Friday, March 4, 2011

Awkward House Hunting

When we were in Seattle this past weekend, Kate and I met our realtor for the first time and she took us to around six houses to see what we liked and what neighborhoods we wanted to focus on.  About four of the houses were bank foreclosures and one of them actually had a family moving their things out of their house when we arrived.  I found it pretty awkward to be looking at a family's house while they were in the process of moving out because they were evicted. 

Now some of you are probably thinking this is the proper thing to do since they couldn't pay their mortages.  I felt this way earlier as well, but then I read Matt Taibbi's article "Invasion of the Home Snatchers:  How the courts are helping bankers screw over homeowners and get away with fraud".  My entire opinion is changed now.  States, in particular Florida, have set up shady kangaroo courts to deal with a backlog of foreclosure cases.  If the defendent fails to show, the plaintiff (the banks) automatically win even though they have the flimsiest of evidence.  The vast majority of the time when the defendent shows up (and has a lawyer) the bank cannot produce the house note or when they acquired it.  If they do have the note, there are always glaring fabrications on the dates associated with it.  I am not doing this article justice with this brief description.  Before you're quick to judge the next home foreclosure you hear about, read this article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-courts-helping-banks-screw-over-homeowners-20101110

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, that happened to us too (just once, but still). It's so weird...

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  2. And interesting how a majority of the home foreclosures are impacting people of color . . .

    ~paula~

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