Ramirez did not have a dream. He was trying to steal a magic moment.

Was he a illegal? Does he have any ties that bind him to America. Or did he just participate in the fleecing of the housing market. And now that he has lost. Will he leave the rubble and return to his homeland.

Another American Dream realized. LOL!

Was Crisp his realtor?

And if it turns out he's here legally, we can deport you in his place.  Improves the country more anyway.

Why don't you buy the house and use the funds for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Bakersfield.

are you kidding me????  He makes 14K a year and he has managed to make payments for 1.5 years???  What am i missing??  Payments on a 750K house are more than 14K a year.... and he has made payments for 1.5 years???  Come on media... get the facts right.  this is outrageous.  I am a mortgage lender and even I know there is something not right here.....

Thinking..

He was a shame buyer for an shyster.

OK..... after reading the entire article.... the real estate agent says "sign these docs, with your decent credit score, we can get you this loan.... and 'oh by the way, i will subsidize your monthly note whatever you can't pay'"  What the HELL?  A real estate agent pays 9 months of 2K+ towards a mortgage that these people can't afford????  CAN YOU SAY FRAUD?  HOLY CRAP!  The headlines should read... "real estate agent HELPS 14K a year worker to buy a 750K house!"...... DAMN PEOPLE.... Illegal or not (buyers).... This AGENT should be SHOT!

Thinking,

There is a down side to living in a ownership society.

Maybe you are an idiot, nah no maybe.

He probably had other "household income" meaning his brothers, sisters, mother, father, aunts, uncles, etc contributed to the mtg payment and lived there with him, until they started to leave one by one for their own american dream of owning a home. Thats why he could afford the payment for 1.5 years!

WOW! 751 views. 10% of Bakersfield’s Real Estate agents must have read this blog…

more than likely.... link from www.mortgageimplode.com.... did it.

YUK!!!!

This stuff is really getting messy.

Makes my stomach turn just reading some of it.

Human nature combined with piece work and a commission. Falls prey to greed.

There is some good to be said about a flat rate and a hourly wage.

Bush Jr.’s comment on the, ‘grey areas of the law‘. Did nothing to promote honesty in business.

Anonymous said Why don't you buy the house and use the funds for Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Bakersfield.

That is hilarious. I peed. And I'm very ashamed of myself for thinking that is funny.

 

When will the media do investigative reporting and get all the facts instead of capitalizing on the words of "Predatory" and "Subprime".  They need to learn new words like, personal responsibility and consumer fraud.

I must say - Who verified his job prior to funding?

 

Well, yes, Cigar, it's all the fault of the working poor in this country for trying to make it in an exploitative capitalistic system.  Shame on them!  Perhaps their behavior would be different if we had a more compassionate society based on human values instead of corporate greed.

No, He has to take some responsibility in is situation. He is a victim because he does not speak the language? What about their values? Why is it never the fault of the "victim"? What is going on in this country? Why is everyone a victim? How about be an adult quit trying to keep up with everyone elseand quit blaming everyone else for your problems. He came to America for a better life right? Did he think that a 720 k was starting at the bottom and working his way up? Did someone foreclose on the Mexican Bill Gates? What a shame it is. There is paperwork you have to sign in order to buy a house, here is a funny concept that seems to miss alot of people these days, READ IT! I'll say it again READ IT. Don't be stupid.

Not a big WaMu fan but give them a break, a bank in that area that DOESN'T have Spanish speaking employees, too funny!! Gotta agree with ranlaw, take some personal responsibility for the mess you have created, I bet no one held a gun to his head to get him to sign the papers.

Note to the "crafty" LO and RE agent. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, didn't your mommas teach you better. The more zeros in front of the decimal point the weider people get. Go figure.

ran, vme

If America needs the unskilled and uneducated illegals and legals, to do the jobs that Americans will not do.

Then Americans must protect those individuals from the educated and corrupt..

TKOZY,

I agree wholeheartedly, they need to be protected but alot of what is going on is not the uneducated being ripped off. It is people who think the american dream is to live in a house that is beyond their means. I'm in the mortgage business and I see it all the time, someone making 80 k a year with debts that far exceed that income, alot of them are big children who never grew up and now the gov't has to step in and PROTECT them. It does not seem right to me. Maybe I am the naive one, but what happened to personal responsibility. The worst has not come down yet, just wait until pay option arms recast, then we'll see the housing market implode. In reality alot of these people are a victim of greed and stupidity, that is all. The media likes to portray it as these poor uneducated individuals were duped and told how great a deal this was, when in actuallity it was just the opposite, I can get how much cash and what is my payment, sign me up. It is a home people not a credit card.

ran,

It’s plain and simple.

