Comments on Hey, Big Lender!

I know I'm not being very sympathetic here, but I guess I just don't understand why Julio would sign on a loan without knowing what the monthly payment would be.

Not taking sides here, but it looks like there's a reason people with subprime loans have bad credit: they can't do basic financial math. I guess I'm sympathetic when it comes to things hidden in the docs -- prepayment penalties, weird amortization, etc. -- but if you're taking out an adjustable rate loan, or any loan, for that matter, you better do your fucking homework.

That said, WaMu probably doesn't want to be in the property management business, so they'd be wise to keep these folks in their homes. Total moral hazard, of course, but it's in the bank's best interests.

I hope the Stranger can do more of this kind of reporting. There's a lot of this kind of stuff going on weekly that doesn't get any ink in the dailies or alt weeklies.

Wow... props to WaMu for herding the protesters and press into different rooms. That was smarter than I would otherwise give them credit for.

The really lousy thing about this whole "credit crisis" is that it's dragging the whole economy down. I definitely agree that people like Julio need to be more informed and responsible borrowers whether you're talking about home loans or car loans or credit cards. And it would have been nice if every mortgage lender in America for the past 5 years had not knowingly lent money to people who wouldn't be able to pay it back if the market slowed down.

The banks and the sub-prime borrowers basically had it coming, so it's hard to have much sympathy for either faction, but everyone else is caught in the crossfire.

Here's the subtext:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/FatCEOPayFedTheMortgageMess.aspx

Email the current chairman and CEO as follows: kerry.killinger@wamu.net

Trevor, the stranger doesn't do reporting--they do hipster gotcha piling on issue advocacy, not reporting. (hence no details here, as usual). Only Eli does real reporting, unfortunately on already-covered political races.
At least Wamu worked with the protesters and made what looks to be a good faith effort to meet their demands. All too often corporations just call the cops and hide.

@6

You're absolutely right about the reporting of The Stranger. Unfortunately, I don't expect things will change much with the compromised ECB as editor.

ACORN, what a bunch of idiots. Yesterday in my neighborhood ACORN held a rally about dangerous electrical wires and Ant infestations. I asked the ACORN folks to point out the exposed wire, and oh they knew there was exposed wire on top of the power pole, but could not point it out. When the city light rep showed up I asked her about the exposed wire. She said there are no exposed wires. Duh! it would be a hazard to linemen. So here we have ACORN stamping its feet again and most likely showing themselves to be ill prepared and mis-informed. ACORN are losers big time and should not be welcome into anyones' cause.

fuck ACORN, seriously.

#9 Fuck you. Seriously.

heard it before. at least i take care of myself instead of playing victim for being a dummy about loans. im not even fully college educated to boot!

Julio's last name is Santos.

Here is the thing that people area hot at Wamu over. It is not people with bad credit making worse fiscal decisions. WAMU made bad loans, and lied to people about the loan they were getting. No one reads the loan paper work they are signing. I just refinanced my house, that is nearly 400 pages of legalese, and of course I didn't read it all. I have a broker that I trust, that I have worked with for years and I know he is getting me the best rate. People expected the same from their WAMU lenders.
The other crime that WAMU is guilty of is hiring appraisers that would lie and over value a home. SO when a house sold for 500K, it was really only worth 400k. Now if you have an agent and an appraiser telling you this house is worth the asking price, you are going to believe them. Then when you go to refinance, you learn the real value of your home, and are stuck.

And what the fuck is up with having no sympathy for people that got taken advantage of? If you grandmother gets screwed by a contractor, you would be the first ones calling for blood. So people getting fucked buying their first house are some how of less moral fiber than you. really, go fuck yourselves.

For people bought within the past couple years foreclosure is honestly not the big a fucking deal. You gambled, you lost, get over it. Cooperate with the lender and try to figure out how to salvage your credit.

Go back to renting like you were before and start saving up money to try again if you want. You were probably renting before you got a loan you probably should not have qualified for on a house you could not afford.

At this point the worst thing to do would be to stay in a house you can't afford with an interest rate well above appreciation. Your just pissing good money after bad.

Now for the people who had a bunch of equity and refinanced it all away, that does suck. But absent fraud, you choose to take money out of your house for whatever. You too probably need to simply part with the house and go find a nice place to rent.

Dear ACORN,
I need your help. I didn't bother to read the paperwork and I took out a loan. The amount.. $400k. I find that I can now not afford to pay what I owe. Please help me at the expense of people that bothered to read the contracts.
Sincerely,
Fuckbag

Apropos of nothing, When I bought my house I realized I could only afford crappy house in a crappy neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, so that is what I looked for. I scraped together every penny I had, figured how much I could put 20% down on and started shopping. When I applied for the loan (at WaMu), at one point the loan person asked if I wanted an adjustable rate, I stared at her like she had just crawled out of a giant pea pod and said "uh, NO".
But then I'm weird and I live in crappy neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, (actually the house itself isn't all that bad, if it were on Queen Ann or Capital Hill it would be 10 times what I could afford.)

