This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Couple Lives In $1.3 Million, 4,900 Square Foot Home For Five Years Without Making A Single Mortgage Payment
Wonder how Americans can afford to buy millions of iGadgets, a second LCD TV for the shoe closet, and eat at restaurants more than almost any time in the past despite sliding personal income? Simple - increasingly fewer pay the biggest staple bill in a US household: their mortgage. The following story of Keith And Janet Ritter, who have lived in their Fort Washington, MD $1.29MM, 4,900 square foot McMansion for 5 years (which they purchase with no money down) without ever making a single mortgage payment, and who are not even close to being evicted, may explain much about the way US society currently operates, and why other perfectly responsible and hard-working taxpayers (who do have to pay for their mortgage) continue to fund tens of billions in Fannie and Freddie losses who are first on the hook to absorb the implicit losses by allowing families such as the Ritters to live in perpetuity without paying, and the banks to keep said mortgage on the books at par without any impairments.
The Washington Post has more on this absolute horror story of a case study of just how busted the USSA has become:
The eviction from their million-dollar home could come at any moment. Keith and Janet Ritter have been bracing for it — and battling against it — almost from the moment they moved into the five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot manse along the Potomac River in Fort Washington.
In five years, they have never made a mortgage payment, a fact that amazes even the most seasoned veterans of the foreclosure crisis.
The Ritters have kept the sheriff at bay by repeatedly filing for bankruptcy and by exploiting changes in Maryland’s laws designed to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Those efforts to protect homeowners have transformed Maryland’s foreclosure process from one of the country’s shortest to one of the longest. It now takes on average 634 days to complete a foreclosure in Maryland, compared with 132 days in Virginia.
“The market won’t fix itself,” said Anne Norton, Maryland’s deputy commissioner for financial regulations. “By the time it does, how many homeowners will be churned up and spit out by the machine?”
Critics, including economists and lenders, blame the state’s go-slow approach for a growing backlog of foreclosures and a weak-to-nonexistent recovery in home prices. To them, the system puts too much emphasis on helping individual homeowners and not enough on quickly clearing the market of foreclosures so prices can rebound and hard-hit communities can recover. And they say it also creates opportunities for abuse by those determined to drag the process out for as long as possible.
“How is it people can stay in a house for five years without ever making a mortgage payment?” said Thomas A. Lawler, a former senior vice president at Fannie Mae who now runs his own consulting firm in Loudoun County. “That’s a screwed-up process. It’s an example of how the process is broken.”
The Ritters, who bought their house for $1.29 million with almost no money down, are hardly representative of the vast majority of Maryland’s distressed homeowners.
During the boom, they set out to become mini real estate moguls, buying properties and flipping them for a profit. In the process, Keith Ritter, 54, went from being on probation for bankruptcy fraud and making minimum wage to being a successful real estate investor and landlord with a six-figure income. Then, when the housing market tanked five years ago, the couple found themselves facing multiple foreclosures.
The Ritters have tried to negotiate different payment arrangements with their lender to save their posh home near National Harbor, they said, but to no avail.
“It was never our intention to get here and never make a mortgage payment,” Keith Ritter said. “We don’t believe in living for free.”
But he and Janet, a 51-year-old real estate agent, make no apology for using every tactic available to them to stay in their house, including challenging the foreclosure sale in court, requesting mediation and claiming they had a tenant living with them. Their adversaries, they argued, are giant financial institutions with armies of lawyers that are out to make as much money as possible at the expense of homeowners.
“When a bank does all it can to save itself, that’s good business,” Keith said. “When a homeowner does the same thing, he’s called a deadbeat.”
And that, ladies and gents, is why this country is fucked.
Meet the Ritters:
"Keith and Janet Ritter inside their home in Fort Washington, Md. In five years, they have never made a mortgage payment, a fact that amazes even the most seasoned veterans of the foreclosure crisis."
"Janet Ritter in the dining area of their Fort Washington home. The
Ritters make no apology for using every tactic available to them to stay
in their house, including challenging the foreclosure sale in court and
requesting mediation."
"Keith Ritter has a business, Beat It Movers, that involves eviction services, property preservation and cleaning of foreclosed homes. Here, he checks out some ceiling damage in one such home in Fort Washington. Ritter gets the irony of working for some of the same banks that have foreclosed on him. But he has to make money somehow. “All I know is real estate,” he said."
Casa de Ritter:
"The Ritter's Fort Washington home. They have kept their home for so long by repeatedly filing for bankruptcy and by exploiting changes in Maryland’s laws designed to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure."
"Interior of Keith and Janet Ritter's Fort Washington home. Efforts to protect homeowners have transformed Maryland’s foreclosure process from one of the country’s shortest to one of the longest. It now takes on average 634 days to complete a foreclosure in Maryland, compared with 132 days in Virginia"
And when all else fails, beg god for debt forgiveness: "Bible verses are marked that pertain to debt and forgiveness on a table in the Ritters’ home in Fort Washington."
Then again, who needs god when you have hope and change... for some.