The agent has a fiduciary duty to prevent harm to his client. Or back out..

"The worst has not come down yet, just wait until pay option arms recast, then we'll see the housing market implode"

$2.5 TRILLION of loans will reset in 2007 and 2008. The fun (pain) has only begun...

tkozy,

From your post yesterday, the operative word here is, "steal".  Or we can substitute that with "fraud". However, since we weren't in the room with the principles to this transaction when they whipped this one up we should probably just chalk it up to unadulterated greed on everyone's part.

2239 views. Herbette would be proud… 

VME,

Of Course greed was involved on both sides. But that doesn’t change the facts:

It’s plain and simple.

The agent has a fiduciary duty to prevent harm to his client. Or back out..

TK continues.

This is always going to be the finding of a court.

The agent will have to put forward a affirmative defense to the fleecing of his client.

There's plenty of blame to go around -

Lenders are to blame for loosening their underwriting guidelines too much.

Investors are to blame for buying up pools of mortgages with ANY ol' terms.

Agents are to blame for being irresponsible and not looking after their clients' interest when selling them something they obviously can't afford.

Loan officers are to blame for creating a loan package that relies on the lie covering up their clients' inability to repay the loan.

Buyers/borrowers are to blame for a) not reading what they're signing, b) buying something that they obviously can't afford just so that they can have "the American dream", and c) relying on everybody else to look out for their interests instead of being grown up enough to look out form themselves.

There are no victims here - there's just a lot of people screaming that they're the victims and blaming everybody else.  I grew with siblings, and it's really the same thing.

It’s just that the stinky ole fiduciary duty will get you every time.

There are agents that are less culpable than others. Some that did as they were told.

They need to step up. Get it off their chest. So that those that are the real problem makers. Can serve their time.

3045 veiws..  Is this a record for a 21 hour  post?

LOL.

"There are no victims here - there's just a lot of people screaming that they're the victims and blaming everybody else"., I agree this is a buyer beware system, where the "smart guys" eat the slow learners lunch, and are rewarded for it.

The deal is, if you see a not so bright guy who might fall for the line " you are important and a viable client for a loan"and  I am going to make it happen for you", if  the guy bites, reel him in and boogie.

If you are not smart enough and do not have the education to read all the fine print to distinguish the American dream from the American nightmare, it is your fault and you are your own victim.

tkozy-

Seems like there might be a few people interested in this housing bubble crap. I hope the newspaper does some local stories. I think the same things listed in this story also happened in this town. And I cant wait to see it exposed!

Red,

You sure got some gooooood schoolin….

Ramirez is what's called a "bag holder" in the flipper buisness: the market is dying, so every Calrton Sheets grad who wanted to "get rich quick" by over-leveraging their way into real estate is now stuck with property that won't appreciate anymore (the boom is over), so they must find someone, ANYONE, to sell to. 

These sellers are generally people who waited too long to 'sell and bail' as the market turned last year, so they now must find a greater fool than themselves to save them from their own financial ruin for holding too long!

So who's a good bagholder?  Someone who doesn't follow the market, and is willing to pay too much for a worthless bag o' beans?  How about a foreigner or recent immigrant?  Realtors and brokers have been scouring swap meets, markets, etc, looking for a prey.  Hispanics see someone who speaks Spanish and wears a suit, etc, and then tells them they can afford a home of their own.  The agent says they'll do them a "favor", arranging for a broker who can push the paperwork through to get them in a home of their own.  They tell them all the lines: "Buy now, or you'll be priced out forever", "home ownership is the American Dream", etc.

Licensed "professionals"  have a fiduciary responsibility to the public and the State not to take advantage, but are making out like banditos wearing suits.

Let's see: the real estate agent (6% commish on $700k = $40k; even co-mingling her personal funds to keep payments up in violation of State law, she's STILL way ahead if she wasn't exposed), the mortgage broker (bagged a fat commiss on  the deal, PLUS a  "fatter" yield point spread on a juicy sub-prime loan).    Let's not forget the unmentioned appraiser who may have made his higher fee for "hitting" the numbers needed to make the deal workable.