I knew I couldn't afford to buy a home, so I continued to rent. How does this protest help me?

Wasn't ACORN protesting a number of years ago that banks like WaMu weren't serving low income neighborhoods enough?

Sorry, I don't feel bad for morons who don't read the fine print. Boo-hoo. You gambled and lost. Why the hell should WAMU bail these people out?

Don't buy a house with an ARM if you can't afford a market downturn.

While I agree the people who are getting forclosed on now are not very financially savey, the people who sold them those loans were.

Not only that but WaMu lowered its standards of who to extend credit to to keep up with BofA and Countrywide because they were getting creamed in sales and didn't want to be #3 so they pushed sales to anyone they could get to bite and the people doing the selling got that point and did whatever they needed to do.

I mean really, 90% of a home tied up in a line of credit with an adjustable rate based on a low credit score and STATED income. No need to verify, just tell'm what you make, that's good enough. The loans officers know/knew what to say and do to get them to go through the system and all this happening as they lay off underwriters in favor of a more automated system.

So yeah, buyer beware but one thing you can be sure of in all this mess is that Kerry Killinger WILL be getting his bonus this year even though he drove the company into the ground. The board of directors made sure of that.

Fuckers

teehee, savy, not savey.

As usual there is truth on both sides. If you can't afford a loan, you shouldn't get one. And your bank shouldn't lie to cruise you into one.

The thing is, what the remedy is supposed to be is hard to see. Julio Santos can't afford his loan, period; he needs to sell his house, and he needs to do it now. Some kind of negotiated settlement period where guy like Santos can get out from under this, and repair his credit, makes the best sense. Lenders HATE foreclosing, it's a failure and a money loser for them -- but the guy's got to pay his loan, and he can't.

Normally these things happen and get worked out all the time, but the problem now is, there's too many of them. ACORN's solution, which is basically going to be "keep Santos in his house, but don't make him pay" isn't going to fly. But they can get to somewhere, I hope.

The upside is we'll probably be able to afford a house once all these get foreclosed.

"I know I make 25000 per year and I have 4 kids, but I'm sure I can afford this 400,000 dollar house because this fancy mortgage broker in a shitty suit from Men's Wearhouse tells me I can." Seriously, who is gullible enough to believe that?

On the flip side, I've made nice profits shorting WM as it hits lower lows on a weekly basis. Gracias Julio.

The upside is we'll probably be able to afford a house once all these get foreclosed.

Quoted For Truth.

@23

bless your heart!

Has it dawned on any of the naysayers that these people who have been taken advantage of cannot go rent, because they had to take their entire savings and earnings to their lender (i.e. WaMu) to pay on a loan, just to have their %&^# rates and payments skyrocket AGAIN (thanks, lender, i.e. WaMu) - so they're left with absolutely no money? NONE... You can't get an apartment with no money. You can't buy groceries with no money. You can't take your kid to the doctor with no money.

These people become HOMELESS - Get it? Like when it's raining and you get out your pretty little umbrella, these people have to carry their children on their back and find an underpass so their one suit of clothes aren't wet for two days.

Think about it. If this family were yours because you didn't read pg. 354 out of 400 pages... You might be thinking differently.

And for Christ's sake, are there actually people here or anywhere who want to put a young, struggling family on the STREET so they can buy a house on the cheap? Those people are selfish assholes. Period.

Naysayers: Take a good look around, because your ignorance and judgemental attitudes will lead YOU to be the victims of the next economic, social, and/or government downfall. So don't forget to read the fine print, on page 567456, out of 3498753948579387. Jerks.

Wow. Reading this stuff makes me proud to be an American....say, where are you all from??

Seriously, folks, a lender has a responsibility to those he lends to, those whose money he lends, and society in general to produce a fair and clean loan, written in clear and plain language.

Until that happens, one can't seriously expect people who only speak clear and plain language and who believe that an American professional will be honest and fair to understand that the lender is really a shark and the words on the paper are all lies and there's no such thing as the American Dream for anyone making under $50,000 per year or so...

And as for those who have no sympathy, well, they will have to answer for that in their lifetimes or maybe worse.

I, for one, will continue to assert that part of being an American is carrying on your business with a certain amount of moral decency, and that cheating is unacceptable, especially when it can hurt families with children who are vulnerable.

And as for the issue of whether or not people who do not understand confusing documents are somehow inferior and deserving of being cheated... well, again, I just want to know- what country are you from? I want to make sure I never go THERE!

Maryellen