YKYAAFB When….
Some readers suggested a topic about how a borrower might know they are overextended. “On a thread yesterday somebody made a: ‘You know you’re a redneck when…’ joke. It got me thinking about F*#@ded Borrowers’s. You know you’re a FB when after hearing on the news about the poisoned pet food, you decide that from now on you’re going to stick to Ramen Noodles only.”
“You know you’re a FB when you find out that the address of your McMansion is listed in the ‘Lonely Planet Travel Guide’ under ‘Inexpensive Boarding Houses.’ You know you’re a FB when instead of feeding squirrels you find yourself wondering if they would be a good source of protein.”
Others joined in, “You know your a FB when you have more equity in your car than your home. YKYAAFB when you’ve eaten the last squirrel in the neighborhood.”
“YKYAAFB when the only option left is to refinance at a higher interest rate. YKYAAFB when the mortgage broker says to you at the closing table, ‘don’t worry about it; we’ll refinance you right away!’”
“YKYAAFB when you realize ‘reset’ does not mean ’start over.’ YKYAAFB when you get a letter from your Option-ARM servicer WAAAAAY before the reset is due, and the letter keeps using the word ‘recast.’”
“YKYAAFB when the FED puts out a public announcement indicating ‘you’ are ‘contained’ and pose no further threat to the entire financial system.”
“YKYAAFB and it really starts to set in when your best friend the mortgage broker gets convicted of mortgage fraud. YKYAAFB when your lender files for BK protection.”
“YKYAAFB when you realize your lender can file for BK protection but you can’t.”
“YKYAAFB when you realize ’subprime’ does not mean ‘below the prime’ lending rate. YKYAAFB when your builder/developer is also your lender.”
“YKYAAFB when you receive your W2 at tax time and the amount in box 1 is a mere 25% of the income you stated on your mortgage application.”
“YKYAAFB when the following year, your 1099 ‘gain’ on foregiven interest from the foreclosing lender exceeds your W-2 earnings by 500%.”
“YKYAAFB when you start to see 2 for 1 offerings, just like dominos pizza, by the housebuilders offering deals on brand new houses that nobody wants…In your neighborhood.”
“YKYAAFB when a bailout starts sounding like good economic policy. YKYAAFB when a link to your listing appears on this blog.”
The Sun Chronicle from Massachusetts. “In retrospect, Ellie says she should have read the fine print. Almost a year ago, Ellie (not her real name) and her husband took out a $250,000 mortgage on their condo after succumbing to a mortgage company’s offer of a 2 percent initial interest rate.”
“But after a short introductory term, their interest rate began climbing and their payments shot from less than $1,300 to about $2,100. To make matters worse, Ellie and her husband are no longer able to pay the full interest and principal on their loan. As a result, thousands of dollars in deferred interest have been tacked on to the principal amount they owe.”
“‘We’re trying to sell, but we had to cut the price because it wasn’t moving,’ said Ellie, who is praying for a buyer so that they can get out of their mortgage. ‘If it doesn’t, I don’t know what we’re going to do.’”
“In Massachusetts, foreclosure filings by banks and finance companies have nearly doubled in the past year, with an 87 percent increase in Bristol County, alone.”
“‘People who fell for seemingly cheap, adjustable rate mortgages probably account for about 50 percent of the people we see in trouble out there,’ said (councelor) Mary Ellen Rochette.”
“‘In a lot of cases the last few years, people were so desperate to get into a home, they got in way over their heads,’ she said.”
More pity for the poor person who didn’t understand a 2% loan came with strings. Unbelievable to me how many people are just outright liars and don’t want to admit the truth.
“‘We’re trying to sell, but we had to cut the price because it wasn’t moving,’ said Ellie, who is praying for a buyer so that they can get out of their mortgage. ‘If it doesn’t, I don’t know what we’re going to do.’”
Pay for your financial ignorance and be foreclosed on.
Where do we get our St. Josephs statue?
St. Jude - Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes - might be a better choice.
