The Weather

...so the weather in Texas....

Okay, no, I am not really going to write about the weather but this post may be just as boring as the weather. I am in the mood to vent today. If you are not excited about hearing me rant, then feel free to skip this post. I would totally understand.

As some of you may or may not know, I work for a mortgage company. For the last 2 and a half years I have worked in various forms of collections for said company. In that time I have seen probably the very worst parts of the housing industry. I really liked my job when I first started but once I moved up to Foreclosure Prevention Department things changed. I began to only work with people who were in foreclosure and I was trying to help them avoid that process. I began to see the foreclosure process from start to foreclosure sale. And it was very taxing on me.

I will start by saying that the housing market sucks! We all know this. Unless you are in the market to buy and you dont have a house to sell at the same time (rent-> house) then you might not feel it, but every one else does. Previous to 2007 interest rates were ridiculous and houses were way overpriced. It was like you were asking to be ripped off. But that was the price to be a home owner. And many people paid it. Then the market tanked and all the sudden no one's house was worth what they owed. No bueno. The job market also tanked. So now everyone is losing their jobs and cant pay for their overpriced homes. So what happens? Unemployed is extended, banks are bailed out, and modification programs are put into place.

I also want you to know that I know that their are good, honest, hard working, good people out there who had no choice but to stop paying for their homes to simply just survive. To just put food on the table for themselves and their families. And to those people I feel genuine empathy for, and I did my best to help them any way that I could.

Those people are not the ones I am ranting about. I am ranting about the others.

*disclaimer. Please understand that I come from a different perspective than you probably see. I have seen the worst of the worst.

Today I found out that a man who I had tried to help several months ago is now suing my company because I wouldn't modify his loan. Let me set the scene for you. He fell behind on his payments 2 years ago and we modified his loan at that time. Gave him lower payments. Made him current. Lowered his interest rate, and sent him on his way. 18 months goes by and after many attempts to contact this man he finally calls me. He is now 18 months behind on his payments. He never made a single payment after we helped him 2 years ago. Not one! I took financial information and it turns out his makes more than double what he did when we modified him. He wants help to get current. But his interest rate is too low now to help him. He makes too much money to qualify. Hypothetically after all his bills are paid (including his mortgage) he could make another mortgage payment on top of that and be fine every month. How many people can say that? I know I cant do that with my rent. My job included telling people no if they don't qualify. So he is suing because he says we "have" to give him a modification. Where was he for those 18 months? He had every excuse in the book. None of which were good.

Shouldn't we be helping people who actually want it and cant afford their payments? I don't get it. When did everyone in our society start to feel so entitled to everything?

-You HAVE to give me unemployment
-You HAVE to give us food on welfare because I have kids
-I should get disability money from the government because I have MS (even though I can still work just fine and have no real physical disabilities yet) -i know this man personally. ugh
-The government bailed banks out so you HAVE to lower my interest rate
-I can go on unemployment, so why work?
-The more kids I have, the more welfare gives me
-I spilled my hot coffee on me because I was distracted while driving and now I'm going to sue McDonald's.
-I am going to stop paying my mortgage, wait until I'm almost foreclosed on, file bankruptcy, and continue to live in a house for free for years while never paying a dime and then flip out that you are "putting us on the streets"
-Having 2 car payments that are EACH over $500, yet you aren't going to pay your $1000 house payment.

What happened to hard work? What happened to saying money? What happened to trying to get caught up? What happened to living below your means? What happened to not taking advantage of people/gov/organizations just because you can?

I just don't get it. are those people still out there? Have we just all lost our minds? Is being a decent person like that a dying quality? I don't have answers. I am just annoyed. I am certainly not perfect in this, but I will give credit to my mother for having most of those good qualities. My whole life she has worked more than one job. She has savings, and when things were tight with us, she would tell me, "no, you cant go there unless you can pay for it yourself". She understood the need for being self sufficient was of far greater importance than my "need" for instant gratification. She is a good woman, and I wish I was more like her in a lot of ways.

On a plus side, I no longer work in that department. I work in the Foreclosure department. I work solely with attorneys to move the process along. I upload docs, order appraisals, order inspections, and help attorneys any way i can. I know that sounds boring, but I really love it. lol

(End Rant)

Have a great day!!