financing end of it. That is what THEY get paid to do!

If every first-time home buyer were required to take a class prior to obtaining their first home (just like taking a driving class/test before getting their drivers license), they could tell if they were over-extending themselves instead of counting on a possible greedy loan officer to tell them what they want to hear. But we just keep writing 'prescriptions' to hide the pain instead of treat the root of the problem here. Giving first-time home Buyers a tax credit will get them into a home, alright, but will it keep them there? Not if they haven't learned what it means to be fiscally responsible in homeownership.

And for that, we ARE to blame! Let's pressure the NAR to do their job and pressure the government to incorporate preventative measures for Potential Home Owners. After all, that's what my NAR membership $$ is Supposed to do!

Okay, I'm off the soap box now.

Thank you for being proactive and responding to this flawed reporter. The public needs to see the truth that the reporters are not exposing.

I thought Fox was the good guys?  Perhaps in an effort to be "Fair" news people and entertainers should be taxed at 90% of everything over $250,000.00.  How hard can it be to have someone else make you up and then read a telepromter.

And WHY are realtors always the villain??!?!?

I want to smack these talking heads upside theirs!

We're still doing more of our job than ever, and most of us very well, thank you. FYI to anyone out there...we area all now working 3 TIMES as hard to make HALF the money we made ever!!! We are still doing the same work and in fact more of it, and suffering more aggrivation due to fall-through financing and buyer-seller standoffs. You need a maaster's degree in social work or psychology today to be an agent. 

Word up: This business is NOT for the faint of heart.

The bonanza market of a few years go was created by one simple economic fact...supply and demand...plain and simple. We had baby boomers grown up kids out looking for single family homes in spades and their empty-nester parents right behind them nabbing condos!!!

No one twisted anyone's arm. We merely served the clients whom paid us to do so at their request.

Anyone out there putting it on the line and depending on full-time income as a realtor to day should get a PURPLE HEART medal as far as I'm concerned!!!

I say, stop the blme, and run the game, and we'll all come out winners in the end.

Yours in Success,
Sarah

Dawn, someone sent me a link to the next blog. I followed your link to see where it started before I read the next one. I think I'm glad I missed all this. I was already having a bad weekend. This would have sent me to the moon.

Did Brian respond to you?  I'd love to hear his response.  I think your response to him was fabulous....you are a smart woman!

NO we don't owe anyone anything! There was an agent in the office that professed at a meeting that 'we owe it to the sellers to keep market prices up'.  OH yeah?  And tell the buyers that who actually cause market prices to decline!  Market 101, Economics 101.

STATEMENT OF FACT!  No matter who we may blame for this mess-THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING ALL OVER AGAIN-as I write this.  Incentives, tax credits/Federal & State, Cities and County's offering first time home buyers down payment $$$ etc, etc, etc,.  Here in my area, 90% of the buyers are first timers.  As a Agent who works mostly with buyers, I've turned away several who had a qualification letter from a lender.  After I reviewed their financial statement and added up all their monthly obligations,and did a recalulation to find out how much house they really could afford.  (debt to income ration based on NET disposable monthly income.)  They would need to look for homes in a price range $50K less than the lender approved them for. They didn't like me very well after that!  So they went to another agent who had no problems writiing up the offer for them.

Now, I ask you!  Are you putting buyers into homes right now because the lender says that they can afford it? OR!  Are you doing what I did??????????????????  Food for thought when it comes to passing the blame buck$

As a mtg broker its interesting to see the shoe on a different foot.  We've been taking a lashing for a long time now.

Are realtors at fault?  Do they owe people anything to those hit by the housing market?   Good questions?

Did you ever tell a buyer

that in a few years the house would double in value. 

you can afford it.  I know a good mtg brkr that can get you approved.

you'll be making a better salary in a year or two anyway

I know this house is just a "bit" over your budget but I wanted to show it to you anyway.

On Wall St. one of the cardinal rules for brokers is "know your client".  Know his investing objectives, know is tolerance for risk, know if you should be looking at capital preservation or agressive appreciation.  Most NASD arbitration comes out of "unsuitable" investments. 

When the RE market was blazing.. did you take time to "know your client"?  While RE Agents don't have a SRO like the NASD it doesn't necessarily relinquish them of fault.. or guilt..  In some cases you can see a foreclosure happening a mile down the road.  I've told prospective buyers that could have been sold a mtg that they weren't ready to buy yet.  They had no idea what the responsibilities were.  Programs that gave you a 55% DTI were insane, and just a foreclosure waiting to happen.  Made a few RE agents mad as hell.. but I slept well at night... guilt free.

Dawn,

Deregulation of what?  Our RESPA laws are pretty comprehensive.  This is what you owe, this is the interest, this is the APR, this is how much interest you will pay over the course of the loan, this is what your interest rate can go up to, this is when your interest rate can reset and the limits upon such reset.

Do we need a US Dept of Common Sense?  A CZAR of You Can't Afford That?  I thought Suzie Orman was the self appointed Head of that Dept.

It was Allan Greenspan (Fed Chairman) who said that the Option ARMs and mortgage vehicles are a good thing.  He also said, "when the party gets going, it is my job to take away the punch bowl."

It was our Government who directed Fannie and Freddie to lower standards, and then was completely surprised and shocked at the outcome.  More regulation isn't the answer, less government involvement is the answer.  Let the lenders lend according to appropriate risk, without the demand of a House for Everyone from the government, and artificially low interest rates from the Fed.

90% of Government work is fixing the unintended consequences of their ill advised legislation.  The other 10% is denying any involvement.

We are were we are to paraphrase Dennis Green now let's start cleaning up this mess.