I suspect I share a certain pet peeve with most folks. You find yourself in need of a “thing”, and you pop on by your local retailer for the “thing”. You navigate through the self-help system, perhaps even receiving assistance from a smiling clerk wearing the appropriate retailer vest. You find the “thing”, and probably a few “things” you weren’t looking for, and make your way to the Disney influenced Check Stand. There you find many other people, with their “things” in hand, waiting in line for the lone, not smiling, checkout person; wearing the appropriate vest of course; overwhelmed by the steady stream of customers with “things” they want to pay for.

Let us sum up: the drive to the retailer takes 10 minutes, you spent 10 minutes finding your “thing”, and it takes 30 minutes to actually pay for the “thing”. I have to believe that retailers stay awake at night, determining the profit and loss differentials of one checkout clerk verses how many people walk out in frustration, leaving their “thing” behind. On the other hand, I have noticed that few people actually abandon their “thing”. Rather, the whole long line of customers stands there, getting frustrated and sometimes downright angry about having to WAIT TO PAY!

Like I said, a pet peeve.

So, right here in Denver, we have an escrow closing company that makes home buyers wait to check out (close) on their REO purchase. The operation is owned by a legal firm that specializes (surprise) in foreclosure actions for the financial and securities industry (The Bank). (Most likely, there is a similar operation in your neck of the woods.) That same legal bunch also owns a title agency that provides the title insurance on behalf of “The Bank”. Not there is anything really wrong with the legal firm operating this group of businesses in concert, except they have NO concern for the consumer. Zip, nada, none! Knowing that these rather slick operators are lawyers, I am relatively certain that their concern is for their client, “The Bank”, and their job is to close the sale at the least possible cost to the Bank, while protecting “The Bank’s” legal position. From a strictly legal point of view, there is nothing wrong with that position. And, I am pretty sure the position of “The Bank”, transmitted to their agents (lawyers, Realtors®, escrow providers, Et al.), is something like “we got screwed taking this house back, the buyers are getting a great deal, and so who cares if we don’t offer great service”. And most buyers, and their Realtors® and lenders, live with it. And get angry and frustrated at a system that plainly does not care a whit about the guy and gal on “Main Street”, U.S. of A.

Well, that is the problem. “The Banks” made loans they should not have made; to people that really could not afford to buy the houses they bought; so that “The Banks” could realize an inflated profit on the loan. High profit, high risk. And, when the market did what market’s do, they got whacked, along with their “clients”, both the investors and borrowers. Well, maybe sort of whacked. That sound of hooves you hear is the horse carrying everybody’s rich Uncle, riding to the rescue with billions in “bailout” dollars for those selfsame “Banks”. But for crying out loud, put a few more resources at the Check Stand. “The Banks” may want to put a few clerks in front of their present clients, “the borrowers” and figure out how to stop (or at least slow down) the foreclosure virus. And “The Banks”, and all their agents, should be treating the REO buyers like royalty. After all, the buyers are taking the REO’s off “The Banks” books, and giving “The Bank” cash in return.

With Uncle Sam underwriting the losses, it occurs to me that the only folks really suffering in frustration are the people on “Main Street”. You know who I mean, the people that got kicked out of their homes by “The Banks”, and the other people that are waiting in line to buy the REO’s from these same “Banks”. Is it any wonder that the American People are frustrated, angry and scared?