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Realtors are the first professionals most people meet when they go to buy a home. They typically do the handy dandy "what you can afford" based on your income or based on nothing if loans are a dime a dozen.
In my home search in 1999, in a meeting with a realtor I recall thinking, "Wow. I can afford to buy the nicest house I'd want." Then I asked the realtor to break it down into what it came out to in terms of a monthly payment. I NEARLY CHOKED.
I could afford it. If I never took another vacation, had no desire to save for retirement, never performed any maintenance or had a medical emergency/layoff. My husband and I concluded the realtor was nuts and went our way.
Realtors like that one, as the first line of home buying contact, bear some of the responsibility in this mess for telling/encouraging buyers to purchase "as much house as you can."
"You guys can do this." Infamous words. The couple in the ad above are probably underwater and/or foreclosed by now. It's the Century21 Recession.
When I buyer comes to me one of the first questions I ask are if they have been preapproved. This takes care of 2 problems. If they are unable to get financed I have not wasted any time showing homes to someone who can not buy one and it also lets them know how much they can afford.
I have no say on how much they can get approved for nor what they feel comfortable paying per month.
Real estate agents aren't the ones allowing them to get the loan. All they are doing is helping find the right house and negotiate on it. Just thought I'd throw that out there since agents have never had much to do with the amount of buyers in the market. You seem to confuse the jobs of lenders and Realtors.
Not all agents play by the same rules:
By Kafia A. Hosh
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 16, 2009
An Ashburn real estate agent has been charged with several counts of mortgage fraud (http://www.hoocoodanode.org/glossary/term/203 - broken link) after helping more than 100 people buy houses they couldn't afford and defrauding lenders of about $50 million, the Loudoun County sheriff said yesterday.
Diane H. Frederick Atari, 42, fixed her clients' poor credit (http://www.hoocoodanode.org/glossary/term/172 - broken link) scores and inflated their incomes so they could qualify for mortgages they otherwise would not have gotten, county authorities said. The alleged fraud occurred between 2006 and last year. Many of the homes were bought in eastern Loudoun and in Fairfax County.
Authorities say they believe that Atari left the country last week for Jordan, where her ex-husband's relatives live. The sheriff's office has contacted Interpol to help them track her down.
By Kafia A. Hosh
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 16, 2009
An Ashburn real estate agent has been charged with several counts of mortgage fraud (http://www.hoocoodanode.org/glossary/term/203 - broken link) after helping more than 100 people buy houses they couldn't afford and defrauding lenders of about $50 million, the Loudoun County sheriff said yesterday.
Diane H. Frederick Atari, 42, fixed her clients' poor credit (http://www.hoocoodanode.org/glossary/term/172 - broken link) scores and inflated their incomes so they could qualify for mortgages they otherwise would not have gotten, county authorities said. The alleged fraud occurred between 2006 and last year. Many of the homes were bought in eastern Loudoun and in Fairfax County.
Authorities say they believe that Atari left the country last week for Jordan, where her ex-husband's relatives live. The sheriff's office has contacted Interpol to help them track her down.
Of course you are right.
All of us, agents or not, are from the same gene pool as Charlie Manson and Bernie Madoff.
Cheers!
Of course you are right.
All of us, agents or not, are from the same gene pool as Charlie Manson and Bernie Madoff.
Cheers!
My original post said, "Realtors like that one...bear some of the responsibility."
I'm not one to make broad generalizations. There are good and great agents out there.
However acting as if agents had no part in this meltdown is disingenuous. There was a money train. Everyone wanted to ride it, including a lot of agents who were either unethical or incredibly naive.
My original post said, "Realtors like that one...bear some of the responsibility."
I'm not one to make broad generalizations. There are good and great agents out there.
However acting as if agents had no part in this meltdown is disingenuous. There was a money train. Everyone wanted to ride it, including a lot of agents who were either unethical or incredibly naive.
Cheers.
Gee. I thought this was a "broad generalization," so I responded to clarify the topic a little:
"They typically do the handy dandy "what you can afford" based on your income or based on nothing if loans are a dime a dozen."
What in the world @ this thread? Real estate agents have virtually nothing to do with the amount you're approved of. They may twist your arm a bit to make you go over personal budget a bit, at worst, but they have no say in the amount of the loan you receive from the lender.
Back to reality and the topic at hand, everyone?
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