Love Thy Neighbor’s Foreclosure

Published by julia | Filed under Miscellaneous, Real Estate, Shout Outs, Uncategorized

Repossessed homes across the nation are popping up in places no one would have imagined.  Our good neighbor’s homes are facing foreclosure. There was a day when communities would have come together to aid those who had lost their jobs.  The folks in trouble could sit down and talk with their banker and adjust the payment and come up with a solution.  Sadly, that day is not today.

Let’s start with banks because they are what they are and not much can be done to change them.  They have become so big and out of touch that rather than wanting to help their customers succeed, their main objective seems to be to invent new penalties and fees to charge them.  Even trying to buy these bank repos creates more hostility and aggravation because their policies and procedures are so outdated and demonstrate no interest in anyone involved.

The real tragedy is the response of communities to these hard times.  We were warned for the last few years that the housing market was going to get ugly.  Before there were all these bank repos, there were scads of people in trouble; lots of short sale listings; many people asking for help.  What did their neighbors say?  What was the response of the homebuyers in their town?  “WHOO HOO!”  People actually said, “Too bad they are in trouble, but I’m going to take them for everything I can get.”  The desire to get a good deal is understandable. There were good deals to be had all over the place.  Pushing a desperate person into a corner and bullying them into selling their house ridiculously below value, below appraisal, and below the recent sales averages is cruel and greedy.  Especially at the beginning of the decline when values were still high and the results of interest hikes and job cut backs were just beginning.  When the seller couldn’t meet the buyer’s demands because it required bringing cash to closing that seller didn’t have, buyer attitudes were, “that’s alright.  It will be in foreclosure in a few months and then I’ll really get a good deal.”

Maybe if we hadn’t been so greedy and just paid the better than fair prices that were available, the market wouldn’t be flooded with foreclosures and sellers could have actually pocketed a few dollars off their sale to start them out on their new path.  As it turned out, people walked away from their houses with nothing in their pockets and no credit to start new.  As a bonus, our neighborhoods are plagued with abandoned, broken, and moldy houses presenting dangers and further bringing down the value of our houses.  Whatever happened to “Love Thy Neighbor”?