»
- 86488 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Touche. Well argued. However, greed is evil. The only good it does is to provide the means to its own destruction. Same as it ever was...
We are all commies on ZH now!
The only greed that hurts is the greedy hands of government who plunder the honest bread from the hands of the productive.
Self interest, acted out by the honest broker, is the invisible hand that makes the system capitalism or "freedom" work. Why else are hundreds of people at the Giant Grocery Store preparing fresh food for me every day at still cheap prices? Is that greed? Is Giant greedy for fulfilling me needs and keeping me from starving to death? Go ahead and condemn them Comrade!
Your mom says to stop playing with your invisble hand.
Don't be telling that to The Limerick King.
Greed is the desire to feed oneself. Without greed, everyone dies.
If greed is evil, then babies are evil, because they think only of themselves, and want nothing but to fulfill their needs, and will do anything in their limited power to do so.
In a society of free adults, greed is regulated by fear. Desire to gain is tempered by the desire not to lose.
Greed is good, but only in the presense of the moderating factor of fear. If there is no fear of loss for risky ventures, THIS happens.
Greed is the desire to feed oneself
Disagree. The desire to feed oneself comes first from sustenance - the need to live. That is not inherently destructive.
Greed is the pursuit of excess. It metastacizes from a desire to own and control one's own things into a desire to control others' stuff. It is inherently destructive.
You have defined greed to be inherently destructive. It is not.
Further, you have defined greed to be the pursuit of excess. But it is not. Greed is an emotion, not an action. People who go to excess based on that emotion do so because there is no fear. If they are able to hurt others without fear, it is because there is something wrong with society. A decent society doesn't allow a person to harm another without repercussions.
No emotion is inherently destructive. Only actions are.
To demonize greed is to demonize oneself, which IS self-destructive. Every society which has done so has suffered, because you can't get rid of such emotions, you can only choke them down and allow the sociopaths who feel no need to reign in their greed the ability to take what they want from anyone.
Greed is fear. It's being scared that no amount of "good" is sufficient. As if good only represents things which may be counted and monitized. Babies are not evil. That's silly. They're the demand side of the equation, and parents are the supply. In reality, babies supply intangible good which fully meets parents needs and makes the transaction "whole". It's a constant interchange of demand and supply, based on tangible and intangible "good".
You really beleive that? When you see a hundred dollar bill laying on the street, you feel fear?
Come off it. That's like saying love is a hatred of being alone.
Which is why sociopaths are so often CEO's.
The corporate structure is sociopathic, so it is natural that sociopaths do well there.
A corporation is obligated to provide maximum profit BY ANY MEANS NECCESSARY or the investors can sue. Don't try to tell me they don't, because that happened to a good friend of mine.
This is why so many corporations break the law. They find that the fines they must pay are much less than they make from breaking those laws.
Unregulated greed does not occur in a healthy society as cultural mores preclude it. You are describing and characterising Rands writings into a tableau of extreme cultural rot(US) and then exclaiming the failure of an ideal based upon the rot not the ideal. Love the limericks by the way, pure genius..
You do realize you fund either case, right?
________________________________________
Who is that you? Anyone using the USD? Quite a large base, isnt it?
You do realize you fund either case, right?
Apparently Tyler doesn't know the banks don't lend money.
Technically the loan does not exist and it was never funded, it's a fiction of law. The illusion of the system is that it comes from everyone, but you can't get funding from funding that does not exist. In the end, the funding is fiction and people have to lie to say they received a loan to keep the illusion going.
Is that you Karl? Just the right amount of sanctimonious know it all in a snarky package.
Where is the note? Where is the mortgage or deed of trust? Why can't the bank foreclose? Because someone is using the law to fight a bank claim, they are somehow at fault? Can't find the party funding? Can't say how many times the obligation has been sold so there is no more obligation except to the bank that sold it the last time?
Law is a bitch.
Can't find the party funding?
The promissory note is deposit into the account from which the bank draft the check to pay the seller. There certain isn't any funding from the bank, as the bank is statutory prohibited from lending their own credit. There is no real funding, it's an illusion. It's all in the Federal Reserve's book Modern Money Mechanics.
Eh, we fund less than half of it, since they just print or borrow most of the money nowadays anyways.
And anyone with two brain cells to rub together has gold or silver to protect from that.
If human beings were angels, the form of government wouldn't matter. But since we are not angels, we must adopt non-perverse incentives to make people stand on their own. That includes individuals and businesses.
How about saying it is wrong for both corporations and individuals to do it? Greed is greed, whether displayed by a corporation or an indivdual.
I agree. My point was simply to highlight the double standard we are conditioned to apply. I am sick and tired of hearing lying cheating "amoral" corporations, as well as "our" fearless leaders, lecturing me on my "moral" duty.
Sorry, but I don't bite on the shark chum any more.
I don't know what you mean by shark chum....but overall I think we are in agreement, I don't apply that double standard to corporations and the "amoral" corporations disgust me as well as "our" leaders and "our" government disgust me. I hold out no hope that things will ever get better concerning governement and our predicament of being stuck in the sewer in my life time. People like this article is describing recieve no pass from me.
