I met my new neighbor.

[Don Hines]

The house next door sold recently and I met the new neighbor yesterday evening. Our discussions lead to where we work (at my day job). He is a comercial lending officer for a bank that I see mentioned frequently on BP for their skewed policies. When I told him I was an investor that focuses on rehabs and resales, he said,
"we used to make those kind of loans. We stopped because we found that flippers were taking advantage of people that didn't really qualify for loans."
I asked him to explain that to me. He said these flippers were actually going into parts of town and rehabbing houses that were no more than rental houses and selling them to people that wouldn't otherwise qualify for a loan. Of course I asked him "then how did these people get the loans." The best I could understand from him is if they put a contract on these rental homes then they qualified and they are taken advantage of because they eventually go into forclosure.
So, I asked him if it would be better if the banks and mortgage companies didn't have all of these aggressive programs backed by the government for these poor soles. His veiw point remains that it is the investors fault for selling these homes to people that really don't qualify.
I left before it got heated and with a little better idea of how some people think. I am pretty sure I know whose sign will be in his yard come election time.
Don

[George P.]

Of course it's not the banks' fault!
It's always irresponsible borrowing. Never irresponsible lending.