Another clear winner is the prior owner who bailed at the top of the market last year, milking the fat "phantom equity" in a house they probably only paid $200k for a few years ago.  Not a crime, of course, unless he played more of a role in this (or if the property WAS owned by the principals involved in the deal).

So did Ramirez "win" anything out of all of this? 

Hell, no: he's screwed up his credit (is that an issue for someone who operates in a cash-based economy?).  He's dumped alot of $$$ into a house (that he clearly shouldn't have been allowed to buy in the first place) that he'll never see again.   It's cruel to set people up to fail so spectacularly, especially when the motives are personal profit of so-called "professionals"!

Oh, what about the bank?  Arguably they lost something, but let's remember they still have the house: that's the nice thing about making loans on a collaterialzed asset!  They took a chance by giving loans to anyone who could fog a mirror, and as usual the lenders will avoid the consequences of their risk and shift the costs elsewhere.

So who pays for the "professionals" game? 

YOU DO, the average taxpayer and home buyer!   The majority of Americans are too ignorant to realize they've just funded someone else's real estate scam, since the crime has been diffused to everyone!

You'll pay more in the form of higher property taxes on an over-valued asset (home), you'll pay higher interest rates/points since the appetite for such loans on Wall Street has diminished (hmmm, wonder why?), and most importantly, you'll pay about 2-3x higher price for a home, as the fraud helped sustain the neighborhood comps (and ironically, this also makes it harder for other home sellers to locate a buyer when sales stagnate after the house of cards collapses).  What's worse, you'll also pay for any future bail-outs proposed by retards in Washington (Hillary?)  who fail to understand what happened and who was ripped off!

All of this, so some salesman who dropped out of Junior College can pocket his fat commission to help finance his $500k Mercedes, or Armani suits, and ego...

@@@@

I don't expect people to understand:, they will try to blame the "bag holder", blaming this all on the mexican farm-worker (who whines about how no one spoke Spanish: well, duh, that's what happens when you live in a foreign nation, legally or not!).  Clearly he's no genius (and since when did you expect lettuce pickers to be geniuses?  He's doing manual labor, for crying out loud!), but at least he's smart enough to figure out that he's the mark, the sucker, the stooge: he's the only one who didn't profit from the scheme.

FWIW, this is not a unique incident: it's being played out around the country, with potential trapped fliptards (ALA Casey Serin types) looking desparately for a bag-holder.  Expect more of this, as the market gets uglier as prices continue to plunge.

Here's a good (intelligent) summary of this story:

http://tinyurl.com/yugssl

I mean to impress, tkozy
If I do call 1-800-kiss my a**

All I got was an answering machine...

 

The official language of the United States is ENGLISH. Learn it.

I am building a home in Mexico right now and fully plan on becoming very fluent in SPANISH.

he probably was a straw buyer with some money coming back, which paid for the mortgage for the year and a half. Or, he was  another used victim to feed the sorry ass loan officer/brokers, the New Century of the world. This spells fraud. another victim taken from the lo's predotory lending.

bunch of racist in this blog. Ya lets blame the immagrant. But when he fights for this country, then it's ok for them to be here. bastards!

SoCaMuscle, I hope you do, it will be fun to see you whining in the California when they kick your ass home without a dime of your investment.

It’s pretty interesting how “some people” say this farmer worker is a Mexican or that illegal alien. Let me remind you people that nowhere on this article does it say he is so or speaks of his legal status here, knock yourself down from that “MEXICAN” cloud your used to judging Hispanic people with, the fact that this guy has a Hispanic first and last name and speaks Spanish does not exactly mean he is Mexican he can be form anywhere just in case you did not know places like Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, El Salvador Rico, Guatemala, Nicaragua,  Peru and so many more I can mention but it’s always the Mexicans who do wrong and when it comes to war many of them along with other Spanish speaking countries  are the ones  willing to go and defend a country that is no even theirs while others are too afraid to do so then it’s ok for them to be here, or taking a job picking oranges, and many other things  because people here in this country are too good to get their hands dirty and work in a field so others come and do it  and when there’s no immigrant workers because they have been deported we complain of crops rotting in the fields and blame them for being deported or leaving this country. How can we blame this people for not speaking the language when maybe the highest education they reached was 5^th grade because that’s all their parents could afford in their foreign country, on the other side people here are throwing their education away just because they feel like it when these people would’ve given anything to have the opportunity many of you have to get educated and learn the ENGLISH language but instead send it to waste something they would not waste at all. It’s not his fault for all the predatory lending so many people contributed to and got a good paycheck out of. You’re too good to see other’s mistakes and judge them but you can’t see yours, maybe you are in the same or worst situation than this man. I wonder how much income was stated in his 1003.Banks is guiltier than anything they just choose to look the other way and pretend they never saw anything mind you these are the people we are supposed to trust in a refinance or purchase transaction?