“after succumbing to a mortgage company’s offer ”
Succumbing? Since when is agreeing to terms…succumbing? Writers are constantly portraying FB’s in this manner.
Maybe the mortgage co. had them strapped down in the pit, and the pendulum was swinging and getting closer, so at that point they “succumbed”?
Got 10% down?
Maybe the mortgage co. had ‘em strapped down in a pit with a pendulum swinging and getting closer, at which time they “succumbed”?
An unwatched toddler who falls into an unguarded pool succumbs through no fault of their own. Adult borrowers who don’t read the fine print are just dumbasses who have no right to complain when they go under financially.
Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
A 2% loan on hundreds of thousands of dollars……. it’s making me weak and giving me a headache to read this stuff.
God forgive me, I’m starting to think these people are too stupid to rent after foreclosure and really should be looking to the nearset underpass as their best bet.
“‘In a lot of cases the last few years, people were so desperate to get into a home, they got in way over their heads,’ she said.”
Yes, indeed. So let these people face the consequences. No one held a gun to their head.
If you buy a car and don’t make the payment, someone will come and repo your car. If you overdo your credit cards, the companies will shut you down. Being a homeowner should be no different.
Because of these yo-yo’s, anyone who wasn’t comfortable with a suicide loan couldn’t buy a house. It’s like the heckler in the crowd who ruins the evening for everyone.
A bailout of an FB is like giving the heckler his money back after the show he ruined because it failed to entertain him.
These two items don’t really go together.
Anyway, YKYAAFB when you Google your name and all the links are to bubble blogs.
Unless you’re Ben, that is. Or Robert Shiller.
Or Casey Serin.
Speaking of Casey- I’m not sure if this was talked about, but he was on Nightline a few nights ago. He’s just plain stupid. His strategy was pretty much “buy any house at any price”. They were showing some dump in Sacramento that he paid $330k for. The bank is trying to get $216k to no avail. The neighbors put its value at $160k. He’s not a smart kid like some have implied.
Casey admitted to fraud on national TV
it’s like cool dude
Sounds like the bank is reducing their asking price by about 10%, with four price reductions already. Three more price reductions to $160k.
Got 10% down?
“He’s just plain stupid. Paid $330k”
He probably overpaid on purpose and got cash back.
Casey admitted that he got cash back from the sellers and he also was a loan liar . I won’t be happy until he is arrested rather than getting alot of fame .The sellers that gave him cash back and the brokers that engaged in the fraud to the lender need a visit from the DA also .I hope they are just waiting to see how much the loss is on the property .
The Casey example is just one of the reasons why you can’t just come in with just any old price that a sale comes in at on a appraisal . What a fake market .
Casy’s no more stupid than a lot of FBers; his timing is worse, that’s all. Plus he likes the fifteen minutes of fame he is currently enjoying.
A lot of closet Casey’s are out there and are suffering the agony of a thousand cuts as they see their hopes and dreams (delusions?) vanish with each new FB headline. These financial wizards of previous days, who would never shut up about their financial prowess, bought earlier than Casy and rode the wave, but the Market has turned and is now severely bitchslapping them into silence.
These are the ones enduring Thoreaus’ “lives of quiet desperation”.
On Friday Neil answered one of my comments by saying, “Vote for the YKYAAFB topic over the weekend.” And I said to myself, WTF is the second A? And I still don’t know!
Oh, maybe it’s “you’re” expanding to “you are” ????
Yup.
(Or the second A could be ‘awfully’/'appallingly’.)
YKYAAFB when half of the new homes in your neighborhood are for rent and they are approved “Section 8″!
Weeeeee…….enjoy the ride!
YKYAAFB when you have to outbid Joe Homeless to buy a home.
YKYAAFB when your smug neighbor pays half your mortgage in rent.
YKYAAFB when your smug neighbor pays half your mortgage in rent.
