A New Blog

I just added a link over on the right to a new blog (called "Another F@cked Borrower") that I greatly appreciate and that I think you might like; certainly anyone contemplating an exotic loan to "buy" a typically PoS house at a typically inflated price in Marin should peruse that blog first.

Here is the blogger's write-up about himself and his blog:

I am a Mortgage Banker. I am a wholesale account executive for a major nationwide lender on the subprime side (I ONLY deal with brokers/loan officers, NO contact with borrowers). I have appoximately 30-40 broker offices that I am responsible for servicing. Some offices have 1-2 people, some have 20, my largest one topped out at almost 100. I see lots of loan officers, and I see their subprime loan business (I also see a decent amount of alt-a and a-paper loans).

I also have my financial licenses (series 7, 63, life insurance). The economics major and "financial planner" in me is horrified by the "risks" that people are taking to "own" a home. I am also saddened by the amount of "fraud" and the "get it done by any means possible" attitude in the industry. So that is why I started my blog. An honest, insider opinion of what is REALLY going on out there.

Hopefully I can enlighten people and help them NOT make some of the mistakes I am seeing out there.

This is just in time as lawsuits over these exotic loan types are starting to develop as their rates begin to reset. This is important as California homebuyers are to a very large degree dependent upon them:

"Option ARMs have been especially popular in high-cost markets, such as California. 'The fact the loans are no longer available on such attractive terms...could mean that the boom is ending in some of those markets,' says Arthur Frank."

"Many borrowers have been attracted to option ARMs by the low introductory rate, which is used to set the minimum payment for the first year. Some borrowers say they weren't clearly informed of these features."