Posted on

You Will Be Serfs! UPDATED!

This was written right before we walked away from Maplehurst and got this beautiful house in Tucker in June 2014. We are happy as clams and have not one single regret about deciding to rent. And we will NEVER buy again. FUCK THAT. Thanks to not buying, we now have investments, a fat savings account and NO DEBT. Buying a house will make you house poor. It’s totally not worth it to me. I’m always amazed when I STILL hear that old saw “renting is throwing away your money.” Really? Well, since we bailed on a $75k underwater house that would NEVER be worth what we paid, we are in the best financial shape of our lives! Seems to me that renting has SAVED us money, not “thrown it away.” But whatever, you suckers want to be indentured to the banks, y’all go right ahead and buy. Ain’t my circus.  – Angela April 2 2016. 

Yesterday we watched some financial revenge porn in the form of the movie Assault on Wall Street. It was FABULOUS. All the asshole brokers got what they deserved – and I don’t mean more money. Then we watched Office Space to round out our day of Fuck This Shit.

We did not get the house we coveted (THANK THE GODS!!) due to various mortgage lender jackassery.

On top of that aggravation, the mortgage guy, Murray, is all about reminding us about how hard it is out there for a pimp of the mortgage industry and how the investors suffered. I held my tongue, but I’m telling you, it was hard not to tell him to fuck right on off. WHY anyone would feel the least bit bad about an industry that broke the United States’ economy, then took trillions MORE of our money and never lost a penny is beyond me. Actually, the banks and mortgage industries are just fine and dandy, thanks for asking. They have shown record profits since the bailouts (read: extortion money).

Speaking of the bailouts and what’s happened since, here’s some reading for you:
We’re almost break even on the bailout. Sept 2013
Why Fannie and Freddie remain a big threat. Aug 2013
Wall Street bonuses to top 2009. Aug 2013

I love how most people in the mortgage industry own at least one rental property. That goes for Realtors®, too. I also love how they can look you in the eye and with a straight face, tell you how hard it’s been for them. RIGHT.

Really, motherfuckers? I fail to see how buying up property for pennies on the dollar to rent back to the people who were fucked in the ass and tossed out on the street by bad and/or underwater loans is “hard”. ??

It is my assertion that the main goal of the mortgage industry is to reduce Americans to being serfs. It is practically impossible to get a loan now (despite all the Obama bullshit about “Making Homes Affordable” with HARP*) and if you manage it, you’ll be saddled with a $200/mo fee (called “insurance” by FHA) for the life of the 30 year loan. That comes to $72,000 of additional fees that go straight to the FHA coffers. In the past, PMI (private mortgage insurance) was only until you gained some equity or refinanced – NO MORE. Now it’s forever on FHA loans. [*HARP is still going on. If you are stupid enough to TAKE an offer of extending your mortgage for another 10 years, you deserve what you get. That is TEN YEARS more interest and mortgage insurance that goes DIRECTLY to the banks and insurance companies. Anyone who takes a HARP refinance on an underwater home is a fucking moron. -A 2016]

And yes, you’ll have an FHA loan unless you have pristine credit and 20% to put down. And don’t think that your parents can help with that down payment. NOPE. You can’t use any gifts for down payments. If you do get a gift, then it must sit in the bank for six months and you have to get written proof of where that money came from. Cash is frowned upon in this brave new world. It is frightening the threats you’ll hear if you have cash. We know, we were threatened because we wanted to use our rainy day cash money for a down payment. You would’ve thought we asked if we could use dead babies.  INSANE.

When real estate crashed, the rich white people and corporations moved in to buy up every available foreclosure as “investment property”. What that means is that most of the good deals that might have been had by first time buyers were snapped up and turned into rental property. This reduced inventory of homes and made it harder to find a home for sale on the low end. It’s now mostly high end homes that a first time owner cannot afford. Now, add that to the near impossibility of getting a home loan in the first place and you are a society of serfs. People who own very little and pay rent to our rich overlords.

