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So Glad To Be Out Of The Mortgage Industry

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  • #1

    So Glad To Be Out Of The Mortgage Industry

    Was pouring a few back this weekend, and for whatever reason this nightmare jumped into my skull.

    A little background: I worked in the mortgage industry for ten years, and finally got out in February 2008 when it just became too ridiculous for words (increasing hoops to jump through with guidelines, entitlement whores asking for more and more, you get the idea).

    So, one day I'm working on this loan for a highway patrolman in South Carolina, and I just got his appraisal. Bad news: it came in $100k less than estimated (mind you, this was during the beginning of the end for American home prices).

    Me: Hello, Mr. Unrealistic? I just got your appraisal in, and would like to discuss it with you.
    SC: Well, howdy, Wade! What's the good word?
    Me: Unfortunately, your home's appraisal came in at $XXX.
    SC: WHAT!?!?! How in the hell do you !!!ELEVENTY!!!

    Right, how in the hell do "I." Like I'm the one who actually did the appraisal. Like I'm the one who determines market trends. Like I'm the one who bought a house I can't afford and am trying to take money out that I'll never be able to re-pay in order to take a vacation I don't need.

    SC: You sent an appraiser who doesn't know ANYTHING about our part of the state!

    True, but appraiser's needn't necessarily KNOW "your part of the state." They can learn everything they need about "your part of the state" by reseraching MLS, current listings, and recently closed sales. Yes, some people will disagree with me on this, but numbers don't lie. If you are trying to refinance for $500,000 and your next-door neighbor just sold for $175,000, good luck justifying your value as "reasonable and common for the area."

    So then, I hear a noise in the background which I take to be a cell phone.

    SC: Hang on a minute! Yeah? Yeah? I'm gonna have to call you back - I've just been IN-SULTED!!!

    Let's review what an insult really is. I say something negative about your mother, that's an insult. I spit on your grave, that's an insult. I mock your religion/ethnicity/whatever, that's an insult. Saying your house isn't worth what you thought it was is just plain, stark reality.

    SC: I've got a figure from my neighbor's property showing what it's REALLY worth!
    Me: Okay, send it in to me and I'll appeal for higher value.

    A little later, I receive his figures in my email. Upon printing them out, I discover not only is it for a vacant lot nearly twelve times the size of his property, but it's also from a year prior to the appraisal, during which A LOT can happen in the real estate market.

    I called him back.

    Me: Unfortunately, we won't be able to use this data. However, it's still possible to do the loan you want with the value as it is.
    SC: I'll think about it....

    He never called back. Nor did I make any effort to reach him.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Ouch. I'm glad you're out of it, and thank you for making sure I never go into it.

    I'm so glad I like where I live now...real estate is a game I don't want to play---reGARDless of how wonderful the market is.
    If there’s one thing women love, it’s the guy that just can’t seem to find the line that divides “Ha Ha” and “Stacey, get your purse, we’re leaving before he comes back.”.

    --Gravekeeper

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    • #3
      Oh, man. That is hard. People get very illogical when pricing their homes. It's like they have a blind spot for reality in that one area.
      The best karma is letting a jerk bash himself senseless on the wall of your polite indifference.

      The stupid is strong with this one.

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      • #4
        The key thing people don't understand is that land is worth what someone will pay for it.

        People think land has an intrinsic value. Land (other than resource land*) has no intrinsic value, only perceived value. It's worth what people will pay for it, no more.

        Houses have a value partially based on the cost of replacing the buildings, fittings and fixed furnishings with equivalent value stuff at current prices - but also based on how fashionable the existing building layout, fittings and suchlike is. And the condition of it all. And on how much people are willing to pay.



        * I'm counting farmland, mining land, and any other land where the land itself can produce saleable goods as 'resource land'. Such land has a value based on the value of the goods: so land with excellent rainfall and frequently renewed topsoil is high-value farmland, and worth a heck of a lot. Though probably less than land with high-grade copper ore near the surface layers.

        Residential land, naturally, doesn't have this sort of intrinsic value.




        People just don't *get* that. They think of house+land as having some sort of value inherent in the house-and-land itself, and get distressed to discover that their home's value is what people will pay for it.
        Seshat's self-help guide:
        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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        • #5
          Congrats on getting out of that stressful environment. That's the last thing you need in this day & age!
          The universe is mostly empty space, and so is your job. ~Dilbert

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          • #6
            I used to work loan servicing. My last job was Mortgage Industry, too, but I was IT there. I liked it, even Customer Service, but yeah, that's part of the attitude that inflated the bubble so much.
            The Case of the Missing Mandrake; A Jude Derry, Sorceress Sleuth Mystery Available on Amazon.

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            • #7
              That guy sounds like the customers I used to get (2005-2008) who would claim that their computers were "brand new" and give me specs for something at least ten years old. They refused to accept that times changed and that their computers needed to be upgraded or replaced if they wanted to keep up with current software.

              It's the concept of change that defeats some of these people. Combine a fear of change with a customer-is-always-right attitude, and you've got one big mess to deal with.

              Quoth Seshat View Post
              People just don't *get* that. They think of house+land as having some sort of value inherent in the house-and-land itself, and get distressed to discover that their home's value is what people will pay for it.
              I think you've got it about right, there, Seshat. I intend to buy a house for a place to live, not for an investment from which I expect to get back a huge loan or a large profit. I also expect to pay approximately what I think it's worth, and if I can't, then I'll find a different house to buy.
              I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
              - Bill Watterson
              My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
              - IPF

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              • #8
                Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
                That guy sounds like the customers I used to get (2005-2008) who would claim that their computers were "brand new" and give me specs for something at least ten years old. They refused to accept that times changed and that their computers needed to be upgraded or replaced if they wanted to keep up with current software.

                It's the concept of change that defeats some of these people. Combine a fear of change with a customer-is-always-right attitude, and you've got one big mess to deal with.
                Add in the fact that a lot of computers are "obsolete" by the time you actually get them home, and that people (mostly from generations that grew up during/just after WWII) still have the "it should be good for years" attitude. (My parents are finally relpacing the dinosaur console TV in their living room, that's at least as old as I am, because it's dying slowly, and the tech has said he can't find the parts to repair it anymore. )
                Any day you're looking down at the dirt instead of up at the dirt is a good day.

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                • #9
                  It kills me to see these articles in the paper about how some local small-time builder / real estate "Investor" talks about how tough times are and how he can't sell some McMansion for $800k, even though it is "worth" $1.1M.

                  Haven't any of these folks paid any attention to two of the most basic rules of commerce?:

                  1) What it cost you to buy/make something has little to do with what somebody else is willing to pay to buy it off of you.
                  2) Something can be worth whatever you want to say it is worth if you hold onto an asset. (Within reason and tax guidelines.) However, when you want to sell something, it is worth only what somebody else is willing to pay for it. Not a penny more.

                  SirWired

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