The kindness of a stranger

A ray of light in the gathering darkness.

Minor quibble: My understanding of RE law is limited, but AFAIK Ms. Orr's house wasn't "saved" from _foreclosure_. The fact that Ms. Mock purchased the house in question _at auction_ indicates that foreclosure had already begun. (Inter alia, this will presumably be reflected on Ms. Orr's credit report, even if Ms. Mock is entirely paid off.) Ms. Orr _was_ saved from the eviction that would've occurred had she continued to inhabit the house after its purchase by a less sympathetic buyer.

I do wonder what the outstanding principal was on that mortgage. Either a lot had already been paid down, or at least one bank in that area is no longer bidding "total indebtedness" at FC auctions (which would be an interesting data point).

C'mon folks, someone's gotta say it: consumptive morons who bought more house than they could afford and are now losing it do not deserve our sympathy. At least, no more than an arm around the shoulder and a "try not to let it happen again, 'K?"

When I bought my house it was quite a bit smaller and less expensive than what I could have bought. The bank would have loaned me a LOT more. But I stayed well within my means, and I'm fine today. No foreclosure, no auction, no eviction. Is Marilyn going to get teary-eyed and give me money, too? Or does she only help stupid people?

Nice lady, I'm sure, but seriously misguided in her sympathies.

What Joel is assuming is that people who end up in foreclosure are necessarily at fault.

It is sometimes true that they are.

But I see many, many people in my bankruptcy practice who have lost their houses because they lost their jobs and had to go to work for a small percentage of their former salary.

In fact, my mid-western city lost nearly 30,000 high-paying tech jobs between 2002 and 2005. People literally went from making 80k salaries, to 25k incomes (after having been unemployed for months.)

Wow. This brings tears to my eyes. Thanks, Rod.

My spouse and I were approved for a large mortgage and we instead bought a house for 34k out of money we had sitting in the bank account. Our neighborhood is very modest and full of people struggling much more than we are (we aren't, so far). It's true that greed and stupidity led to many of the foreclosures that are happening, but when you're talking about houses in the 20-50k type of range, like the one in the article, these were generally purchased by people who didn't have much to work with in the first place. They weren't necessarily buying "too much" house; the next step down financially from where they are is basically to be a renter (which is fully miserable when you don't have enough money for a decent place or when you're older than 22) or homeless, begging friends or family for a place to sleep. There are a whole lot more people than some may think who could afford to do what this lady has done. I wouldn't see any good reason to rescue some dual income family who's overconsumed and foreclosed in their big new house, but I will love to see more people helping those struggling further down the chain.

One must wonder about the business decision to just let the rate increases create foreclosures (lose-lose) instead of holding the rates at a level that would permit at least some of those homeowners to continue paying.

They made perfect business sense, as long as one assumed that housing would continue indefinitely appreciate at an abnormally-high rate. Or as long as one acted early enough in the housing bubble so as not to get caught holding the bag.

Seriously, though, I agree that any prudent loan officer ought to have shuddered at even considering - let alone making - such mortgages.

Only MI has made part of the point I would make. I don't think this story is as heartwarming as all that. Ms. Mock saved Ms. Orr from eviction. As MI points out, Ms. Orr will still have a foreclosure on her credit record. But legally all she is is Marilyn Mock's rental tenant. I think people are misunderstanding this story. If this deal falls apart at some point, the house will be Marilyn Mock's. The transaction didn't give Ms. Orr her ownership rights back.

Joel:

And people aren't allowed to screw up? If you watch the news report video accompanying the article you'd see that Orr's house is hardly the Taj Mahal. I won't quibble that there's a fine line between charity and enabling bad behaviors, but losing a house is a devestating thing. I should know. My parents, after a spate of unemployment, lost their house in 2006.

I think what Marilyn Mock did is amazing.

Brings tears to my eyes also. She bought the house for $80,000 and Ms Mock bought it for $30,00. The taxpayers got shafted for $50,000. The Orr's now owe $50,000 to a collection agency. They also owe $50,000 in capital gains tax. How does a postal worker lose their job? It's not a liberal or conservative thing, or huggy either, an irresponsible act was done. Uncle Sugar had better crank up the printing presses to cover all that's coming. Read that Ms Mock had to finance a truck that was clear to buy the house, pretty stupid. Call me insensitive, I see too many that won't get out of the cart and help push.

It's interesting; in all those complaining about what Ms. Mock did, I keep hearing echoes of other complainers, e.g. "that jar of perfume could have been sold and the profit given to the poor," "those people who got hired at the end of the day shouldn't have been paid as much as we were paid," and so on.

Ms. Mock did a lovely thing: she treated Ms. Orr as a fellow human being, as a neighbor. If we all treated each other that way for a single day--well, I can't even imagine it.

"Ms. Mock did a lovely thing: she treated Ms. Orr as a fellow human being, as a neighbor. If we all treated each other that way for a single day--well, I can't even imagine it."

Unfortunately, neither can I, Erin. I am reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The fellow on the side of the road obviously did something terrible to get there. Maybe he was ceremonially unclean and touched a priest that day. Or maybe he was drunk as he travelled, and fell into the wrong part of the neighborhood because of that.

I find it funny that we never learned how the man ended up on the side of the road other than that he was robbed and left injured. Did he deserve his fate? Perhaps so...perhaps it was his foolishness that put him in that predicament. But that does not diminish the good actions of the Samaritan.

And we should not let it diminish the good actions of Ms. Mock, in spite of what the priests and Levites here might think or say.

I sure hope I am not judged by the filthy rags of my self-righteousness as Mother Teresa thought we would be. Instead, the judge Himself has already paid my price of the judgment I deserve with His precious blood. Hard to shake that vestigial Catholicism, eh, Rod?

Okay, that should be "Whenever you have shown love and compassion for your neighbor, you have NOT been self-righteous..." Grr. Sorry about that.

Kevin

God bless Ms. Mock but she'll probably end up regretting this.

How much do you want to bet that Marilyn Mock votes REPUBLICIAN?

One of the bright spots in a time of economic turmoil.If more people would do what she did for Ms Orr this country would be a much better place.