What the mortgage industry and its rich white owners aimed to do is push America back to the early 1900s, when the rich were rich and the rest of us were serfs who paid them rent. They were successful in that aim. Home ownership is at an all time low. The economy is stagnant and not looking very promising. There is little job creation.

Fortune: What happens if nothing changes at Fannie and Freddie?
“Without the discipline of a private market, we are in danger of creating another speculative housing bubble, which would again result in massive losses and economic hardship when it bursts.” – Hank Paulson, Fortune magazine, Aug 28, 2013. [linked above]

The 1% have won, my friends. Most Americans have been beaten back to early 20th century standards and no one is doing a thing about it. Rich white men and large corporations have seized the biggest indicator of individual wealth: real estate. Owning a home is the epitome of the American Dream. Thanks to these rich people, who continually get richer, the rest of us are little more than indentured servants. Serfs.

[Take a look at the building industry right now – especially here in Atlanta. All you see are apartments and McMansions being built. NOTHING in between. Moderate housing, like our neighborhood, is on the market for a couple of weeks and the seller gets what they ask. It is insane. There is little available for first time buyers. So people rent.  I don’t see why anyone would want to buy right now, the market for buying kinda sucks unless you have a fat down payment.  -A 2016]

It’s infuriating and demeaning to be reduced to a society with little personal wealth for 99% of its citizens. It’s sickening to see the 1% cheerfully declare the rest of us its serfs. It’s in the background of every pompous, rich landlord’s assurances that it’s OK to rent, listen for it: “You WILL BE Serfs! And you will like it!” “Oligobble our balls!” Which is also pertinent to the Comcast takeover of Time Warner this week. OLIGOBBLE. You’ll take what we give you.

We are bitter and resentful of the way we were treated by these rich fucks in the mortgage industry. We are sick to death of hearing how hard it is for the poor beleaguered banks, investors and corporations.

If you, too, need some revenge porn to lessen your bitterness and resentment, DO rent Assault on Wall Street. It is the story of desperation that SO MANY Americans deal with (it hits on healthcare, housing and investing), but the hero gets to give it back to the fuckers that so deeply deserve it. It won’t change anything, but it’ll damn sure make you feel a bit better.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled serfdom.

Posted on

Another Quickie Update

So the mortgage loan is stalled once again. Apparently the bankruptcy is fine, it’s the second mortgage on this place (that was DISCHARGED) that is causing us to get kicked out again. We’ll know tomorrow or Tuesday one way or the other. If it falls through, then we will be renting for the foreseeable future. And we are fucking FINE with that. The mortgage industry is still just as ridiculous as ever – if not worse – than it was before the crash. Now they can refuse you for any reason in the name of “safe loans”. They can all fuck off and die. I’ve got several rentals lined up just in case.

The stress is pretty bad, but the resentment is worse. We are so bitter and resentful of the whole banking industry right now. And they wonder why we don’t keep all our money in the system? HA!! If this falls through, I may never buy again, just like everyone else. I’ll just rent from all the rich white folks who have benefited from this whole real estate fiasco. Fine. The rich white folks can HAVE IT. I’m SO put out. It’ll be nice to call someone ELSE to fix broken shit anyway. What the fuck ever. Renting is a futile use of money, but the system it set up to push more people to it. Thus enriching the already rich bastards that own 150 rentals. Fuck it and fuck them. Ugh.

We’ll continue to plan for our future, regardless if the “system” helps us or not. We’ve done everything by ourselves for this long, why change now? We’ve go NO backup. Nick’s parents are dead, mine wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire. We don’t have any rich friends, nothing. If we’re going to attempt our dream, then it’s up to us and NO ONE will get in the way of that. We don’t fit the system and the system doesn’t fit us, that’s clear.

That’s where we are: stressed out, resentful and making alternative plans. ::maniacal laugh! maniacal laugh!::

Posted on

Let the games begin!

[We did NOT buy a house, thank the gods. We decided to rent and I thank my lucky stars EVERY DAY that we did. Fuck home ownership. It is a neverending black hole for your money. We’ll never go through this shit again. HAPPY RENTERS!! – Jan 28 2017]

I like our Realtor, I do, but in general, all the people involved in the buying and selling of real estate bug the shit out of me.