By shark chum I meant the art of promoting polarizing subjects to keep the slave masses bickering among themselves.
These people receive no pass from me either. But I am always amazed to hear people act disgusted when they hear about people such as this gaming the system while at the same time proclaiming that if only we reduced the corporate tax rate or top personal income tax rate these poor rich(er) people would invest their money and "make" jobs etc etc etc etc.
So am I to assume that when the top personal income tax rate was north of 50% and the top corporate rate was much higher than it is now, that no one put their money to work? Amazing!
/sarc
The rich people/corporations put more of their money to work when tax rates were higher. Investment in capital lowered their net incomes/profits and thus they could lower their the amount of taxes paid. Low tax rates are thus paradoxically a disincentive to invest in capital formation, and incentivize unproductive profit taking.
Absolutely. Walking away from a mortgage that is under water is one thing. Pulling this s*** is another. These people are no better than the bankers committing fraud. Lamp posts for all of them.
What if.... these people, for 5 years with never making a payment, sheltered and fed homeless people?
What if....these people, for 5 years with never making a payment, ran a meth lab?
What if I hire you at 8am to work all day for $100 and at 3pm hire another person and also pay them $100? What's that to you?
It's not about who they are, its about what they do, who they harm, who they help. That they are in that house and some special purpose vehichle trust was fed their signature and they took advantage of it is nobody's business but theirs, really. If they cause damage, its on their heads.
Who strategically defaults? Who brings suit against the fraudulent money lenders? Who takes advantage?
It is wrong for both, but let's be honest. Corporations have far more resources to play the game.
Very cool!! I was busy writing my limerick while you were posting this pazmaker. Needless to say I agree whole-heartedly!
Corporations are People!
--Mittens
Corporations are "Persons"...not people. Il y a une différence.
And people are "Persons", too, but not the other way round.
If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying. That's the only lesson here. If you aren't benefitting from the unethical behavior then you are being abused by it.
Get with the program. If you aren't pulling 150K+ either as a bureaucrat for the Feds or as some kind of banker or lobbyist whore, you are a slave.
What would motivate this couple to go public?
There has to be more to this story, CD.
The simple fact that they run this "Beat It Movers" outfit makes it a perfect PR gem for the foreclosure industry.
I doubt very much that ZH "cherry-picked" this story to make bankers look like victims; that would be out of character.
I can't say the same for Washingon Post.
I now see the light. Bang a Prague whore then circle some Bible verses. Noted.
The US borrows at zero percent with debt of $15.5 trillion and unfunded liabilities of $117.9 trillion and these are growing at $7.1 trillion a year. That home is only $ 1.3 million. That is just 5.8 seconds worth of growth in US debt and unfunded liabilities. Free money for everyone.
Welcome to the American dream.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
“When a bank does all it can to save itself, that’s good business,” Keith said. “When a homeowner does the same thing, he’s called a deadbeat."
Exactly.
I think the difference in this case is THEY HAVE NEVER MADE EVEN 1 PAYMENT. Not One. I would assume this was planned from the very beginning. They planned on "flipping" this house out and it did not work.
I am sure if you went back in time and looked at their finances, they probably had plenty of money to make at least 1 payment but chose not to. They hoped to flip the house out faster than it could be foreclosed on.
I think "deadbeat" fits in this case. To me it seems very pre-meditated from the get go to never make any payment at all. That is completely different for other circumstances where someone loses a job, company cuts salary/hours, or even the whole real estate market goes to shit and you say "im not paying anymore for something that is worth 50% of what it was just 2 years ago when I bought it." Those I totally get. Never making even 1 payment is 100% planned ahead of time by these scammers.
it really is very simple. i'd love to see what they've been purchasing on their credit cards. think they are making any payments on those either?
obama CAN NOT HAVE IT. he has to keep printing money so these people, on 'paper' (that haven't and won't ever pay back a cent) keep buying gas and cars and tv's and i-toys. if that house is that much in the whole, i promise you they are 50 or 60k credit card in the whole (with previous 10 or 20k forgivens already). that is our system.
if the bank played its role, and evicted them, the "scam" would be over, "justice" served.
yet it's THEIR fault for continuing to live in the house.
iPads for everyone!
" Broke niggas make the best crooks" The Luniz
+5 Tyler
There is no loan, there is a contractual obligation spread out over 12-months by X amount of years. If this couple were in a different state they would have had the house free and clear but in Maryland there is a 12 year limit.
Banks do not lend money.
i think this story confirms that as fact......the banks did not ever loan any money.......everyone should do the same as these people, but i guess they are afraid (of what i have no idea)
I always said after the mortgage mess that this country needs a day of Jubilee.
It seems that we are getting there, paying your mortgage is now optional.
The "have-nots" are growing in number. At some point the "have's" who pay all the taxes so the others can benefit will revolt. We just are not there yet.