Chuckle. ; )
Neil
YKYAAFB when your Agent Extrodinaire throws an Open House and the only one that comes and SIGNS in…is the REPOMAN
YKYAAFB when you open the front door to get the morning paper and find a meth-head passed out on your front lawn and without missing a beat you reteive the paper and say to yourself “It’s all good”.
YKYAAFB when your next door neighbor (me!) has to call your realtor and tell him that the front door to your house is wide open and has been banging, banging in the wind–and the realtor doesn’t show up for 4 hours.
You have no idea you’re a FB if your name is Casey Serin
YHNIYAFB if your plan for getting out of debt is flipping penny stocks
YHNIYAFB if you visit one of your properties for the first time in months (despite it being down the road from you) and find a squatter living there… and then do nothing about it
YHNIYAFB when your rental income cannot cover the interest payment and you start telling everyone you are in it for the long term.
YHNIYAFB when you start taking money out of retirement accounts to pay the mortgage.
YHNIYAFB if you are still bragging about the specuvestments you bought during 2005 and 2006.
YHNIYAFB if you are still looking for additional specuvestments.
YHNIYAFB if you are trying to rent your specuvestment now that you can’t sell it.
YHNIYAFB if you think the market has bottomed and you will get full price for your specuvestment next year.
YHNIYAFB if you own any of DL’s books and bought RE within the last 2 years as a result.
YHNIYAFB if you are desperately trying to sell your McMansion and believe subprime is contained to lower cost homes.
YHNIYAFB if you think real estate seminars count as “education”
… if your only sources of RE market info are Lereah et al.
… if you think you are going to refinance before your ARM resets later this year.
… if you think the government understands the problem and can fix it in a timely manner.
… if you think the FED cares.
… if you think granite countertops matter.
… if you bought using a toxic ARM within the last two years and believe you will never have to rent again.
… if you bought within the last two years and still believe renting is for losers.
… if you are proud of becoming an owner and finally living the American Dream.
… if you are still smug about the incredible deal the builder gave you.
YHNIYAFB when you can’t find a stated income option ARM for your latest project because your mortgage broker has been arrested and your usual bank has filed chapter 13.
YKYAAFB when you put your property and income taxes on a credit card.
and then do a HELOC to pay off the credit card, lather rinse repeat
YKYAAFB when during your 2 hour commute (starting at 4:30 AM), you want to smack the heritic coworker who warned you about the bubble months before you bought a 1,700 sq/ft POS stucco wonder in the middle of the desert for $400,000.
YKYAAFB when you realize the seller is the second sub prime lender to have foreclosed in the last 12 months on the home you just bought using 100% 80/20 sub prime financing!
True Story in Sacramento area …see the sales history on this list here (third house down on Pinehurst)
http://flippersintrouble.blogspot.com/2007/04/placer-2007-04-14-part-1.html
What a Ponzi scheme it is! Who will be the final bagholder?
Need more homes like that in Yolo county!
So where are we now? Q1 2005 prices in Sacramento? That’s what it seems. Where do we end up? 2003 average prices? I’m guessing there is a strong bid at US$100 psf, but we’re still a long way from there….
YKYAAFB when in a desperate attempt to “catch up”, you take the last of your meagre savings down to the supermarket and get gamed for 8.9% on the coinstar vig there and hightail it to vegas to play 15 spot keno tickets, with whatever coin of the realm you have left…
What makes it funny is…
All you had to do, was take your coins to vegas and they’d have counted them up and gave you cash money, without the supermarket vig.
A fitting ending, really.
Keno? I thought the protocol was to go to the roulette table and put it all on 17.
commerce bank will do it for free as well and give you a pen to boot!
Desperate to get into a house…for what f&^%ing reason? All your friends were doing it? Gees..I guess desperate because renting was so cheap there was no other alternative except stupid unadulterate greed. Take what you have coming and stop your bitching. Maybe next time you do something you’ll really consider the consquences and do some soul searching first.
Remember…if it sounds too good to be true….it is.