It’s partly because I grew up with a Realtor/builder father, I suppose. He would RAIL about the dumbasses he had to deal with. I never really believed him until I bought my first house and am now looking at another. The mortgage industries are run by squirrels, I tell you: SQUIRRELS. And they’ve ALL lost their nuts.

After the debacle with the agent (NOT a Realtor©) that sold us this house, I was prepared for more of the same: ignorance, bad leads, blocking the sale, etc. Luckily for me, I found the best Realtor© in Atlanta. TOOOOTALLY different experience. Beth is awesome and we couldn’t have done this deal without her. When I showed up at her house to drop off the earnest check, she took one look at my stressed out self and poured me wine. THAT is someone who gets me! LOL

The mortgage people, on the other hand, are so clueless that you spend all your time trying to figure out what, exactly, it is that they want you to do. The processor (not the originator, who is OK) we’re dealing with can’t read bank statements, apparently. It has been a frustrating and unpleasant experience with the mortgage. Not unexpected, but much worse than anticipated.

For instance, we were given several docs to fill out and sign for the mortgage company. Our mortgage officer is awesome and she feels the industry is ridiculous like I do. So one doc is called the “Consumer Explanation Letter”. This is a document listing the bankruptcy (and I guess other judgements against you if you have them) and the associated accounts affected by the bankruptcy – such as the mortgage. What they want you to do is give them a one sentence explanation of WHY you filed bankruptcy. Like it’s any of their goddam business. So for us, I totally blame Bank of America, who closed all our open credit and lowered our cards so as to completely shut us down and ruin our credit without provocation. It’s not like we missed payments, we did not. So that’s what we put. Fuck BoA and fuck the mortgage industry [we did not add that last sentence, although it is implied].

The mortgage people also cannot understand how a credit union works. With a CU, unlike a bank, the account will have only one name on it, even if it’s a joint account. The reason is that CUs have members who are shareholders, not clients, and each account is ONE SHARE. So you can’t have two names on one share. Makes sense, right? Well, not apparently to the mortgage industry. Nope, they are completely confused by this and want all this extra documentation proving that a) it’s really a joint account and b) I won’t take all the money out and run away with it. ?? I shit you not. Because if you don’t use a goddam BANK like god intended, then you are a communist criminal.

Fuck the banking system and fuck the mortgage system. Neither has changed one single iota since ruining the economy AND getting TRILLIONS in bailout money. They are still showing record profits and now they can treat borrowers EVEN WORSE than they did before in the name of “trying to make loans more secure.” Read: “trying to make sure we make as much money as possible off the poor sods who need house loans.” It’s absolutely disgusting.

Fun fact: FHA loans, which have always had big insurance payments tacked on for a few years, are now engineered with expensive mortgage insurance built in for the life of the loan. $200 x 360 months (30 yr) = $72k. That is 72 THOUSAND DOLLARS extra you’ll pay with an FHA loan. You could buy a second house with that! And this is “helping” Americans buy a home how, exactly? Oh, yes, because it allows someone who’s bankrupted to buy again in 2 years. Nevermind that people bankrupted because of BANKS in the first place… Our fucking payment on a $183k loan is over $1250/mo with the FHA insurance. !! That is too much for a $183k loan! So now we are overburdened by this extortion and we’ll have to go through ANOTHER loan process to refinance and get rid of the goddam FHA loan in a few years. Great. FUCK THE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY.

So, as we continue onward towards getting a new pad, we’ll try to not kill the mortgage people no matter how much they need killin’. Eyes on the prize!! We just want it to be over, now, please.

Posted on

Americans are sheeple

It’s clear to me that Americans will bend over and take whatever is given to them. I think that is the root of all the problems that this country has: the inability of Americans to DO anything more than whine.

Americans whine about being molested by the TSA, yet do nothing to stop it. The TSA supposedly got rid of the nudie scans, but you can bet they won’t get rid of the backscatter xray machines all together because Americans just accept this violation of civil rights without protest. It’s easier than being delayed or actually having to say I OPT OUT. Whine, whine, that’s SO HARD.