It will get there - its close but probably still a few years away. The breaking point will be when 100% of the tax dollars collected for cities/municipalities goes toward pubic service pensions and healthcare, leaving 0 for anything else. And then they come with the"Its for the kids" and "We need police" bullcrap to try to double tax rates. When the public realizes more and more of the tax dollars are squandered or passed out like monopoly money and they are getting less and less return for any tax payments, the revolt will start.
The only way to appease this once it starts is to wipe out the "benefits" that are sucking all the money in order to get the payments to continue again. That will likely cause massive "problems". I would suggest that owning a stockpile of bullets might be wise.
We're getting there quicker than you think. I see my peers quitting 6 figure jobs and dropping out of the system of debt based indentured servitude. We don't want to work for 30 years to pay for some Boomer's overpriced shit shack on .2 acres. We'd rather teach English in China, live a nomadic life style, travel around South America, etc.
The system has failed. Fuck the system.
V.I. Lenin "The middle peasants" 1919
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzf3FRSbEUk&feature=related
" ... Every measure proposed by the communist government must be regarded merely as advice, as a suggestion to the middle peasants, as an invitation to them to accept the new order. ...
Only by co-operation in the work of testing these measures in practice, finding out in what way they are mistaken, eliminating possible errors and achieving agreement with the middle peasant-only by such co-operation can the alliance between the workers and the peasants be ensured. This alliance is the main strength and the bulwark of Soviet power; this alliance is a pledge that socialist transformation will be successful, victory over capital will be achieved and exploitation in all its forms will be abolished."
Heck, we should all live like this.
Yeah, it's easier to be a resilient consumer than I thought.
American dream of the New American Century, bitches.
Is this another relative of obama's?
relatives of Peggy Joseph...
Those two look like a couple of monkeys.
Tylers...you publish this?
not much of a fighter, are you? Get in there and swing, you fucking limp wrist tattle-tale.
You need protection from language go back to DU or Huffbag.. We are not here to protect your delicate lady like sensibilities; this is fight club. If he says something you disagree with enough to fight then fight, don't ask Tyler to do it for you pussy bitch..
Throw out an idea red arrow boy, I'll box your ears with it...
If they ever get kicked out, it'll be rayciss...
Niggers Inc. voted Obama 95 to 1.
It aint racism, it's fucking business.
I only vote for white men.
Why?
Same reason blacks only vote for non-whites. I'm just as racist as they are.
I'd vote for a black man that shares the same philosphies as Ron Paul.
Why not?
Well, the last white guy was such a keeper, can't see what Obamas skin colour has to do with anything.
Everyday I read in ZH, FU banksters!
Now these 2 coloured folks are doing exactly that and suddenly this site looks like a KKK convention.
So FU banksters is ok if you are white bible thomping moron but baaad if you are black.
Ridiculous.
FU banksters = "don't play in the FIAT money system & pay cash for hard assets"...
I can't really see that happening with these two... Who knows how much more 'debt money' they helped the banksters conjure into the system besides the $1.3 million here... Don't you realize they're HELPING the banksters?
So FU (& the banksters)...
next thing you know Obama will ask this couple for a Beer Summit to explain to them why they are being abused by the Corporations, why they they can't get a job because of racism, how the White Man drove them from their Ancestral Lands and how people like them are the Salt of the Nation and why they deserve the house as a recompensation for their Grandfathers being slaves on the Continent of .... what what you immigrated here 20 years ago from Ghana? never mind ... to recompensate you for the slavery of your forefathers.
they lack a mule.
I am puking now
Legally wrong, morally right:-)
You got that mixed up.
Legally RIGHT and morally questionable at least.
I take objection to the negative slant in the article. What the article calls "exploiting changes .. in laws" is certainly THE SAME PRIVILGE THAT APPLIES TO EVERY MAJOR US CORPORATION AND FIRST AND FOREMOST EVERY US BANK!
The system is FUBAR. Across the entire financial and political spectrum.
For now all we do is PRETEND AND EXTEND
Shiny, happy people lalalalala
What they save in mortgage payments, is spent on lawyers fees?
Looks more like they're defending their own case. Certainly seems they have plenty time and a good enough education to go with it.
Unless of course.. ah, why didn't I think of this sooner!
FREE LEGAL SERVICES!!!
They are not paying their fair share of taxes. I wonder what the locals think?
2 options.
a) Now that the story is public, someone will find the address (published below) and take their anger out on them.
b) The rest of their hood is in the same boat and the story will go away quietly.
My guess is that the hood will probably be upgraded to a gated community in order to protect the status quo. The city might put more street lights in as well and increase the garbage pick up because all these people have lots of money to spend and produce more garbage.
That county is 85% black. I think the locals are fine with it.
yes, everyone must pay their "fair share" of taxes.
and vote.
and shop, consume.
and bank in a TBTF.
and carry a dozen credit cards.
and gamble in stocks, etc.
everyone must prop up the system!
am I leaving anything out to be a faithful amrkn?
How can you even discuss morals around this POS that lives illegally in a home then turns around and profits from the foreclosure of others. There is a special place in hell for this fucker.