“Desperate to get into a house”
This is why a bailout really chaps me. People were desperate to get into a house for one reason: greed. They wanted to catch the appreciation train and ride it to riches. When that didn’t work out, they cried foul. The bonehead politicians need to understand exactly what happened so they DON’T bail these idiots out.
“‘In a lot of cases the last few years, people were so desperate to get into a home, they got in way over their heads,’ she said.”
How were these people “desperate” to get into homes. Were they living outside in an unending hurricane, watching their children blow away? What people take for desperation this days is plain old greedy desire, with a big heap of melodrama to make it seem less disgusting.
“What people take for desperation this days is plain old greedy desire, with a big heap of melodrama to make it seem less disgusting.”
And a healthy scoop of entitlement. Once people “realized” RE was the road to riches, suddenly everyone was entitled to be a homeowner.
Just MHO, but what it felt like to me watching from the outside was that people didn’t want to get left behind…they didn’t want to look like losers for not keeping up with the Jones’. I think Americans put forth a lot of bravado which is really just a mask for incredible insecurity. It could be naive nostalgia on my part. But I’d like to go back to when we as people were a little more sure of who we are, and proud of it.
If people had just held their ground and not purchased what they couldn’t afford, prices would have come down. Instead their pride and need to cover for their ego only made that goal harder to achieve.
“What people take for desperation this days is plain old greedy desire, with a big heap of melodrama to make it seem less disgusting.”
And a healthy scoop of entitlement. Once people “realized” RE was the road to riches, suddenly everyone was entitled to be a homeowner.
My sentiments exactly–no one is “desperate” to own a home, though they might be “desperate” to obtain housing. The fact that Rochette–a counselor–is spreading this financial nonsense shows just how deeply ingrained this “have-it-now” mentality is. It also shows how widespread the lack of basic financial competence is: from our Resident in Chief, to Greenspan, to Congress, to the whole agent-broker-lender racket, to the media shills, the system is corrupt with the linguistics of greed. And the whole thing is now coming down around us. Yes–the revolution will come in the form of a foreclosure notice.
Don’t forget the so-called financial planners, complete with fancy looking accreditations hanging on their walls, who advised people to take
moneyequity out of theirgold mineshouses!Got 10% down?
At the risk of sounding trollish, I’ll defend the “desperate” just a little bit. In Los Angeles, although rents rose hardly at all in the 1990’s, they did begin to rise somewhat after 2000. Some persons watching the price acceleration and fearing the rent increases would also accelerate, may have fallen for the “buy now or be priced forever” stuff. Yes, it was unsophisticated on their part, but perhaps no worse than that.
I do not think it was greed on most peoples part. It was the propensity to save and if you cannot save in dollars because the government is depreciating your money you are going to look for the commodity that will best fulfill that function. People were getting priced out when housing is going up at ten percent and you can only get two percent in the bank. It does not make sense to save in dollars. It makes sense to speculate. That is why the Fed lowered the interest rates to negative real return. To get people out of savings and stimulate the economy. If the dollar maintained a constant value and people were paid positive interest rates then we would not have had this bubble. In a sense people were making rational decisions base on a depreciating currency.
When does it ever make sense to speculate? All monetary speculation is gambling, and unless one can afford to lose, one should never engage in it. Borrowing half a million dollars to buy lottery tickets is equivalent. People should gamble with their own money, not someone else’s. Their so called rational decision was, I think, irrational, and the consequences of that decision are now plain to see.
It makes sense to speculate if you are losing purchasing power if you are holding money. The purpose of money is to arbitrage your labor for future purchasing power. I believe we all make these decisions daily.Why in the history of money was there such a concern about the concept of soundness? I agree it does not make sense if the FRN is keeping it’s value. But unfortunately the FRN does not have a constant value of one. This was badly designed policy and many people they are going to see it’s ugly aftereffects.
another way of saying it is “houses suck as a monetary commodity”
I think you are right on, tg.
For those of us who were looking for a place to put money in 2003/2004, you were lucky to get a bit over 1%. At the same time, people were “making” $10,000 PER MONTH on housing.
