Local real estate agent on CNBC

[thepull]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=821093962&play=1

Go to 5:45 of the video.

Taking advice on how much home you can afford from a real estate agent..bad idea.

[david_mcmanus]

God, what an idiot. She cashed out her IRAs? What will she retire on? Housing costs 50% of income?!?

Geez, I have no sympathy for this woman. None.

[Robroy]

[david_mcmanus]

I guess what's more disturbing is that she still believes that the market is strong. Then again, I guess it's to be expected considering what she does for a living.

What will she do if her income goes from 70K to 35K....or 0? Will she still say the market is strong here in Seattle or blame the media hype machine? It seems logical to me if the media hype is driving prices down here then the same media hype drove the prices up to an insane level. They can't have it both ways.

"We NEED this house. We can do this......" - wife from the Suzanne commercial

[The Tim]

I think I found "Kim in Issaquah."

Noticed her in one of the shots dinking with a John L. Scott sign, so I figured she was probably a John L. Scott agent. Looked for any Kims or Kimberlys in John L. Scott offices around Issaquah, and I found :

kim-issaquah.jpg (41.76 KiB) Viewed 12850 times

Looked her up in and found that in November '06 she sold for $300,000, and in December '06 she closed on , so that fits her description of having lived there for "about a year and a half."

Should be pretty easy to follow up on whether she decides to keep the home or sell it.

[jillayne]

"I have a great loan. 5% Fixed for 10 years interest only...why should I give up this great mortgage?"

She's saying she wanted to stay in the home for two years to finish up in that school district for her daughter.

Intersting.
Child support ends in 2 years.

I bet she thought she could sell easily.

Now her income has dropped substantially and she needs the TV reporter to tell her that her income is going to continue to go down. Hmmm.

I wonder how many other real estate agents need a TV reporter to tell them: "Your mortgage payment should be more like 30% of your income. Right now it's 50%"

The TV reporter tells her to "get out now."

Wow. How humbling. I think we should watch that address to see if she decides to put her home on the market.

Hey, the credit guy at the end says a short sale, a foreclosure, or a deed in lieu are all treated bad by the credit bureaus.

I thought a short sale was slightly less damaging.

[deejayoh]

please please please let me never have my investment decisions dissected on a blog....

I guess if I just stay off of tv, I should be ok

[jillayne]

Hi deejayoh,

That's something I don't understand: Why subject oneself to national TV exposure? masochistic tendencies? Was she thinking that the exposure would help her real estate career?

[deejayoh]

I think she really just wanted help. I felt sorry for her, personally. I can see how that could happen to someone.

The are plenty active participants here who have posted about not being able to talk family members out of diving into the market in an ill-timed and over-leveraged way.

I actually think that columnist gave pretty crappy advice to the first guy. "sell your house and rent" when its the same monthly nut? Um, what about the tax shield? Maybe he could have cut his $1000 utility bill and $700 gas bill first and kept his house, since it would probably cost him less per month than renting net of taxes? Even if he took a HELOC he'd still come out ahead, keep his house, and have a little cash. She was just moving the deck chairs to get at his equity as a quick solution.

[perfectfire]

Really? If he cashes out now he can pay off his credit card and cut out $850 in credit card minimum payments. Plus it's just going to disappear in a few years anyway so might as well take it and use it rather than lose it. Another reason to sell the place would be to downsize. He doesn't have to live in a comparable place especially since he's in such a dire situation. Nobody will die if they don't have their own bedroom.

[deejayoh]

I'm not gonna do a spreadsheet on it - but If IIRC, the mortgage was $1900 which would shield $600 in income vs. rent. That pays most of the CC bills - but if you roll it into a heloc it lowers the rate - which lowers the payment - and most people would write that interest off too (even tho you're not sposta, but this is the real world)

My point was more that if you are making$5k per month a $1900 mortgage is not your issue when you have $700 gas cost and $1000 in utillties. Its spelled B-U-D-G-E-T-I-N-G. Doesn't seem like a dire need to sell the home.

[The Tim]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[Alan]

We should invite her to join in the conversation about her.

She also owns an investment condo (which was an apartment conversion). She had a couple of fantastic experience in real estate investment and decided to double-down at the peak. Still, she seems to be pretty far from being in financial trouble but I guess she see where the track is heading.

I almost got the impression she went on national television to get some boosterism in about the Seattle area. If she can drum up enough demand then maybe she can sell her house not at a loss.

[perfectfire]