My neighbor, "Big Mike", never met a meal he didn't like or a cardio machine he did. I don't really know him, but I know he owned a mortgage company and did real well, but apparently, not well enough.
He bought his house next to me about 5 years ago just before the big runup in real estate in Florida for 550K IIRC. He financed 100% (don't know how he did it, I always had to put down 10 - 20% on my house and my rental houses) and then immediately took out a 100K equity loan (again, somehow, with no equity) and spent that on upgrades. When the real estate crisis hit, he held off for a while, then tried a few infomercial ideas and sent me brochures on his crazy plots, but hasn't actually worked, from what I can tell, for over a year. He had his house up for sale for 6 months for $800K and had an open house every saturday and sunday during that time. Recently, my son met his wife as she was working some low end job fitting high school kids for their school rings.
I guess he couldn't hold off any longer and today is holding his "foreclosure garage sale" today and just about everything is going - big screen tv, couch, beds, big generator... Apparently he will downsize. Fortunately, his kids are in college so they are a little more resilient to the stress and humiliation that the family must obviously be going through.
It is easy to think that he may be part of the predatory and/or fraudulent lenders and naive buyers who caused the mortgage meltdown that is affecting not just US economies but global economies as well. And it is easy to wonder why he didn't prepare for an inevitable correction in the real estate market that would put his business and livelihood at risk. And, maybe he bit off more house than he could chew. But, still, I feel for the dude and it is difficult to see someone else's possessions being carried away in the back of a pickup truck...
He bought his house next to me about 5 years ago just before the big runup in real estate in Florida for 550K IIRC. He financed 100% (don't know how he did it, I always had to put down 10 - 20% on my house and my rental houses) and then immediately took out a 100K equity loan (again, somehow, with no equity) and spent that on upgrades. When the real estate crisis hit, he held off for a while, then tried a few infomercial ideas and sent me brochures on his crazy plots, but hasn't actually worked, from what I can tell, for over a year. He had his house up for sale for 6 months for $800K and had an open house every saturday and sunday during that time. Recently, my son met his wife as she was working some low end job fitting high school kids for their school rings.
I guess he couldn't hold off any longer and today is holding his "foreclosure garage sale" today and just about everything is going - big screen tv, couch, beds, big generator... Apparently he will downsize. Fortunately, his kids are in college so they are a little more resilient to the stress and humiliation that the family must obviously be going through.
It is easy to think that he may be part of the predatory and/or fraudulent lenders and naive buyers who caused the mortgage meltdown that is affecting not just US economies but global economies as well. And it is easy to wonder why he didn't prepare for an inevitable correction in the real estate market that would put his business and livelihood at risk. And, maybe he bit off more house than he could chew. But, still, I feel for the dude and it is difficult to see someone else's possessions being carried away in the back of a pickup truck...