I ripped them off a website named YouWalkAway.com which I'll get to in a moment.
Now, don't those pics of shiny happy people remind you of the ads for low rate mortgages we've been blasted with these past several years?
Oh look, I found a current such ad:
Hmmm....What do you think those asterisks next to "Low monthly payments" mean?
Now, back to YouWalkAway.com.
They are selling a "Walk Away Protection Plan & Kit" to aspiring foreclosers for the bargain price of $995. From their site, I gather that it will tell you how you can stay in your foreclosed house for "eight months...living rent free" and avoid annoying phone calls from a debt collector.
It's just another item on the infinite list of businesses whose sole purpose is disconnecting fools from their money.
Speaking of fools. Remember our friend Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America?
"We're seeing people who are current on their credit cards but are defaulting on their mortgages," Mr. Lewis says. "I'm astonished that people would walk away from their homes." The clear implication: At least a few cash-strapped borrowers now believe bailing out on a house is one of the easier ways to get their finances back under control.
Did you catch the considerable doses of NAIVETÉ and HYPOCRISY in Lewis' statement?
He's naive because he's already proving that he wasn't "fully aware" of the problems in the housing market - just a month after tendering a purchase for the disaster that is Countrywide. See my January 16th post.
AND, he's a hypocrite because making RATIONAL FINANCIAL DECISIONS is what his bank does around-the-clock. Why shouldn't an upside-down "homeowner" mail the keys to the lender and do essentially the same thing?
I was just reading about some guy who owed 500k on his house. Meanwhile the home across the street, identical, if not better, was selling in foreclosure for 370k. So this mathematician bought the one across the street and mailed his keys back to the mortgage lender.
Immoral? Dumb?
Hardly. As far as I am concerned, he is stupid NOT TO foreclose on his place.
Sure his credit score will be ruined for 7 years, but in exchange, he makes $130,000.
By the way, I have never, for a minute thought or worried about my credit score. It's only an issue for people who want to buy things THEY CAN'T AFFORD in the first place.
Foreclosure may not be the American Dream, but it can make a ton of sense AND it sure ain't illegal.
3 comments:
C-Nut,
Agree with your 'walk-away' logic. Who would not. The BOA president is lost.
In Michigan, my banker buddy calls in 'jingle mail'. This is when the bank gets the keys.
As for credit scores, at least in Michigan they affect your auto insurance rates and they are even used in some life and medical insurance policies.
Hard to escape.
Big Mac
Well, wouldn't the holder of the first motgage hold the 'walk-er away' liable for the $$ difference between mortgage owed and foreclosure selling price? Mightn't he end up with a nice lien against his 130000 profit in his new home? I thought that was how it worked? Maybe it'd be a good deal with Hillary/Obama's 'help' for the 'victims' of 'preditory' lending, though.
Mac,
That's nuts that they use credit scores in life and medical insurance policies. But those businesses are so Commi-regulated that they can hardly be called "businesses" anymore.
Anon,
The new home is untouchable. It will be owned by whomever writes the new mortgage. They can't really attach a lien against it, well, because the poor guy doesn't own it.
The guy doesn't so much make a 130k profit as he just reduces his outstanding debt by that much.
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