3373 veiws....

 

Frankly the real culprit in all of this is the flood of easy credit that started it all. Starting in 1982 with the onset of 401k's and bank deregulation (and Reaganomics in general), there has been a long-term swell in the stock market. Since then we have had the savings and loan bubble, lesser real estate bubbles, mini-bubbles in hedge funds like LTCM, the Internet stock bubble, and now this mega-housing bubble. It's obvious from a long-term stock chart:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

It is only when prices go up for a long time that people decide a New Era Is Upon Us and sell their souls to drink from the money fountain. Our economy has been poorly managed since Vietnam, but instead of owning up to it, the government has quietly used lax immigration and free trade to keep wages and prices down, while running larger and larger deficits to keep growth trending up. What do all those soldiers overseas do? They protect our dependence on imports and oil! Mike Gravel was right when he said the Military-Industrial complex has permeated our culture -- we hardly even notice it any more. But it's costing us a lot more than we realize.

Public and private debt has skyrocketed under Bush, and it's causing the price inflation that bites you every day at the store or the gas pump. The only GOP candidate who truly understands this issue is Ron Paul, and he slipped it into one of his answers in the MSNBC debate. It is always easier to pressure the bankers to keep interest rates low, than to let the results of poor economic policy be exposed.

The horrible truth is that we've set ourselves up for a world of economic hurt, but like CEOs in denial, for 30 years no one in the White House has been willing to fess up and take the heat. Our own chief accountant has finally had enough and is warning people! The Chinese are happily financing our debt because it helps their own growth -- their people have one of the highest national savings rates in the world, but ours has been negative for two years running. Sooner or later we won't be able to make the minimum payments on the national credit card (hello, baby boomers retiring?) and it's going to be more and more painful to fix the longer we wait.

Reagan-o-nomics, was the beginning of the transformation of Americas economy to the so called, ‘Ownership society‘.

Doesn’t ownership society have a ring of royalty to it. Where are my robe and slippers. Peal my grapes.

But what does ownership mean. Does it mean wealth?

Well not if what you own is not wanted by anyone else. Most Ford Pintos are worthless.

If you seek wealth from ownership. Your fortune depends on the wants of others. Not on your wisdom. Not on your hard work.

When the value of your property begins to slip away. It’s as though your fingers were dipped in lard. Your hands can be as strong as ten men. But your riches will be gone. Only to return if it pleases another.

Stock market crashes. Bubble bursts. How have they performed in your lifetime. Will your fortunes return the same pleasures, will they match that of your Grandparents when you retire?

Long hours. Miserable, sleepless nights are not the same as hard work. But much more damaging to ones health.

Human nature combined with piece work and a commission. Falls prey to greed.

Rainbows and pots of gold. Fortunes counted in pecans.

There is some good to be said about a flat rate and a hourly wage.

And the steady pay check that brings savings at 10% compounded monthly..

*EDITED*  To further explain, our development is a 'partnership' with the TOURISM BOARD of the mexican gov't. I own the dirt fee simple with Stewart Title title insurance. It is also a sustainable development so I feel great about keeping the earth somewhat happy while my investment/gettaway makes me money!

ANON - Don't be an idiot. The Mexican government isn't kicking any foreigners out while taking their property. My property is not a 99 year ground lease. Plus, Mexico needs the foreign investment dollars more than anything. Won't happen!

Thanks for your concern, though.

"whining in the California"?

Socialized real estate development?

And we complain of universal health care here.

3733 views....

