On Nov 8, 2008, at 12:24 PM, Dan M wrote: >> it was not my preference to accept the banks terms. my options were >> limited to signing the loan. or not buying a home. i did what the >> realtor >> said because that is the way the system works. > > Let me jump in here. You know I've been arguing against John a good > deal on > this subject, but let me now look at things from another > perspective, since > I think that the sub-prime mess is not just about > deregulation....that other > fundamental problems are involved. > > I'm not sure when you bought your house, but I originally bought > mine late > in '92, and was able to obtain a beautiful 3000 sq. ft. house in a > desirable > neighborhood with a mortgage payment of about $850/month. I > followed the > market, including refinancing, and was always able to borrow 80% of > appraised value for <7% interest. The terms were always 30 year, > with no > balloon payment. I did take a variable rate on my last loan, but > that was > because I knew I would be selling the house by now. This was all in > the > Houston area. > > To my surprise, a couple of years ago my daughter was able, in mid- > Virginia, > able to obtain a 5% down loan for an interest rate that was, IIRC, > in the > 6%-7% range, fixed with no balloon payments (I asked before she took > the > loan). > > So, I'd be interested in exploring why our experience has been > different > from yours. I have some possible candidates, but I think this > exploration > would reveal some of the contributing problems to the present housing > situation. > > Finally, now that we are renting, we are paying for 1300 sq. ft. > less than > the mortgage our buyers are paying for 3000 sq. ft. It doesn't make > financial sense to rent here if you plan on staying put. > > Dan M.
The difference can often be one between a realtor who is genuinely motivated to act as his/her buyer's agent and negotiate aggressively for a good deal for the buyer, and one who is motivated more by a desire to get the commission from the sale and inclined to push the buyer into a fairly adverse deal just to close the sale. The population of actively working realtors in this country does include a fairly significant number who are best described as unethical slime (not my words, those of a realtor friend who sees the worst of the business every day), and a fair number of others who are basically honest but largely incompetent, and even a few who are fairly unethical *and* not all that good at navigating the business for themselves, let alone buyers/sellers. I always wonder what's going on when I hear about a buyer or seller who "did what the realtor said", because it seems to me that that power balance is exactly backwards if that's how it's really working for them. (And there are realtors who won't talk to you until they have a signed buyer agreement from you, and after that point, feel free to do a least-common-denominator level of work for you because they know they have you contractually bound to them and they literally *can't* be fired at that point.) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
