Reply by Teresa/FL on 10/16/07 1:59pm
Msg #216725
“I feel burned,” she said. “I’ve always been one who paid the bills on time. I always did things the right way. If they had counseled me (correctly), I could’ve made my payments.”
How did she expect to make monthly payments of $1200 when her monthly income was only $2000? She bears most of the responsibility in this situation.
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Reply by CJ on 10/16/07 3:21pm
Msg #216755
Losing houses.
My husband and I own a single wide mobile home. We ALMOST bought a fixer-upper for $450K, but we were not sure if we should afford it. We would need 100% financing, since we would have to fix it up before we moved in (it was really trashed: illegals, then homeless were living in it), so we would not be able to sell our mobile home for the down payment. I was also worried becuase at the time, I was making good money, but I knew that my notary work was no guarentee of anything. In the end, while we were still trying to qualify, the house was sold to someone who is going to turn it into a used car lot (It was on a corner lot). Now we are SO happy that we are safe from the mess we almost got ourselves into.
Another time, I remember signing a young girl who was taking out a second loan to get into a pyramid / ponzi scheme. I wanted to scream "DON'T DO IT", but of course I kept my mouth shut. I let her read all the figures for two hours. She was not sure if she wanted to do it. I could see she was conflicted and I wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to make up her mind. She didn't know what to do. I suggested maybe she call her dad. She said it was her dad's idea to get the second loan for the pay-phone get-rich-quick thing. She signed. She was so young, and already owned a house. I'll bet she lost it.
Another guy I signed, they were also taking out a second loan. They were elderly and not that well off. He was also getting into a pryamid scheme. Something about you get a rare coin with each pyramid installment (to make it legal). (He was trying to sell me on it too.) His wife did not like the how much the new payments were going to be, but he reassured her that when the loan re-adjusted, they would have a million dollars. It also bugged me because they were a minority, and their minority friends in church got them involved in this. Becuase it was their religous and ethnic kin, they trusted them.
Another time, an elderly woman was refinanceing becuase she could not afford to live in her home any more. It was paid off. She said her son in Austrailia was going to take the the money from the new loan (450K) and invest it so she could have money to live on. She was going to also use the loan money to pay back the loan with because she had no income, only SS. It was really stupid. I always keep my mouth shut, but I could see the writing on the wall here too. What she really needed was a reverse mortgage, but her son is going to lose all the money, and she will lose her house. Her legs were swollen and she could barely walk. It was so sad. I kept my mouth shut here too.
When I would see things like this, I wanted to be be a loan person to find the right loans for people. I could see they were getting themselves in trouble, but they felt they had no alternatives. I could see they did have alternatives: How about you sell those huge trucks in the driveway for starters?
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