My complaint about universal health care is that privatized industries seek profit, not the public good. Free Markets only work best when competition is vibrant and the rule of law keeps businesses honest. Health care, utilities like energy, and other natual monopolies are far more vulnerable to price-fixing and captive-audience price gouging than the Free Market folks want to admit. They are really just hypocrites because they will beg the government for all kinds of market distortion whenever it suits them.

Socialized services would be a lot better if they focused on only the most critical aspects: single risk pool, simple processes that leverage existing administration or require less new bureaucracy, and negating the private industry's preference for profit when it conflicts with the social good. When social services get a bad reputation it is always because they do too much and remove the incentives to avoid waste and freeloading.

America is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have a government sponsored, single payer health system.
And it is The LEAST accessible. MOST Expensive . Ranked only 37th in level of care...

From:

 

The World Health Organization's ranking
of the world's health systems.
Source: WHO World Health Report - See also Spreadsheet Details (731kb) http://www.photius.com/rank...

------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------

Rank Country

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra

34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba

Question     

 So it would appear the WHO assessment not only takes into account quality and accessibility, but fairness of financial contribution. Fair is not an objective term. Is taxing higher income individuals more than lower income individuals for the same health care fair?

 

 

TK continues:

According to Adam Smith, ‘Wealth of Nations’.

Yes, It is in fact a part of a system of the, ‘Redistribution of Wealth’. A necessary requirement for Capitalism to succeed.

Far right Conservatives. Are in indeed some of the worst Adam Smith Capitalists in the World.. (translates to selfish )

Smith Says:

Before I enter upon the examination of particular taxes, it is necessary to premise the four following maxims with regard to taxes in general.

V.2.24
I. The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state. The expence of government to the individuals of a great nation is like the expence of management to the joint tenants of a great estate, who are all obliged to contribute in proportion to their respective interests in the estate. In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the equality or inequality of taxation. Every tax, it must be observed once for all, which falls finally upon one only of the three sorts of revenue above mentioned, is necessarily unequal in so far as it does not affect the other two. In the following examination of different taxes I shall seldom take much further notice of this sort of inequality, but shall, in most cases, confine my observations to that inequality which is occasioned by a particular tax falling unequally even upon that particular sort of private revenue which is affected by it. 

TK Continues:

Just because life is not fair. Does not mean the concept of fairness is devoid of value..

The saying does not have anything to do with:

A struggle to attain fairness. A quest to the mountain top. .

It simple means. You don’t always get to win..

But then I suppose. There is nothing unfair about that…

 

 

Fair is what the Democratic Republic says it is.. In this society. Fair is Walnuts. . Go to the mountains.. Squirrel away your pecans. They are no good in a walnut society..

So much is made of what detractors would like to call a socialized medical system.. How it would be a step toward a loss of freedom in America..

 

 

The goal is not a socialized medical system but rather a single payer system like those used all over the world. How fragile can your freedoms be. If they can vaporize in the presence of good health care.. Of course we can argue the straw man ..

Ideology.

TK continues…

 

 

Absolute Freedom does exist. It is just not one that you will endure or endorse....

It’s called Isolation.

If your freedom is so absolute. How can you express it without imposing un-freedom on others?? Can you affect your own ends. Without affecting my ends?

What if you fail in your quest to your ends. Is any obligation imposed on me? The fact that I must, or must not, watch you struggle? Should it re-enforce my freedom.

Make me laugh. Make me sad? If it makes me do anything.. Am I really free?

I most certainly do not recognize any absolute about a freedom such as that..

The fact that there must be winners and losers. Does not mean the process is unfair.

It is the methods used to determine the winners and losers that determines the fairness..

Now if you don’t like the process. Then you are free to go or stay.. Just cause no harm..

 

 

Better to have one choice in health care…..

Than, to not have a choice, because you are excluded.

That’s Why America is standing proud at #37... Tens of millions of Americans, excluded from any form of health care, other than life support.. And the duration of that life support, determined by committee..

 

 

So much for the idea that Universal health care takes away your power of Choice. America’s health Care power of choice is denied because of financial ability.


I have had broken bones. Hepatitis, herniated disks, torn muscles. Spondyliotheisis, syringomyelia, cancer, fibromylecia. And all the normal sicknesses. Many things that could have killed me. So I consider myself quite lucky.

But luck is no way to run a health care system..