Take Responsibility for your Actions

As we all know, the real estate market is tanking. (Great news for savvy real estate investors though.) The bubble is about to pop and all the greedy rats who made money from flipping houses are all about to be smoked out of their holes. I hope these flippers, who create no or very little value whatsoever while jacking up the prices, get burned... ALL the way to the bone!

One thing that bothers me (and this should bother you too) is how the government is planning on punishing the subprime lenders who made "predatory" loans to low income families. Apparently these families "didn't know" what these numbers meant or how they can be affected in case of rising interest.

High income or low income... ignorance is what gets you into trouble. I've seen plenty of dumb rich kids who didn't know diddly squat and had the street smarts of a rock... and I've seen extremely savvy people who come from very humble financial backgrounds.

Regardless, why is the government stepping in to protect these ignormus people who apparently were too lazy to look into what they were getting into? Whatever happened to "let buyer beware"? They signed on the dotted line, and that's what counts. If they didn't have a brain the size of walnuts to be worried about signing something that they have ZERO knowledge in, then these people DESERVED it.

Yea yea.. I hear arguments like "oh, these people don't have the resources".. or "a lot of these people don't speak English"... or "they don't have the financial background". Well.. then:

1. GO FREAKIN' ASK for some resources
2. GO GET A TRANSLATOR
3. GO GET SOME FREAKIN' FINANCIAL EDUCATION

Easy for me to say right? Baloney. You're saying there's NO one out there who started out as immigrant, with very little resources, money, and financial education that has become a successful homeowner? How did THESE people make it?

That's b/c they put in the time and the effort to find out what the hell these things mean before they locked themselves into a 30 year contract! They took RESPONSIBILITY for their own actions, and that's what the rest of us these people need to do. Law cannot and should not protect people from ignorance or laziness.

This is just freakin' common sense. I remember reading about a case where this Hispanic family of four with a combined income of $45,000 (before tax) buys a $500,000 home on some exotic hybrid interest only mortgage (the lender and the applicant co-conspire and claim that the applicant is making over $120,000), only to be foreclosed on 6 months later. When they couldn't meet the payments, they sue the lender and the real estate agent b/c the applicant didn't "know" about the terms or about the "mis-stated" facts in the mortgage application.

*sigh* YOU F*CKIN' SIGNED IT! How the hell did you not notice the difference between $45,000 and $120,000!!!! That's not Spanish or English.. it's a freakin' NUMBER!

Regardless of what he TRULY made, $500,000 home on a $45,000 salary... does that make sense? I don't care if you didn't read or understood ANYTHING in the fine print of your mortgage document. How are you going to pay (assuming 5% interest rate) $25,000 of INTEREST on $45,000 salary BEFORE TAX?

Yes I am sure there are predatory lenders, but dammit... JUST FREAKIN' SHOP around! Ask questions! Don't just sit there and be a f*cking victim!

Take responsibility for your dumb actions. The gov't should let these people burn so they LEARN. Gov't should STOP taking away these valuable lessons.