Americans whine about no healthcare, yet are willing to allow the government to mandate that we pay private companies pretty much whatever they want in lieu of ACTUAL healthcare.

Americans whine about pollution by utilities, yet allow them (Southern Company, I’m looking at YOU) to continue using coal fired plants and refuse to change. All the while, raising rates continuously in the name of “innovation”. Right. Meanwhile, there’s no real use of solar or wind turbines in the US. Why? Well, that would stop the utilities making money hand over fist and lessen the kickbacks to politicians. That’s just crazy talk!

Americans pay 10x more for 100x slower internet speeds than the rest of the world, yet do nothing to end the oligopolies that are keeping things just like they are. Oligobble our balls!

Ugh. I’m just really put out with the bullshit today. It all started with AT&T being completely incapable of changing an account from consumer to business. It has been a MONTH. It’s finally in there, yet I can barely log in to the goddam control panel. Why? Because AT&T’s shitty website has cache issues. Jeeze. Dude I admin for pays that piece of shit company almost $300/mo for 5 phones and they refuse to even give him a minor iPhone upgrade as a bonus. It’s crazy! Why more Americans simply refuse to use AT&T is beyond my comprehension. I wouldn’t use AT&T if they were the last phone company on earth. I’d just use email. The level of SUCK of AT&T should not be tolerated, yet people just suck it up and keep paying the excessive bills because it’s easier than actually DOING something about it.

GODS. //end sheeple rant

Posted on

Wells Fargo: Eat a BAG of Dicks!

I just wasted about an hour and a half on the phone with fucking Wells Fargo. What a useless bunch of twats. After calling 4 different numbers, being in 5 different queues and talking to five people, this last guy pretty much sums up why I think the banks can SUCK IT.

Wells Fargo: “…unless your house appraises for $75k, Fannie Mae will not offer you any sort of refinancing. They offer ONLY 125% refinancing and your house would have to appraise at $75k.” [Which means: we are not eligible for any help whatsoever and neither is anyone else whose property is more than 25% underwater. VERY helpful, yah.]

I: “Well, how about I offer you $75k for a house worth $50k and we split the difference?”

WF: “Who eats the $20k?”

I: “Wells Fargo, that’s who! $20k ain’t a pimple on the ass of WF!”

WF: “If we did that for everyone, we’d be out of business in about 4 minutes!”

I: CLICK

O RLY? Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae, who received BILLIONS of bailout money from MY TAXES, can’t afford to help anyone whose house value has dropped more than 25%? OMG. I’ve heard it all, now.

This is why this country is in the shitter. The banks AND Fannie Mae (government) do not give a rat’s ass about the rank and file. And YES, they would rather write off abandoned properties than keep someone in them, which would allow for neighborhoods to come back. But who cares about neighborhoods? Just let the homes be empty so the banks get PAID.

This total and complete disconnect with PEOPLE and NEIGHBORHOODS is the issue. This total and complete disregard for rebuilding is why people (like us) are just saying FUCK IT and walking away. Which is what we’ll end up doing in the end. I will not pay $93k for a house valued at $50-60k. I will not do it. And Wells Fargo/Fannie Mae can just have it the fuck back. Good luck getting your $93k then, assholes. [Maplehurst ended up being worth about $40k, which made it $80k underwater. NOT SORRY we walked. -A ]

What an absolute FARCE. I am seriously dumbfounded by the attitude of that asshole at WF. It’s like WE are the assholes for buying a home in the first place. WTF?

Enjoy your losses, WF. We won’t be here forever and we will NOT pay this mortgage forever. Believe it.

Just damn.

Addendum: I also got turned down by Atlanta Legal Aid cuz we too rich. Riiight. All I got left is talking to some referred lawyer and stop paying. I vote stop paying. The lady at ALA said if we were 6 mo behind on the mortgage, we’d qualify for no less than 6 different plans, but since we’re current, NADA. So currently, you are rewarded for NOT paying rather than trying to work things out. Got it.

This is seriously FUCKED UP.