It’s not so much greed, but lack of wanting to be “stupid”. And stupid, from a logical perspective, was “saving” at 1% with no leverage while housing speculators were making infinite returns on their no-money-down loans.
Seriously, it made tons of sense if you weren’t looking at the big picture (how to pay it off).
I think fear was a factor, too, at least for many here in L.A. Fear of being priced out, yes, but also fear of being stuck in a crappy apartment when all your friends are pergraniteeling with the Joneses. (Make that fear+vanity.)
Usted sabe que esta un acarreador negativo chingado, cuando usted puede leer eso, y tiene una hipoteca para media million de dolares
“eso” debe ser “esto”
もし,1989年に日本の家を買っちゃたら,お前はくそったれバカヤロウなんだと分かる。
“If you bought a house in Japan in 1989, you’d know that you’re a f***ing dip$h!tforbrains know-nothing dumb@$$” (Loosely translated)
ay papi
YKYAAFB everyone at cocktail parties are renting your houses and talking about all of the money they are saving.
Good one, very good
“YKYAAFB when a link to your listing appears on this blog.”
Lots of great humor, a hallmark of Ben’s blog. Tough to pick which to vote for as funniest. For me, it was this one. Glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read it.
Loved this one, too!
How many times have some hapless homesellers had everything about them torn apart by a bunch of “bitter, jealous renters” on a bubble blog? I’d never show my face in public again.
YKYAAFB when you finally see those vacation rental condos you bought in Bakersfield and Barstow with your 401K.
YKYAAFB when you started out eating BLT’s on ciabatta, then it’s LT on Wonder, then it’s just rolled Lettuce sandwiches.
YKYFB when the only person attending your open house only makes an offer on the furnishings you temporarily “bought” to stage it.
And on top of that they low-ball the offer for the staging furniture
:)
Yesterday, at an open house I sat down with a very young realtor and had him start the paperwork on a home (270k offer on a 370K listing). I wrote out the check and at the proper moment
“changed my mind”. The look on his face was priceless, he was actually hoping to present it! LOL. Teach him to tell me that Davis is different.
Gwynster, you’re getting downright cruel (I love it). Too bad you didn’t get the insulting the seller line
LOL I’m mean when I’m pissed >; )
Here is the best part - I think the agent was feeding me a line. He said the owners were a couple who were retiring to LV and that they bought less then 5 yrs ago. But there was a bowflex in the spare room and an office for a single person in another. Didn’t add up.
I got home and checked the property out online. The agent told me a line of bull. Turns out they bought in 00 for 198k. I’m guessing it was the agents house. MLS #: 70032592
YKYAAFB when you get a offer at 100k under your list price (2002 price) and you counter at 80k under your list price and the buyer walks .
YKYAaFB T-shirts anyone?
The back of the T-shirt will have 10 of the best posted here.
It could be done in at least three languages including spanish and chinese.
I bet there is a good market for this. Also I’MNaFB t-shirt would be cool.
I want a T-shirt that says “Bitter Renter”
“Bitter renter” is about as 2005 as granite countertops. Now we’re all smug geniuses with Cheshire-cat smiles as we preview the coming firesales.
I want a T shirt that says “It’s different here”.
It’s different everywhere!
You Know You’re Not a F@#ked Buyer When….
You secretly have bookmarked on Zillow charts houses of people you know who berated you for the past couple years about how you were dumb not to buy…
“You Know You’re Not a F@#ked Buyer When….
You secretly have bookmarked on Zillow charts houses of people you know who berated you for the past couple years about how you were dumb not to buy… ”
DOH!..you caught me! But I’m not angry… It’s damn satisfying!
And don’t forget to send them an anonymous letter every 6 months or so that reminds them of the decline in market price of their POS alligator!!!!
YKNAAFB when you think Congressmen are really looking out for YOU when they propose subprime bailouts.
