Comments on: It’s the inventory STUPID!

by: need 2 leave ca

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 17:54:29 +0000

42 - I am sure he is a nice dude. Just trying to do my part to help pop the bubble. Check Ben’s site today for weekend topics, for some other outrageous listings

by: Peter

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 01:21:12 +0000

SoCalMtgGuy,

Thank you for your extensive answer. My last comment on ARMS: Yes, the ARMs of Europe are of the principal AND interest variety, as far as I know. Anything else is unsound. And yes, ARMs are good in a falling interest environment. Where interest rates go long-term is anybody’s guess; Greenspan expected Yes, and bond investors seemed to think No, leading to the “conundrum”. Even now, it seems unclear where the journey will go, to DEFLATION because of a credit crunch or to INFLATION because of a weak dollar. Maybe to both, manifested in lowered wages and higher import prices. Both lead to a poorer America.

Regards,

Peter

by: SoCalMtgGuy

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 01:01:15 +0000

exiled to oregon,

I hate to break it to you, but people ‘lending’ money for to meet reserve requirements is nothing new. Some lenders require source and seasoning (where it came from, how long it’s been there).

When the times were good, it was an easy exception to get from most lenders. The lender I work for has tightened up on the source/seasoning on certain deals with ‘no exceptions’ for source/seasoning issues.

I’m sure there are plenty more places that will do the loan though.

Thanks for sharing the story…

SoCalMtgGuy

by: 42

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:52:06 +0000

need 2 leave CA,

I wouldn’t be too rough on the agent. he looks like nice old dude, like he’s been in the business for decades. i’m sure he’s probably thinking the same “WTF?” when he writes ads like that than I think reading it (or seeing the bile-green dump in question).

by: Exiled to Oregon

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 22:44:48 +0000

True story!
Last september I went to my tax guy in Santa Barbara, “ooohhhh” one of the most over valued real estate markets in the world!!!! Sorry just had to do it.. I have been going to the same guy for 9 years. He runs his part time Tax business from his home and every time I go to see him he lives in a different location. Turns out that he has become a house flipper. By the last time I visited he is not only doing taxes.He now has a cottage industry running from his home.His whole family works for him,”He quit his job as an engineer” and now does Tax prep, Real Estate, Mortgage sales, and Notory Public.Good for him right! Read on… He is the Tax/Mortgage guy “Engineer”. His wife is the Real estate gal/notory “former doctors assistant “PLASTIC SURGERY” …”Hang in there” This is where it gets good! They are Hispanic and bilingual so most of there clients are from the Hispanic community. When I arrived to get my taxes done there were 15 people in the living room all hispanic and very few spoke any english.So I patiently waited my turn. When I finally got in to see him I said “wow your really busy for September”. He told me of his new ventures into Real Estate and how the whole family quit their jobs and now work for him at home.”Great right” As he was doing my taxes an older hispanic gentleman came into the office he needed to pick someting up and say thank you.The man excused the interuption very politely with broken english. He and my tax guy started speaking in spanish the older gentelman was thanking him for the loan. Not the MORTGAGE but the personal loan.The Taxman/Loanman had loaned the older gentleman $10,000.”I SAW THE CHECK” to put into his checking account for 1 month so that he could qualify for a Stated income, no moneny down,interest only $750,000 loan on a Santa Barbara shack on the west side. The Taxman /Loanman even verified this directly to me after he could see that I could understand enough spanish to know what the conversation was about. Then he offered to do the same thing for me. He said that they would find me a house loan me the $10,000. and get me qualified for the same type of loan all in a month. He showed me the four houses their little company had in escrow and the fifteen houses they had sold the same way that year and the MLS directory. “He said just pick one”.
PYRAMID SCAM or REAL ESTATE

by: need 2 leave CA

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:16:06 +0000

Thanks for the picture of that NJ $hitbox. I couldn’t help but make a comment to the realtor that it was ugly and overpriced. How about all of us flooding the realt whore with such comments. I am sure it will make his day.

This whole house of cards in CA is going to end badly for a lot of folks. No sympathy for flippers and stupid investors. Some sympathy for the uneducated who were encouraged to buy something that the realtor/mort broker, etc knew they couldn’t afford. Some people belong in hell for what they have done to some people.

by: ev

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:24:32 +0000

My little part of world, see a trend

Dupage Reduced Total Listings

1/31/05 1,398 7,573
2/1/05 1,404 7,588
2/2/06 1,429 7,635
2/3/05 1,437 7,655
2/6/06 1,429 7,659
2/7/06 1,446 7,694
2/8/06 1,449 7,709
2/9/06 1,474 7,729
2/10/06 1,503 7,774
2/13/06 1,528 7,815
2/14/06 1,539 7,850
2/15/06 1556 7879
2/16/06 1596 7901
2/17/06 1611 7932
2/21/06 1654 7994
2/22/06 1701 8050
2/23/06 1730 8079

by: jixau

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 06:40:45 +0000

With all the ARM resets I guess folks will have to get into 40yr and 50yr fixed mortgages. I wonder how the sub-prime lenders will do as their asset mix changes. Interesting that LEND stcok price is up while NFI and NLY are in the tank. What’s up here?

by: Fast Eddie in CA

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 02:40:41 +0000

SoCalMtgGuy and the gang,

I’m not any type of conspiracy wacko, but did Pres. Bush go off the prepared script the other day with his comment on interest rates, “He (Bush) went on to praise new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. However, he added, “If I were you I’d be worried about interest rates.”

Ben B. was the Chair of the CEA prior to taking over the FED. Did GWB just accidentally show Ben’s cards?

Thoughts?

by: B. Durbin

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 02:34:28 +0000

The horse may be dead, but it’s still moving.

I’m grateful to this site, not because it kept me from making bad choices (my parents would be vastly disappointed in me if I didn’t think carefully about ANY loan) but because it has made me feel much better about not being able to afford a house.

The real-life anecdotes let me know that the reason I can’t afford a house is not because I’m unlucky or poor (laughable concept, I feel like I’m rolling in it after a few lean years) but because I have too much sense to get into a bad financial situation. That changes the whole scenario from being a “have not” to being a “not that dumb.”

Different prospect entirely.