Keith Ritter has a business, Beat It Movers, that involves eviction services, property preservation and cleaning of foreclosed homes. Here, he checks out some ceiling damage in one such home in Fort Washington. Ritter gets the irony of working for some of the same banks that have foreclosed on him. But he has to make money somehow. “All I know is real estate,” he said."
All moralizing aside, in a last throe of irony I hope the bank hires Keith to do his own home, then doesn't pay him.
I wish I had thought of that, lol..
Or...they pay him and he doesn't kick himself out.
I have no sympathy for the guy because of his "Beat it Movers" gig.
That is totally lame; but the banker men can get fucked as far as I'm concerned.
I haven't checked to see if the court records are online. Maybe tomorrow.
A title search could be fun.
so do they pay property taxes at least?
You bet! That's the key to living (almost) free. Don't disturb the public peace at your local municipality tax office.
May be not. In my neighborhood bank pays all the taxes. Other wise Village will have lean on the property and will have auction within 3 months.
Obama has instituted a modern form of Squatters Rights.
The bathrooms are purple, the kitchen red, and the bedrooms have tiger and cheetah print. Probably 150k to fix.
A gallon of gas and a matchbook only costs $5
When in Rome ...
Folks, now is not the time to save and be frugal.
Rack up as much debt as you can. Everybody else is doing it including your very own government(s).
Why delay until tomorrow what you can purchase and enjoy today?
It is your God given human right to participate in this fake economy where trillions of digitized IOUs get accepted as money.
Who cares, right? Nobody is getting hurt!
Ritters are fucking crooks. When you are stealing from the rest of us it is usually advisable not to make a sound.
If I were their neighbors I would make things so uncomfortable they would leave.
What's next, torching the home to collect insurance?
One night next to Widowmaker and bags would be packed in Jesus' name.
If you torch the house you hit a Lehman-style CDS-trigger!
The house didn't do anything wrong, in fact, it is proof that real estate has ANOTHER 70-75% plunge before any bottom is found.
Same as it ever was.
It's not real value or market I'm worried about. The assurance on default (like in torched) is ruining the ponzi.
What a rant. Just replace word "Ritters" with "Bankers".
It's just business. Hell, I'm rooting for this guy. The taxpayers have bought all these properties from the banks a couple times over, let us come out ahead for once...
"How is it someone can stay in a house for five years without ever making a mortgage payment?” said Thomas A. Lawler, a former senior vice president at Fannie Mae who now runs his own consulting firm in Loudoun County. “That’s a screwed-up process. It’s an example of how the process is broken.”
I see. But a former senior vice president at Fannie Mae now running a successful consulting firm is an example of a perfectly wholesome one.
Are you referring to ol' Danny Mudd from Fortress?
WITH THESE PEOPLE RUNNING FANNIE MAE WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
FRANKLIN RAINES [D] – FNMA CEO (1999 – 2004) Raines accepted “early retirement” from his CEO position while the SEC pretended to investigate accounting irregularities. Fannie’s own OHFHEO also accused him of abetting widespread accounting errors, including the shifting of losses, so he and his fellow execs could “earn” large bonuses. The WSJ reported back in 2008 that Raines was one of several cronies that received below market rates for mortgages from Countrywide. Raines alone receive loans for over $3 million while CEO of FNMA. Raines’ compensation for his “work” at FNMA - $90 million.
RAINES GRADE – F
DANIEL MUDD [R] – FNMA CEO (2005 – 2008) Before becoming CEO of FNMA, Mudd worked at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, was an advisor to Asia-Pacific Economic Corp., “served” on the board of the Council of Foreign Relations, “consulted” at the World Bank, and held many positions at GE Capital including president and CEO. Mudd was dismissed as CEO of FNMA when FHFA became conservator in 2008. In 2011 Mudd and other GSE execs were charged by SEC with securities fraud. After his career at FNMA Mudd became CEO of a NYC hedge fund named “Fortress”. Fortress invested in purchasing tax liens on delinquent property taxes from local governments under many benign corporate names such as “Pleasant Valley Capital” and “Travis Farm Investments”. Cozy. Mudd’s compensation for his “work” at FNMA - $80 million.
MUDD GRADE – F
NEEL KASHKARI [R] – FNMA CEO (Tenure is murky) Kashkari was a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs, was tapped by Hank “The Shank” Paulson to lend his skills over at TARP HQ, and now rather ironically, continues God’s work as a Managing Director at PIMCO. Kashkari’s compensation for his “work” at FNMA is also murky; I’ll just assume it was too much.
KASHKARI GRADE - F
HERB ALLISON [D] – FNMA CEO (2008 – 2009) The esteemed Mr. Allison was quickly whisked off to oversee the wildly successful TARP program. I didn’t find much on his compensation during his brief stint as FNMA CEO. Allison served in various positions at Merrill Lynch and became a member of the board in 1997. He was a director of the NYSE from 2003 – 2005.