YKYAAFB when you buy a second house to get cashback in order to have money to make the mortgage payment on the first house
YKYAAFB when you get a HELOC, use the proceeds to pay down the balance of your first mortgage, and think you’ve just built equity
YNYAAFB when you wholeheartly agree with any and all bail-out programs bein discussed by any politician or the media.
YKYAAFB when your Sunday Morning Chant is…
Houses…Houses Everywhere and NOT a Fool insight…Waaabaaaw !
YKYAAFB when you count your home’s “value” as part of your net worth (ignoring your 100% financing).
YKYAAFB when only one other house in your neighborhood shows signs of life, and it’s FSBO.
YKYAAFB when you’re eating ramen and watching a big screen HDTV.
YKYAAFB when you can’t move out of your foreclosure because they repo’d the hummer.
…because living in the hummer was Plan B.
You think they had fallback plans? You give them too much credit (no pun intended).
YKYAAFB when you HEAR your Son In Law, your Mortgage Broker, SCREAMING in the background …” I’m NOT HERE” when you call you Daughter.
YKYAAFB when the NAR’s Lereah says that your local RE area’s prices have “stabilized”.
YKYAAFB when you get around to reading the promissory note.
“YKYAAFB when the following year, your 1099 ‘gain’ on foregiven interest from the foreclosing lender exceeds your W-2 earnings by 500%.”
This week’s puzzler: If your W-2 earnings is $40k, then what would be next year’s 1099 “gain” on forgiven debt if it exceeds your earnings by 500%?
Got 10% down?
240K “gain” on forgiven debt?
Ha! Gotcha! Wrong answer. Read the puzzler carefully!
Got 10% down?
tom, you’re going to have to tell us. I don’t see what’s wrong with “incredulous”s answer.
The puzzler reads ““if it EXCEEDS your earnings by 500%”, not “if it IS 500% of your earnings.”
The amount of “gain” of forgiven debt on the 1099 would have to be $280k.
$280k - $40k = $240k. So the EXCESS is $240k, which would be 500% of your income of $40k.
Got 10% down?
So what’s wrong with my answer. I said 240k gain (above ones earnings of 40k) and 240 + 40 equals 280. The 240 gain is the “forgiven debt” (money not paid back), not the total declared on the tax form (which includes the stated income of 40k). Incidentally 500% of ones earnings is 200k, not 240k. In order to exceed ones earnings by 500%, one would have to have 240k . Here is your question:
“what would be next year’s 1099 “gain” on forgiven debt if it exceeds your earnings by 500%?” The “gain” exceeding the earnings (40k) by 500% would be 240k: exactly what I said.
This is the “forgiven” debt on which the borrower now has to pay taxes in addition to the taxes on his 40k income.
Okie Dokie, your answer is correct. I was thinking more in terms of a 500% “return”, as in return on investment, which is not applicable in this case. You are correct that $200k is 500% of an income of $40k. My bad!
Got 10% down?
Oh well, I think you got me on the next subject concerning Atlanta’s housing numbers. I was reading what you wrote as indicating that the meter had already crossed the 100,000 mark, and therefore had plenty of digits to accomodate any increases till it reached a million. Your bad here, my bad there.
Income is 40k
100% more is 80k
200% more is 120k
300% more is 160k
400% more is 200k
500% more is 240k
That word “more” means 600% return.
YKYAAFB when your Banks IRS Forms 1099’s out number your IQ !
and/or your ARM resets to a percent that exceeds the square root of your IQ.
YNYAAFB when:
-Your kids piggy bank is listed on your sheet of assets in your attempt a refinance.
-Your teenagers income at McDonalds is the only imcome that can be verified for the refinance
BWAHAHA…very funny!!!
Lots of good ones here! It amazes me how many ding-dongs actually think equity is the same as cash in the bank and if you “own” a house that was bought (or financed on a 100%) loan for $500,000, than you must be $500,000 richer! Sad that we have reached a state where debt = wealth! Duh!
YKYAAFB when:
- You have to Heloc for your groceries for the week.
