Are YOU a Part of the Entitlement Generation? I DISPUTE THAT PREMISE!

Real estate appreciation was a WAY TO SELL the idea of property ownership.  Many of my property management clients are now TENANTS where they moved and they STILL enjoy the benefits of property ownership.

Real estate appreciation is a LONG TERM investment 

Trapped is exactly it....and wisdom...wish the government would ask people in the trenches...ie Realtors for the solutions that may offer some dose of reality.

Every situation is different, yes I agree that if you have a current mortgage the bank should allow you to lower your rate but many banks will not due to the homeowner being under water on the mortgage or having  a lower income due to this economy. This is not a principal reduction plan, that I do not agree with.

Lenn, read my post today which hits homeowners who TRUSTED a private grant funded agency that 'protects' first time home buyers & gave 1st time homebuyers an interest only mortgage with those words...'you can refinance in a couple years' & then would not refinance down more than an 1/8% & has hit them with a promissory note after 4 months of haggling with them...who protects them.  It is the Banks & Wall Street who knowingly put these mortgage products together to sell around the world that led banks to be careless & greedy ....and homeowners unwillingly swallowed the nonsense when buying...

Everyone but those who really need it are bailed!  And for those seriously underwater, will the value come back?  And if so, how long will it take?

Lenn

The whole thing is a big mess and goes back to Washington in 1992.

Good luck and success.

Lou Ludwig

Lenn you and I agree on an overwhelming number of things, but this is one that we have debated in the pass and will continue to disagree on. 

Lenn you are one of my favorite ladies, but I agree with Eric on this one.  The people that he is talking about, are not the victims, they new what they were doing when they took out the mortgage, and they know exactly what they are doing now when they choose to default on the mortgage.  They will also be the ones that will cry the loudest when the market turns around, and they want to buy again and can't.

You are still one of my favorite ladies, know matter what your opinion is on this.  You have earned the right to be wrong in my eyes :)

Lenn, thanks for re-blogging my post, but you took it the wrong way. I wrote "if you can't make the payments for a reason, this isn't for you." It was aimed at the people who bought a home thinking the value would always go up, re-fi every 6 months to buy a car or go on vacation, then when the market came back to "normal," they don't want to play by the same rules. That's the "premise" of my post. Am I still wrong?

As for the banks, what does that have to do with my post? I agree with you, they banks shouldn't have ever been bailed out. That money would've done wonders for the people of this country.

Principle reduction? Really? I would've never believed that you thought that was an actual solution. Sure, it'd be awesome for people to be able to save money, but how does that work? I mean, what if I bought a car last year, and this years model was cheaper? Should I be allowed to go back and get a principle reduction here, too? What if the housing market goes UP for the next few years? Should the banks be allowed to ADD principle to us? Make the same amount of sense, if you ask me.

Then again, you accused me of "kicking the American home owner's while they are down." on another re-blog of this.

Like George Souto said, love ya, but you're wrong about my blog.

 

Lenn, I agree that the banks and the government has made this mess.  As one that is upside down I have no problem paying what I agreed to pay on my home - I just want a way to refinance to a lower rate.  The loan I have was only to be used for a short period of time, during that short period things went whacky and now I still have a 8% loan and no way of ever refinancing. Its either take 65K to escrow and sell or walk away. What would be the best choice for my families future - WALK AWAY FOR SURE - ask any accountant, cpa or attorney!

While I understand your commentary of the blog, I read the original blog to "whom who simply walked away because their home is valued less than what they paid for, should not be doing that".... I didnt quite get where your commentary came from. Especially, "who bailed out homeowners who is trapped in a mortgage worth less than what they paid for"... I hope that most homeowners do not view a home as a "sure win" appreciation thing. No one pointed a gun to the head of a borrower who decided to get a mortgage on a house and I can imagine no one made promises that the house will always be worth more.

Agreed!

There were a ton of people who submitted false mortgage applications to get loans, knowingly and unknowingly, and there were a ton of people that didn't lie on their loan applications and suffered severe financial losses due to the fraud that took over the housing market in many areas. Income and employment fraud were HUGE in my area and the FBI is still cleaning up that mess years later.

I don't think that the people who didn't lie on their loan applications and can "afford" those inflated home prices are obligated to continue to pay. They were defrauded and they have not been afforded much, if any, relief to date. If they are willing to endure the consequences of short sale or foreclosure (which are not pleasant) to escape the long term effects of the fraud, then they may want to make that financial decision.

The government just gave away the legal remedies that many of those homeowners would have against the banks for what amounts to a paltry sum on the individual level. (Hey here's an extra $2500 in relocation funds for your short sale on a home that you made a $120,000 down payment on - yipppeee!). Adequate and fair relief for these homeowners was blocked on every level. And, in reality, the government has already admitted that these people were the victims of fraud -- so why should they continue to pay if they determine it is not in their best interest?

I HOPE karma's a bitch. So far it looks like a government bail out.

Group hug? 

Lenn- I totally agree with you. 

I also agree that there is a bad entitlement attitude running ramped in this country but that has nothing to do with people walking on houses that are underwater. We help strategic short sellers and am not ashamed to do so. We never had a converstation that they feel entitled. What we do have is a math equation- numbers don't lie and numbers don't work. Each situation is different. Just because  someone used their equity as an ATM machine, which we don't advise, they were more than defrauded into participating in the refi after refi after refi. 

Now on other matters, yes, entitlement is when people keep getting food stamps after they don't need them anymore, just becuase they can or they feel it is owed to them. Entitlement is when people won't get a job who can because they make more money getting welfare than if they work. 

But the example by our government and the banks is not showing anything different. They feel entitled too. They set the tone. They are the leaders. Some example!!! 

Just don't grab my buttox this time around, J. Philip.