ALLISON GRADE – F
MICHAEL WILLIAMS [?] – FNMA CEO (2009 – Jan 1, 2012) Mr. Williams is a 20 year veteran at FNMA. While “serving” as FNMA CEO, Williams managed to scrape by on less than $6 million in 2011 alone. This could and should be considered a hardship, given the complexities involved in purloining ~ $60 billion of Fed bailout money.
WILLIAMS GRADE – F
FANNIE’S MAJOR DANCE PARTNER, FREDDIE MAC, HAS ALSO PERFORMED VERY POORLY.
Charles (my friends call me “Ed”) Haldeman has announced his retirement plans but intends to be a good sport and stay on with insolvent FHLMC until another crony can be found to fill his wing-tips.
That might take a while. “Serving” as CEO of the ultimate backstops for the lion’s share of the MBS Ponzi is very stressful.
We’ll have to accept former Freddie exec David Kellermann’s testimony posthumously. Mr. Kellermann was found hanging by the neck in the basement of his posh Vienna, VA home in the affluent suburb of Washington. D.C. way back in April of 2009. It is presumed he had no help and local police have stated there was no evidence of foul play.
Maybe, just maybe, these treasonous monsters will be held accountable. Modern day Nuremberg Trials are in order; this time in front of an “International Financial Tribunal”.
Check them carefully for concealed cyanide tablets. There are no excuses for being a sociopath.
There is no cure. It’s terminal.
Arvo Particleboard
"How is it someone can stay in a house for five years without ever making a mortgage payment?” said Thomas A. Lawler, a former senior vice president at Fannie Mae who now runs his own consulting firm in Loudoun County.
He's just pissed he is still making millions,(when he should be in prison) BUT He has to pay his house payment.
The saddest thing about this entire story is that these people are trying to hide behind a Bible verse to excuse their clearly unethical behavior. This, my fellow Zero-Hedgers, is why this country is heading over a cliff into the abyss. This idea of doing things that are not necessarily criminal, but are clearly unethical. It is the whole excuse of "everybody is doing it", or going along to get along. Whatever happened to your word is your bond, or honesty, or doing what is right (even when it is painful.) Why is it that I see people with material wealth or assets who are morally bankrupt. I look at average everyday Americans and they are twice as honest as most of the people I know in the wealthy neighborhoods around where I live. I read a story about an ex-con who came across a large sum of cash in a wallet. So what does he do? He turns it in. I guarantee you that a Stan O'Neal or Stephen Schwarztmann would not. The people in this story are scum and are just as bad as the banksters.
That's the problem with faux-Christian New Testament Paulism, no consequences.
Genesis 6:13 - And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Ummm...what version of NT are you reading? If there were no consequences, why did Paul write to all those early churches? What part of "the wages of sin are death" is ambiguous?
Conrad Murray
That's the problem with faux-Christian New Testament Paulism, no consequences.
Huh?, Conrad, stick to something you know something about its obvious you do not on this.
And George W Buttfuckka took a magic walk on a beach with none other than Billy Graham. Talk about hiding behind a religion for political gain.
Saddest motherfucking walk on the planet. Shame on Billy.
Do you happen to have the timing for that? Wondering if that was before or after Dubbya got knowledge of the false flag that is 9/11 and the ensuing carpet bombings of Bagdad and Kabul.
Hey, but there was never so much prayer time in the history of the White House. Must be good for something, right? Right?
Billy Graham - sounds Jewish. The guy was an enabler to Bush either way. Jesus saves
The saddest thing about this entire story is that these people are trying to hide behind a Bible verse to excuse their clearly unethical behavior. This, my fellow Zero-Hedgers, is why this country is heading over a cliff into the abyss.
________________________________________________
It was done since the inception of the US. It is part of the package.
Another evidence that negroes are perfectly apt at behaving the US citizen way.
Those guys are good followers of US citizenism.
Which begs the question: what are other US citizens reproaching this couple with? To behave like a US citizen?
Speaking of duplicity.
Yep. Honest people would have risen up and demanded banksters be put in jail for this.
Instead we have gibs me dat nation...banksters got theirs, so you go gits yours
wtf...dupe...I pressed save once
Must be the shakes. Probably need another hit from the crack pipe.
How can anyone feel sorry for people like these? If you moved into some commercial space and refused to pay rent, that would be ok too I guess
Calling these idiots successful real estate investors is like calling investors in CROX at the 2007 bubble top successful stock pickers.
Right robot trader?
BULLISH !
How long before the broke localities figure this out? These clowns will go from gettin one over on the banks to being royally screwed by the IRS and the local tax authorities. Especially as they were dumb enough to be interviewed about it.
They are in the hall of fame of the HAMPster wheel game .......can i get their robosigned autographs
Kind of like the conviceted murderer on death row...it takes 30 years to put them to sleep....what a joke we are....
Imagine how it's like in Europe you get 10 years for murder(walk free after 5 years of good behavior) only tax offenders here get locked up for life
remember that youtube short video of a black lady that said that thanks to Obama's victory she would not have to worry about paying her mortgage????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI
Well, she was right!!!!! suckers
Yeah but you still have to pay city taxes... on a 1.29MM house... every year, it's probably $15G a year. Or do they not pay that too??
