Sunday, January 31, 2010

Janet Speer

Janet Speer, Home-ATM

Why are people still willing to come forward with their B.S. stories for all the world to see???

A comment left at the story says it all:

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Let's look at the facts here with the key one being #2:
1) She bought the house at $100,000
2) It went up to $154,000 and she refinanced it at $154,000 which means SHE TOOK OUT $54,000 in cash.
3) Its now down to $120,000 and she cant afford mortgage so she is walking away.

So basically she bought the house with a loan, took out $54,000 in cash to do as pleases, now walking away. And we wonder why banks have struggled. This person took all of the upside ($54,000 cash out) and then walked away when it went down.

There are many sad stories of people losing their house. This is not one of them. This person got somewhere to live and $54,000 cash out over a period of years. They are the example of why the people are to blame for this problem just as the banks have a lot of blame to take. This is an example of a case where you should be just as mad at this person as you are at the banks as they both caused problems by their behavior.
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Commentary at Calculated Risk: Is this really "Walking Away"?

2010-01-31:I'm walking from my underwater mortgage
-or- How I tapped my Sweet Home Equity and Now I'm Bailing
I stopped paying my $1,450-a-month mortgage on my 200-year-old, four-bedroom home in September 2008 -- after making the hard decision to walk away from my mortgage because it is hopelessly underwater.
...
This house originally cost $100,000. In 2005, as the housing market heated up and I needed cash, I refinanced it. An appraiser said it was worth $154,000 -- which I thought was too high but nonetheless accepted. I cashed out the house at that value.

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And here is the house...
327 church st, Royersford, PA
4 beds, 1.0 baths, 1,577 sq ft

3 comments:

Tom said...

Tyrone,
this is the same Tom under another account. I didn't respond to this for a long time. Then I looked up the house and the surrounding properties, and I can at least own the decision to agree with you that there is something crass and juvenile (at best) about this woman's decision.

I haven't quite figured the $120K valuation, except that she may have the most dilapidated house in the neighborhood, Zillow is totally off its rocker, or several people overpaid for properties in recent months.

Alternately, the tiny lot size goes against it, as does the overall appearance.

Did she even get a second or third opinion? Did she think about other alternatives? It doesn't seem like it.

It's too bad really. It's demoralizing to those of us who want to do the right thing when others just game the system and appear to get a way with it.

Here is the Zillow page link. It should illustrate my points.

http://tinyurl.com/y4jkf8s

Below is a Trulia page on the house and its environs. Enjoy!

Tom

http://tinyurl.com/y777ej8

Tom said...

Tyrone,
I should acknowledge the dumbassery and fraud at the highest levels of society if I'm going to pick on this person.

Here's an entertaining retrospective of past HBHS inductees from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/weekinreview/18dash.html?source=patrick.net

Economic Analyst said...

lets understand how money works. A guy goes into bank and asks for a mortgage. The bankers clicks on his computer and creates a loan of say 100k. Fake money, fake loan.. no truck pulls up with a 100k in cash. The "loan" goes on the books as a liability. If the person doesn't make the payments. The loan goes into default. The bank states, hey government the people stopped making payments on the fake money, can you print more of that..please? The air that you printed can easily be reproduced so the sheeple can stay in debt for life...All fake air folks..backed by NOTHING