Article on Brutal Bank Practices Draws Strong Reactions
My newspaper article that appeared this past weekend in the Bay Area News Group elicited a number of strong reactions from readers. In an email, a veteran East Bay real estate attorney said, “I reviewed a contract addendum for buyers that both cancelled all the benefit of the C.A.R. contract, but was also internally inconsistent. But I also pointed out the inverse relationship that often exists between price and terms. They got an unbelievably great price with terrible terms.”
This is a key point too often overlooked by people who think today’s real estate is easy pickings and money in the bank. As a buyer with a bad contract, you could get stuck with unknown problems, e.g., foundation/drainage issues, hidden toxic mold, code violations and/or zoning restrictions, that could turn what appears to be a “steal” into a disaster for you. “Caveat emptor” is more appropriate today than ever.
Another response was a phone call from a long-time, local Realtor who applauded the article for revealing some of the damage being done today by banks. She told me, “I have experienced everything you wrote about.” This agent was very distressed, as am I, about how unacceptable, and sometimes unscrupulous, bank practices have undermined the way real estate licensees do business.
She went on to ask whether we were “tilting at windmills” to try to get banks to behave properly. As I told her, it is amazing and unfortunate that the very lenders who played the dirty tricks that largely led to this crisis, are being bailed out by our taxpayer dollars so they can continue to stick it to people. It appears to me that, from the government’s perspective, the effort to help them survive far outweighs any considerations of whether or not they are operating with integrity.