I've got this story beat boys. I know a guy (a wanna-be singer song writier like everyone else in this town) here in Nashville that has been living in a 7k sq ft $1 million home for the past 4 years not paying a single mortgage payment. Better still, he has been renting rooms to fellow "wanne-be" singer song writers for a total of $5k a month, for all of these past 4 years. Cash only of course. How about them apples! Wealth transfer at it's finest.
Funny in a pathetic sort of way. Here in Brentwood there are "occupied" homes ($700K) going on 2 years now. Most the "owners" have gotten on with their lives and stopped worrying about appearances. After all, everybody's doing it. What's sad is that it mainly hurts all the small, local banks around here.
Hell, he probably qualifies for the just expanded bailout for "underwater" landlords.
That guy is my new role model. Hats off to him! Did he work for a TBTF in a past life? He appears to have learned well. A TRUE American Hero.
The MBA defaulted on their own building and leased it back @ 40% of mortgage. I'm seeing massive deleveraging in the commercial loan sector, much more than what is reported. Many of these loans have been in "work out" status for 3 years or more.
We keep hearing how commercial real estate is next to collapse but it keeps holding up.
ah, life in Amerika, embrace it!
There are "official" and "unofficial" foreclosure times. CA - 150 VS 1100, NY - 400 cs 800, MD - 205 vs 600, CT - 300 vs 700, NJ - 450 vs 900, etc. Notice that all these absurdities are in rabidly pro-Obama states that will chop off their head to avoid alienating voters. My buddy in Modesto knows several folks who have not paid a mortgage in over 3 years. One recently won the neighborhood "Curb Appeal" contest!!
Bob Chapman sez:
Over the next 2-1/2 to 3 years the US real estate market will be hit hard – end foreclosures to add to the already over abundance of such real estate foreclosed inventory. Now that most of the lower end homes have been dealt with it is time to take on the expensive homes. Many of those lower priced homes will become rentals and that should continue to put pressure on prices.
Banks have let high-end owners in default live in homes free for up to three years for technical reasons and to hide inventory. These figures are available to everyone, but we hear just the opposite on financial channels. Like everyone else in business there is little validity in his or her statements. Once these homes are unleashed banks and government will find very few buyers. The banks paid a paltry fine of $26 billion or $0.02 on the dollar versus what they defrauded the American public out of. The foreclosure party is over. The former owners will be removed and the homes put up for sale. The high end of the market is finally about to be hit. They are about to complete their 50% to 60% drop.
http://news.goldseek.com/InternationalForecaster/1330272900.php
goldfish1
Wunnnnerful, another 50-60% DROP and I will git me some.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those piles of Yellow,may just make us the next Warren Buffets, or Jimmy Buffets.............or, just a Buffet.
Real Estate Tycoons..............have some real Bona Fides..................LOL
Smoke'em out.
Sure. Put 'em in the slammer for 20 more years of free lodging and meals at our expense.
im surprised everyone here at ZH is picking on the morons who agreed to be interviewed.......the real anger should be at whoever allowed these 2 to get $1.4 million mortgage with zero down.........thats the real problem......thats what all costs us our future......them not paying a monthly payment means nothing to us now........FOCUS ZH !
True, but these folks are utterly immoral - even playing the old God angle. Yes, some bank officer may have been pressed by higher ups to get one for the quota books but that does not excuse the couple's behavior.
Please.
The god angle is played by every person in America. Nothing speaks to American exceptionalism like redemption and god.
Theft is theft. Murder is murder. Lying is lying. People don't have to be told what they know is right and wrong. Man's governmental legal permission does not abrogate the personal responsibility to God to do what is right. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool. Proverbs 19:1
Granted no lender in his right mind should have loaned this couple a dime, but as long as said lender's loan loss isn't socialized then I could care less (reality is the opposite, but I'm being philisophical). They made a bad business decision and they can live with the consequences.
As for this couple, they are more than culpable because they knew damn well they couldn't service that loan.
One more thought in response to you saying "them not paying a monthly payment means nothing to us now" - fuck yes it means a lot to us because we (the taxpayer) backstop that loan in some way/shape/form.
Sure...suuuure. They should say, oh please let us pay waaaaay more than this house is worth. Please suck the living blood right out of us so we cansay we're taking the moral high road.
Fukk the banks. They still own the houses. Maybe.
Since these people never made a single payment it isn't likely they ever intended to.
I've said this before and I'll say it again; how do you steal money from people who don't have any?
That's easy. Just give it to them.
The split second this "loan" was made the "lender" bought insurance against default; most likely from AIG. Heck, they probably bought a bunch of policies on that one property because they were certain they would default.
And we know what AIG did. "Whooops". We're too big too fail! Bail us out!
The taxpayers funded the loan via one of the GSEs no doubt; and AIG dumped their losses right on the taxpayer. Perfect crime.