- You’re starting to think that living in your Hummer might be better than living in your Mc-Crapshack.
- You’re hoping that the Fed increases the money supply - YOUR money supply in particular.
- You are having nightmares about a world where money down is required when buying a house.
- You are not sure which will fall apart first: your financial scheme or your Mc-Crapshack.
Ah, the joys of modern America!
YKYAAFB when your immediate neighbor’s overpriced FSBO POS sells at 29% below recent Comps and he FEELS REALLY, REALLY LUCKY .
YKYAAFB is you have EVER uttered the phrase “I can always refi” in a non-sarcastic context
Johhny Cash on a Sunday morning, coming down~
A young uber consumer named Ellie (not her real name)
Grew restless without a home loan
A woman filled with stay-put-lust
Who really meant no harm
She hardly looked at what she would soon sign
And thought about helocing, to the moon
And the mortgage broker never cried as he walked out…
Make sure you read your loan, please
Read your loan before getting a home, Ellie (not her real name)
Don’t buy a house, without reading the terms of your loan, please
She sang a song as on she rode suv’ing down the road
Her hunches were correct, she’d become a homeowner and no biggie about the financial Lode
She rode into her personal version of a housing cattle town
No smiles upon her lips
She never stopped to pause and reflect, as she laid her money down
But the mortgage broker never ever said…
Make sure you read your home loan~
FYI-Kris Kristofferson wrote that song.
Here’s one of Kris’s songs…
Well I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to look @ my loan that didn’t hurt
and the money I heloced 6 times wasn’t bad
So I tried once more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my files, looking for my loan
And found my cleanest dirty truth
An’ I shaved off points and now am in despair
An’ stumbled down the stairs to meet the day…
YKYAAFB when you’re making a meal out the squirrels you promised the previous owner to feed…
Good one. Turning your backyard into a hunting ground.
YNYAAFB when you finally get meat on the table, the same day you tell your child that “fluffy ran away.”
Ok, posted before, but on the same theme.
Got popcorn?
Neil
YKYAAFB when you do a drive by lunch at Mikey D’s and SUZANNE hands you your HAPPY MEAL .
YKYAAFB when you’re feeding the squirrels while subsisting on rat kabob and sewer greens.
Have been having an interesting series of conversations with a woman in Maine who is (not yet) FB. Has a fixed-rate mortgage and no HELOC. She can make the mortgage payments OK, but ex-hubby (supposedly) left her with $50K CC debt for a pile of crud - their deal was, she got the house if she would assume the CC debt. She cannot pay the CC debt and is sending them just $10.00 per month. They keep harrassing her for more, and of course they would like nothing better than for her to see the “solution” of extracting home-equity to pay off the CC debt. Many persons advising her (I think accurately) NOT to replace the unsecured CC debt with any kind of secured debt. Even though the CC co has trashed her credit rating, so what. She can live within her income, apparently, if she just keeps paying $10/mo to CC co and refusing their “settlement” offers.
One can only hope the equity in the house exceeds 50k or she got a pretty raw deal. Mkay… assuming a generous 10% interest rate on the credit cards (to keep the math easy), that’s $5000 per year in interest added to her debt, minus $60 per month (I’m assuming it’s on five cards) so $720/year she is paying off. So with generous figures thats around $4000 per year in debt she is adding to the problem. Depending on the amount of equity in the house the banks may love to just sit back and let the process continue.
YKYAAFB when you dream of the days when you could pull out equity to install new granite counter tops because the old granite counter tops seemed to decrease the taste of your ramen noodles.
YKYAAFB when “those” Squirrels START leaving you FOOD…and you’re very GRATEFUL .
ding ding ding… WINNER! or “…when the squirrels start feeding YOU!”
YKYAAFB when your Daughter gets a letter from Harvard an you get a letter from the IRS .
YKYAAFB when gas at three bucks a gallon puts a cramp in your grocery spending
glad to see only the best and brightest are looking to become re agents
http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/rfs/312358298.html
Well, at least he only wants “interesting” people to contact him.
