" mmanion February 1st, 2008 at 11:15 am
Hmm…Guess my 21 y.o. daughter was one of those “greedy idiots.” She stopped in at a townhome development with a friend who was looking to buy and was convinced by the realtor that she, too, could qualify for a $180,000 mortgage using only her retail phone sales income. In addition to not making a huge salary, she has a genetic lung disease that causes her to spend lots of time in the hospital and further impacts her income. She was elated to think she could have her own little place. I was stunned that the realtor would even suggest it, but didn’t worry too much because I’ve purchased a few homes in my time and thought I knew a thing or two about qualifying. Boy had things changed. Imagine my surprise when, not only did they “qualify” her, the mortgage broker actually offered to come to the hospital so she could sign the paperwork–she had been out of work and in the hospital for two weeks at that point. Obviously, she was very naive and my efforts to put a halt to the proceedings only made me seem to the bad guy. After all, if the mortgage people thought she could do it, why couldn’t her own mother have the same faith? Her dream of home ownership lasted five months and, at age 22, her finances were trashed with a foreclosure on her record. If anyone doubts that predatory lending practices were going on, visualize if you will a young woman lying in a hospital bed connected to oxygen and tubing and a “helpful” mortgage guy in a dark suit looming over her with a pen and clipboard so she could sign her financial future away. I left the her hospital room in tears that day. Short of a top hat and handlebar mustache, I can’t imagine getting much closer to cartoon villains than that."
That sound is my teeth grinding into the pulp.
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