This family does lose a lot of style points by working the repo racket for sure. For that reason alone they should get kicked out.
BEST POST in this thread. I forgot the AIG angle. It's like the crime that never happened or the crime that DID pay!
Perfect. Too bad it never works 2x which is why the market will probably not crash the same way it did before.
this couple received a loan for 1.2 etc. million, no money
down, made no payments and there is no fraudclosure?
the bank that lent that money committed the crime. if they hadn't
committed a crime they would have foreclosed by now. no?
the population is made accessory to the crime for playing along
to suit their dreams of godly sanctification and blessing.
was it a no doc mortgage? who made that money? etc...
.." why we are fucked." exactly
what they need to claim is that an algorithm of unknown
and indeterminable origin has been and is directing their every move.
It's a pretty messy affair.
Why don't we see more "push-backs" from MBS investors?
Oh. These "loans" never made it to the trusts within the REMIC tax-exempt window pursuant to the terms defined in the Pooling and Servicing Agreement.
Tax evasion.
Many of the trusts have been made more than whole via third party (bailout) payments and are now listed as "defunct" in their SEC statements...so why rock the boat.
If the trust is kaput who do you pay? The servicer who has absolutely zero skin in the game?
That's what the servicers want you to do and that right there is the reason for "robo-signing" and flipped out chains of title, wild deeds, etc.
The whole thing is Charlie Foxtrot.
I agree here, but it IS a TWO way street....I'd blame 70% of the bank, and 30% of the owners in this case, who are lucky enough to use the system to their advantage.
Similair to a story that evolved over the weekend about a well know n Ful lTilt Poker Pro who owes $200K+ in fantasy sports debts to poker players. before BF, he was getting $250K/mth from FTP, and while slow at paying debts, they usually got paid, espeically if he won or a horse (i.ie, player he's staked in tournament) won.
Players knew he was a degen who took his sweet ole time paying back debts....but yet still got credit for fantasy sports betting. Why? Because he was a fish, and the players knew it, and so they extended him the credit.
Of course, now that the FTP gravy train is gone thx to Black Friday.....and the creditors complain. And in some cases, rightfully so...the guy is a scumbag debtor who now has a myriad of financial problems adding to the fact he'll never pay back a debt (unless he goes on a heater).
But the borrowers KNEW the risks involved. They RISKED lending him money to fill their leagues with a player who sucked (which means he may dink every single year and not win to get that makeup back).
So they SHOULD know they can't expect the poker world to pick THEM up when the dbets need to be collected. All they can do is pressure and hope he pays. In a sense, that's TRUE FREE MARKET creditorship, right there.
Ditto with bankers. All they saw were fish, and in the end, they knew it would be us to pick up the tab when these two fucktards got in too deep.
1.3 million dollar estate? That is quite a number of houses that should have built in some other countries on the resources this amount of USD represents...
Ah, the housing bubble served a purpose.
Nice theft of the US on the rest of the world.
Yea, for $1.3 million Li Ka Shing could have built real value, like an already roach infested 280 sq ft, 3 bdr apartment in a complex called Double Good Fortune Golden Happiness Estates in Hong Kong and stuffed it on to some mainlander who lets his kids defecate on the sidewalk (see Bloomberg story on HKer outrage over uncouth slobs from the mainland. complete with cell phone videos of defecating kids). If not that, then perhaps some Commie Party Official's kid could have gotten a contract to put ten feet of sidewalk into some empty Chinese city with that $1.3 million.
Teach us about value, Mr. I-20 overstayer.
Roadside shitting citizium nose pickers could have built a high speed rail to nowhere.
“When a bank does all it can to save itself, that’s good business,” Keith said. “When a homeowner does the same thing, he’s called a deadbeat.”
precisely.
mortgages are for the little people,
ton ami,
marie
Yep, this is pretty bad...but I was going to write something about bankster bailouts and forgot what it was. The article sums it nicely, we're screwed.
"Alls I's knows is steal estate," said Ritter.
@ truthseeker i couldnt agree more with you. The moral compass of doing the "right thing" and a society that valorizes such attitude has totally disappeared. Now as you say those with the wealth are utterly and completely morally bankrupt
The wealth is incorporated, which negates all purpose, law, morality, accountability, being ethical, human, etc. Just money, all the time.
"Incorporate and masturbate" -- US Supreme Court.
In the process, Keith Ritter, 54, went from being on probation for bankruptcy fraud and making minimum wage to being a successful real estate investor and landlord with a six-figure income...
Our country is devoid of personal responsibility - promoted by Uncle Sam. When everyone is entitled to everything and when one's failure is simply chalked up as someone else "taking advantage of you", society at large enters a death spiral.
You summed it up exactly right. A social system based on equality(sic.)[from those who have to those who need] will ultimately devour it self like a starving body feeds of it's own fat and muscle
What else would you expect from a Detroit fan? (Note the Detroit Pistons stocking hat) Detroit is the place where shady is a job and politics are a joke.
obama rich...
Gotta get some Red Lobster stock, who owns them again?