Thread: Question from Inman News Reporter

I have talked to some realtors that simply tell these clients now is not the time to buy because they will get a sky high rates and they should clean their credit first.

Honestly, I think the before that conversation ever gets off the ground, people need to revisit what their expectations are of home ownership.

For the last 50 years, as a nation, we've investing in to housing situations (suburban sprawl) that will not work for a future that has inevitable high energy costs associated with the maintenance of keeping these (mis)allocations of resources going.

This last decade was an unfortunate misunderstanding of what assets and liabilities really are, and sadly, Realtors among many other industry associated professionals, were waving the banner that your home was an ATM.

Obviously in this process, some people fell victim to a market that they had no hand in creating and would up getting splattered on the wall of corruption that made the Savings and Loan Crisis look like a bad night of poker.

At this point, I tell my client that they need to be thoughtful of their location the sustainably of the immediate area from a commerce standpoint and be weary of getting caught up in the many misunderstandings of home ownership.

If their credit is trashed, it's likely trashed for a reason. A lot of times, that reason has to do with unfortunate timing and poor location decision all of which stems from under educated buyers being led around by even less educated Realtors.

To answer your question though:
I think the best resource to offer someone who has bad credit, no job, no assets, foreclosure or bankruptcy is a dose of reality; Home ownership doesn't come without significant life altering risks. Any agent who fails to provide that information as resource should be stripped of their license and forced out of the industry.

I mean really, does NAR think that the US should have 100% home ownership?

Hopefully, there will be some commentary in your article that suggests that home ownership isn't for everyone and that if you've lost everything thanks to the housing crisis, perhaps you shouldn't even be considering buying another home. Unfortunately, I doubt that would go over well with the Realtor target (looking for another commission check) audience of Inman News though.

There is going to be an emergence of Realtors who care about the nation, people and the industry enough to finally step up and stop this non-sense of trying to get everyone qualified for a loan, qualified for a short-sale, qualified for a loan mod, qualified for...........honestly, what's next?