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Evil Lenders

I was motivated to write this after reading Elizabeth Weintraub's post: Shocking News About Countrywide's New Shortsale Demands - It's Below the Belt, Even for CW.

There are going to be strong feelings on both sides of this argument, so let me first put this disclaimer out there: There are most definitely circumstances where foreclosure is unavoidable - When someone has a serious unexpected hardship & absolutely can't make their mortgage payments any more, foreclosure is inevitable & unavoidable. In times like these there are many more situations like this than in past years.

There's my disclaimer.....Now to the point of my post:

It has become all too common for borrower's to walk away from their home just because it's not comfortable to make the payment anymore, or their value isn't where it was at some point.

Many people (as I detected in the tone of Elizabeth's post) feel that the "evil lenders" have created the current housing mess & any actions they take are justified as such. The lenders absolutely have played a part in getting us to where we're at today, but ultimately it's the borrower that decided to purchase the home & sign the mortgage.

It's dangerous territory to develop a victim mentality & start to believe that it's not your fault. Ask the inmates in prison how many of them actually committed a crime....every one of them has an excuse of how they were wronged.

Once too many people get together talking about the "evil lenders" a mob mentality can easily develop & it becomes very easy to walk away from your obligations due to what the evil lenders have done to you.

In Elizabeth's post the sellers had perfect credit & lots of room on their credit cards, they just decided they weren't going to make the payments any more due to unexpected circumstances.

What was once a last resort option that was a horrific experience has now become an accepted practice if a mortgage payment becomes too inconvenient.

At some point we have to own up to the decisions we've made & make some sacrifices instead of leaving the lenders holding the bag.

Posted by Dan Magstadt on 01/16/2009 11:07 AM

Comments (20)

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20 Comments on Evil Lenders

JAN

Pure evil? The Central Bank (The Fed) is in charge of our country not the governmnet. They control the flow of money and our economy thirves on the flow of money.

Dan, I agree with the idea of personal responsibility; and there's not enough to go around today. However, I also know of instances where lenders fail to use prudence or common sense and bring unnecessary hardship upon the borrower and cost themselves money in the end. These are unusual times and all parties must accept responsibility for their past and future actions.

Great post. I think you really have a point.Thanks for sharing the other side.-Dinah Lee

I agree John, the lenders aren't making a very good name for themselves in how they're handling this mess...I just wanted to get it out there that people walking away from their homes isn't something they should easily shrug off.

Plenty of blame to go around today. I agree with much of what you posted about personal responsibility. With the amount of short sales we have around here, I have no doubt there are some "gaming" the system.

Blaming it all on the lenders is childish, the borrowers have some responsibility here as well.

Obama is another Pres. Carter

I don't blame anyone, maybe except those high-ranking public or private bureacrats like Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke who are supposed to be responsible for bring us a "right" cold medicine, but they fail to do so. Nobody is "evil" or "innocent" as some guys blame on financial sectors of "evil lender."

Evil Lenders
Dan Magstadt

4 Comments
Most recent comment by Dan Magstadt

That's not going to solve the problems. The last thing we need is pointing at all the possible scapegoats at the reviewing table for complaints are abundant and wise solution to the point is rare.

Personal responsibility I agree with and there is and always will be people out there trying to take "advantage" of anything out there in the world if they can. and once that happens - just like the news media, we only usually hear about the bad as well and that tends to "lead" our thoughts. It was a whole slew of problems and still is. Unfortunately there will always be some out there that will not have that personal responsibility and also unfortunately because of that we tend to "fix" things to stop them but not to help the real need.

This is nice to see that there are some people out there that agree with me - Judging by the comments from Elizabeth's post it seemed that the only people out there were ones ready to burn the lenders at the stake!!

Thanks guys.

Dan- We all have lenders that we love. If you were in my area I would refer to you as well.I personally had a bad loan years ago, so I know what some are capable of. Most lenders are great people with good hearts that just want to assist people in making good sound choices concerning their finances. I think your post should be featured.-Dinah Lee

Thank you for the kind words Dinah!

Dan - I'm dismayed sometimes about how quickly people jump into the mob mentality on negative news. Only when we take ownership of a situation and insist on accountability can we work towards a solution. There are wrongdoings on both sides of the mortgage issue. The important question now is 'how do we prevent this from happening again?'

Good post Dan - I couldn't agree more.

Thank you for the opportunity to allow both sides to be heard. I was shockedthat my comment we deleted from her post... merely by my questioning the person walking away with good credit just because that is what they wanted to do. I am a firm believer in personal responisbility. I also left a comment on Elizabeth's Post I was disappointed that she deleted my comment. So much for an open forum on thought.

Personal responsibility is with the individual that purchased a home, signed for the note. There is nothing there that says "None of the above applies to you if you do not want it to." I have sellers, that have tapped into retirement savings, called up all their relatives to fulfill their responsibilities. No one said it was easy, but I respect those that try to hold up their side of the bargain in life instead of pointing fingers. It is my own experience, that victims never get well, and always have someone else, or some other circumstance to blame. It is always society's problem for their screw up.

Actually, Dan, my post says the sellers have experienced an extreme hardship -- the wife has been diagnosed with an extreme medical condition preventing her from working, she had a miscarriage, her husband lost his job, they fell behind on their payments, her mother has cancer, and it's the classic short sale case. These were not sellers trying to scam the system. I never said anything in that post to make anybody think otherwise, so please don't try to paint me with that brush. It's not true.

On the other hand, there are sellers who simply believe that because their property value has fallen, they have a right to reduce their mortgage or walkaway as if none of this is their fault, somehow. I don't agree with that kind of thinking, and I can't think of any reasonable person who does.

This is definitely raising some good points on both sides of the issue. I tend to lean towards the personal responsibility side. There are far too many people milking the system and getting these short sales approved or walking away from their obligations.

JAN

Jim, I agree 100% with your comments

Elizabeth, I don't know your sellers, or their situation so I can't say whether or not they fought to the bitter end to keep the house, I was mainly alarmed by the amount of people that threw their unconditional support behind your sellers & completely bashed the "Evil Lender" Countrywide.

FEB

Hey Dan, way to "GO THERE" in this post, and thanks for commenting on my fledgling Rain-blog. Like it a lot when folks have something thought-out to say, and not so worried about political correctness!

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