Foreclosures and Irresponsible Home THIEVES
 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Owners...73&PID=3747368


Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.

“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”



You know what? If you buy a house, and you don't pay on it, guess what that makes you? A THIEF. Yes, a THIEF. You promised to pay, and then you stopped. HOW DARE YOU???


And yeah, I know there are people who may be reading this who have either gone through a foreclosure, or know someone close to them who has. I'm not one bit sorry for my comments. Yeah, the economy sucks, but there is ALWAYS a way to work on your obligations, even if you cant quite meet them. To stop paying on your house so that you can have fun on your boat, or go to an upscale steakhouse is DISGUSTING...

A thief? Nah. You're someone the bank took a bet on. The bank lost the bet. Especially when homes are irreversibly upside down, I fully support not paying. Banks do that as a matter of course with even less recourse taken against them than regular Joes like you or I suffer.

Banks should be more careful as to how much they'll loan on a piece of property. They should be more careful about who they loan to as well. To make this as simple as you try to fails to understand the totality of the circumstances.

These people are slipping into "thief" territory, but not everyone who has gone through a foreclosure has followed it up with steak dinners/time on boats.

I have a feeling this thread may go in the same direction as the "poor people are poor because they want to be" thread :rolleyes:

Co-sign.

ETA: I was happy to see the bolded coming from you.

First off, Outback is not an upscale steakhouse.

Secondly, I read that article this morning. While it annoyed me that these people were so brazen about it, it's not a new thing. As the article points out, in Florida it can take a year and a half ON AVERAGE from the time foreclosure proceedings start until the actual notice of eviction is granted. Many people will take advantage of that time to save, knowing that they can't get the house back by making those payments. There's also a lower chance that they'll trash the house upon departure, unlike people in states with faster foreclosure clocks.

I agree with Kevin. It was a bad bet that no one in their right mind would have taken. But, these "bankers," who usually had little experience in financial services, were focused on selling the houses. After a few months, mortgages tend to be sold and repackaged--meaning the original bank has no stake in what happens to the house. 2000-2007 was the Wild West as far as financial services were concerned. I remember being a college student, being offered credit cards with $45,000 limits! It was easy for the banks to offer those amounts and not worry if I defaulted.

The reader comments on the original article are great.

I was much more offended by the article in the Times last week about the mother and daughter who were stunned to realize that they had borrowed $100,000 for the daughter to get her BA in Religion and Women's Studies from NYU. They wanted to know why someone didn't stop them from doing it. WTF?! :mad:

Cosign on the steakhouse. Outback is casual dining--and not even all that remarkable.

Restaurant critiques aside, I did forget to mention this. As was typical in the early to later part of this decade, when the banks would loan $150K on a house which sold for $120K three years earlier without verifying whether the plumbing had all been replaced with solid gold, who is really responsible for their current plight?

Hindsight being 20/20, of course, any market which continues to climb at 20%+ per year is headed for an adjustment at some point.

Outback is too expensive for the quality of food it provides though.

Student loans add up, I don't like how many I have right now myself, but I knew what I was doing. It's not like you don't get statements throughout letting you know if you have interest (or not) and that payment is not currently due.

I wouldn't make defaulting my first choice, but I'd get over my guilt about it if I truly couldn't afford it. Considering how few banks have followed through with the restructuring of mortgages, I'd rather try to save up money for deposit/rent rather then attempting to pay something I already cannot afford.

Just because it's overpriced doesn't make it upscale.

Yeah, student loans add up, but you get regular updates--either monthly or quarterly--while you're in school.

Saving for deposit/rent makes much more sense, considering that these people would probably have to make a larger than normal security deposit so soon after a foreclosure. I know my building requires a 750 credit score for renters; anything less you have to pay an additional month's security deposit.

The consequences will come back on them in some form.

So who are we to tell someone else how to spend the money that they DO have? I feel it's not really my business. Why aggravate myself over something I can do nothing about?

Furthermore.. I'm sure everyone has spent their money unwisely in their lives. I've never seen someone close go through foreclosure, but I have gone out to eat when I should've put gas in my car. So what makes you or me so much better than these people?

They aren't thieves because they are not stealing anyTHING. Bank owns the house - it was a secured loan. The bank can't sell it until they go through the process, so actually having people in the house, keeping it in decent shape, is something for which they would have to PAY house sitters. We've got abandoned foreclosures in our neighborhood - overgrown lawns, vandalism and lack of water are not helping them maintain their already reduced value, and it has a negative effect on OUR home values.

I know people who have been foreclosed on because of serious financial difficulties and I know people who have chosen to "walk away" because they didn't want to stay there anymore and foreclosure, at this point in time, doesn't have the stigma that it used to. I feel compassion for the former but I do think the latter are simply being irresponsible.

I agree with you on feeling compassion. There is a woman in my town that has 3 children and worked 2 different full time jobs. She is widowed and just couldn't pay all the bills and her home had to be foreclosed on. She still let her daughter cheerlead even though she could've used that money to pay bills. It's just a really hard situation to tell your child they have to be punished and can't do the things they love rather than cut everything out completely.

The only thing I care about in relation to this thread is Outback's Classic Blue Cheese Wedge Salad, Blue Cheese Pecan Chopped Salad, lobster tails, and that awesomely seasoned sliced bread (whatever it's called).

This.

Just prior to moving into my house, the nice woods at the end of the street (and my house WAS the last one), a contractor bought the woods and built a plan of McMansions. At least a quarter of them are for sale, and a few have been abandoned. We're fortunate that a few of the local men have been cutting the grass so they don't look too bad, but anytime somebody defaults on any loan, it makes it that much harder for the next people who come along. You don't think that the bank is going to really lose money, do you? They either jack up the interest rate, or have Uncle Sam bail them out.

As for the Outback Steakhouse, everytime I've eaten there, I swear I've been served wombat steak. It doesn't taste bad, but oh, how I've paid for it later!

Unless they're physically picking up and moving the house which they don't own, I guess I don't understand what makes them "thieves."