In the early 80's, if you were starting real estate, as I was, you had no knowledge of easy financing if there ever had been such a thing. I hear now that it was expected earlier that you put down 20% or you got no house. I do know that there were very few places to get loans. The savings and loan offices made most of them and they were very arrogant. They'd have a board meeting every week or two and approve what applications were handed them. Rushing was not possible.
Interest rates went higher and higher. At one time I believe they were up to about 18% or higher. When they finally did start coming down, we all felt that they'd never go below 10% again. Fortunately, we were wrong and for the past few years we've had great opportunities for selling with interest rates at all time lows.
During the high interest rates, real estate almost came to a stand still. No construction. Very few custom houses. I remember one fellow teacher who got a construction loan for a house and when it was built he couldn't afford the 30 year mortgage because the rates were so high. He had to sell the house.
We survived with "creative financing". We did wrap loans. And we sold a lot of the assumable FHA and VA and Bond Money loans. We also did adjustable rate loans even though folks were scared to death of them. One buyer got one and the interest rate just fell and fell when the rates started down. He just held onto it and grinned at the mortgage company as they wished he'd refinance. I wish we still had some of those good old assumable loans but the lenders got wise and cut them out.
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