Did realtors, mortgage brokers and appraisers have to lie, cheat, defraud and distort these past few years just to keep up with their competitors?
Has it always been this way, or did something radically change?
August 07, 2007
HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
when i was 19, still in college, i was looking to get into real estate as a part time job to make extra money. This was 1990, just at the end of the last bubble out here in SoCal. I took a few classes and met a few industry peeps trying to break into the biz. The few i met seemed a bit blindsided by the sliding market and seemed to basically be using me to get buyer leads. Spent a few years here getting to know the biz. ...time goes by... I spent the last 7 years dealing with internet sales people alot and i have to say that for the most everyone in sales that makes it, whether it's real estate or whatever is cut from the same mold. As for the lie, cheat, defraud distort,...from my experiences, seems like it's always there to some extent in the rough times, in the good times, there is no need as leads, sales, $, fish, just seem to jump into the boat without any effort.
.
.
No it hasn't always been this way. My wife and I purchased a home in 1990 and financed via a mortgage broker. The only thing I remember from the experience was hauling in a bunch of pay stubs and waiting a week or two for approval. It didn't hurt that we put over 40% down.
I talked to a realtor who being the wealthy successful financial genius that they generally are works as a security guard at night. This genius after hearing me say I rented went into his normal realtor mode. How I am throwing money down the drain yadayadayada. Well when I told him houses were going to fall 40 to 60% here he said I must be high on something. I might be high but by god I am debt free and sittin on a 200000 in PUTS.
Burn Baby Burn Dam this is fun. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
It's been good for precious metals! They tell the truth. And they've tripled in value during "the boom". If the USD index drops below 80, looh for gold to race to $1,000 and silver $20+.
Reatlwhores and their entourage have always been this way, but stiff lending standards, banks w/ neutral third parties etc kept their greed in check. Now when all checks were removed and replaced with incentives to do what they do best, exploit others, they whole heartedly thrust themselves into the fray.
Now is the day of reckoning, the old school down market reatlwhores will be the ones that will survive by working the sellers down from their crack based pricing and nudge the buyers up to get them to the table.
The smarter ones will go to being exclusively a buyer's agent.
The really smart ones will get out of the "profession".
The smartest ones never got involved.
I definitely feel that appraisers were defrauding their customers to stay in the game. There was no way that homes were worth what people were paying for them. Realtors were worse though - if they didn't like the appraiser's value, they'd just get another appraiser to take a look at it.
As far as lenders go, I've never had a great feeling about the morality of banks. Listening to some loan shark talk about how your monthly payment will be lower with an ARM is just kind of humorous to me. Sadly, other people found those offers attractive.
It has always been that way, but now they don't try to hide it.
Wasn't always as bad as it is now. Low barriers to entry into the profession, the smell of easy money with no professionalism or skill required, accomodating lenders and appraisers all tumbled together to attract bad apples and create the mess we see today. here is CA you could get into RE after a weekend course and taking the test. As of October you need some Community college classes under your belt before getting your license. Still not enough. The next year will weed out the worst of the bunch, but we still need more controls.I can't tell you how many "cash back to buyer" loans I saw - legal, but artificially inflating the value of the home thanks to the appraisers saying "sure".
Anon @ Aug 07 2007 8:49 AM said:
"I talked to a realtor who being the wealthy successful financial genius that they generally are works as a security guard at night. This genius after hearing me say I rented went into his normal realtor mode. How I am throwing money down the drain yadayadayada. Well when I told him houses were going to fall 40 to 60% here he said I must be high on something."
That's what I love most about the game. The most obvious things were completely swept aside in the frantic scramble for what was basically stolen money.
The obvious thing here is how a realtor was supposed to be convincing you that you needed to buy a home. However, he chose instead to INSULT you. I'm sure a lot of that went on in the bubble period ... people stopped marketing and started coercing.
In a rational marketplace, the first time a seller insults the buyer, the seller is locked out. Hmm. Working as a security guard? Well, maybe he had been locked out, already.
People who abuse prospects should end up with no sales.
Post a Comment