Comments on The P-Town Snarker: Peoria Housing Authority: The Real Issue

Love it. Education is a wonderful thing. But once ...

2006-05-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Love it. Education is a wonderful thing. But once you're educated, you move on. I'm assuming you don't take every contract back to your law professors for review, right?

The fact that this guy couldn't even tell he was getting two loans makes me wonder if he was even in the same room.

Now, if there's a personal relationship between the lender and the PHA advisor...then, sure, the whole deal stinks to high heaven. But I'm not ready to absolve the guy signing his name. He wasn't signing anyone else's name -- just his. That means it was his responsibility to actually look at what he was reading.

Truth in Lending documents aren't all that hatefully complicated. There's a big chart at the top of the page that shows how much I'm getting, how much interest I'll be paying (as a percentage) and how much the total out-of-pocket will be by the end of the loan.

"He then depended on them to read and understand h...

2006-05-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

"He then depended on them to read and understand his paperwork for him"

Not so much with homebuying, but I'm a lawyer and there are SEVERAL things in this life where the contracts are so complicated I can't make heads or tails of them, particularly our health insurance.

For someone without an education, I can hardly imagine what a nightmare these documents must be. Even if they read them carefully, would they be able to decode them?

In North Carolina there was a credit union called Self Help, that did mortgages for a lot of low-income and section 8 and Habitat for Humanity buyers. Conventional wisdom says low-income buyers default a lot more often. Self Help required mortgagees (and small business loanees, for that matter) to attend small classes/seminars where mortgages (or other loans) were explained in detail and the borrowers were given tools to assess their financial situation and information in plain language about what to do in case, say, they couldn't make a payment.

They had the lowest mortgage default rate in the state - lower than banks who only lent to middle class buyers. It turns out a little education goes a long way.

Exactly right, Snarkelicious. I've had the opportu...

2006-05-25T10:56:00.000-05:00

Exactly right, Snarkelicious. I've had the opportunity to be in the 'hot seat' (buying a home) several times, with several different lenders. Not only does all the paperwork state exactly what you're getting into, but the lender most generally takes the time to explain it...in excruciatingly boring detail.

I know that there are underhanded lending institutions out there, but I find it hard to believe that most reasonably intelligent people can't tell the difference.

If you're too stupid to actually read what you're signing or to understand the explanations without asking any questions, you deserve what ya get.

Ignorance is no excuse.

That goes double for those who believe that they're entitled and to be treated fairly in the process.