I pride myself with being a fairly understanding person, yes, sometimes to a fault. But I just can’t understand how so many sellers are unwilling or unable to accept any responsibility for their current situation. Sure, facing a short sale is not a position in which any one would want to be in but at some point we all need to take responsibility for what we do (or don’t do).
Most recently I was on the listening end of a tete-a-tete in which the potential seller blamed EVERYONE but himself. “It’s the government’s fault!”. Yep, the government is an easy one to blame, whether it was Bush’s foreign policies or Obama’s socialism. “I didn’t know what I was signing.” Want to blame the mortgage broker who helped you get financed? Sure, every homeowner is a victim of unscrupulous lending practices. “I thought property values only go up!” Or was it the Realtor who didn’t have the Magic 8 Ball to tell you property values would decrease? Yes! How about NO! How about accepting life, successes and failures, as they come? When did accountability go out of fashion? Is it fear or embarrassment that keep people from saying ‘yes, it was my mistake’? Is it a learned skill or an inherent attribute? Oh well, I better get used to it.
Benjamin Dona says:
It’s a victim mentality IMHO.
And yes, it’s been being ingrained into our society for longer than I care to remember.
August 28, 2010 — 8:20 am
Jim Whatley says:
if people learned from history, we would all be farther along. Bubbles date all the way back to the tulip bubble in Holland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
in twenty or so years there will be another real estate bubble.
August 28, 2010 — 11:26 am
Thomas Johnson says:
Here is an interesting post from Mish Shedlock about walking away. It seems he had been corresponding with a homeowner who was conflicted about walking away.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/08/email-from-morally-conflicted-one-year.html
As long as the banks continue to make it difficult to short sell, an owner with legal counsel should do the math. A short sale does not “save the seller’s credit”. Mitigate the damage vis a vis foreclosure? Perhaps, although I would like to see a short seller get a prime loan after his time in the penalty box before I decide that is the case. We will never clear the market as long as the lenders and their surrogate servicing firms are permitted to extend and pretend that their mortgage portfolios have book value.
August 29, 2010 — 5:07 pm