It’s like, “A penny for your thoughts,” only it’s, “$100 are you think to be real estate agent…”
Muggy, you mentioned all the FB’s in foreign real estate the other day. I would love to hear the blogs thoughts on Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, canada, etc. I have been interested but these markets seem to be fueled by American dollars and would be extremely vulnerable as we sink here at home. Any thoughts?
Anything south of the border is subject to “Viva La Revelucion”, e.g. “Your house has been given to the people, gringo”.
Canada would be a safer bet, aside from the Canadians you’d come into contact with
Well, let me tell you that in BC, “its different here”. This month has seen a totally re-stoking of the collective hysteria: bidding wars on unbuilt condos, etc. etc. Basically March of 2007 in Vancouver resembles March 2006 in California.
YKYAAFB when you’ve turned your 2 bedroom condo into a boarding house and your bedroom is “the cupboard under the stairs”.
If Harry Potter can do it , so can I.
“Ellie (not her real name) and her husband took out a $250,000 mortgage on their condo after succumbing to a mortgage company’s offer of a 2 percent initial interest rate.”
——————————–
how did the loan officer persuade her to succumb? Rohypnol? That would be a good basis for a lawsuit: “He put something in my diet coke and then I signed.”
YKYAFB when you realize you can no longer pick on your renting coworkers/relatives.
You know you’re NOT a FB when the snotty “Oh, you don’t have a house yet?” comments come to a screeching halt.
Some interesting data found while perusing Middlesex Massachusetts Registry of deeds. Number of foreclosure notices for the first six months of 2006, One, for the first 3 1/2 months of 2007, 577….
YKYAAFB when taxi drivers you use to go for investment tips are now living out of their taxis.
YKYAAFB when you have to sell your golf clubs and the kid’s PS2 on Craig’s List for Ramen money.
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/for/311556925.html
wow, that’s serious FB
It’s amazing what parents will sacrifice in order to be homeowners… like FOOD! What dill weeds. They need to have their kids taken away until they can get their priorities straight.
YKYAAFB when you offer to trade your “upgrades” such as granite countertops, cherry cabinets, and fancy brass light switch covers for the basic formica, particleboard, and plastic out of your neighbor’s house with the same floorplan, along with a “little cash” on their end.
YNYAAFB if you think that JC Wentworth guy on TV really is a wealthy investment banker.
YNYAAFB if you’ve ever walked through the door of a check cahshing or payroll advance business.
YNYAAFB if any number followed by four zeroes seems really big to you, in terms of a bank account balance.
YNYAAFB if any number followed by four zeroes seems really big to you, in terms of a bank account balance.
…and when a number followed by 5+ zeros for your mortgage is “no big deal”.
when you stop getting mortgage offers in the mail
More denial in Massachusetts
The major print media, to keep their real estate broker advertisers happy - is trying once again to spin-it like real estate is on the rebound
Strange thing is last year - they never admitted their was any downturn, but now they are giving us all the detail of what was supposed to have occured
Sundays Boston Globe had a real estate section headline with words “SPRING THAW”? - then below that is sub-headlines; MARKET SIGNS SUGGEST WORST IS OVER: SALES GAINING STEAM
Then the article substance consists of general talk of thing getting better, (but not great), and prices rising steeply later in the year (but not too steep) - blah blah blah - basically hype followed by hedging
Then they feature optimistic individual sellers and their expectations in a certain town- with prices probaly within 5% of bubble highs
Not one mention in the article about how the credit bubble had impacted prices in earlier years, and how the subprime issue will now push down prices
My guess is that the realtors actually wrote much of this article and then submitted it to the Globe
Don’t know if it’s been said yet;
YKYAAFB if you are holding weekly yard-sales.
-The “multi-family” SFH across the street, every saturday 8am-Noon!
…when the sheriff comes knocking at your door.
…when you ask for paper instead of plastic. (old commercial)