GO SHINE SHOES

About forty years ago my grammar school aged brother owed 11 cents on an over due library book that he found under his bed. When he asked that my Father “give him the money”, my little brother received his first lesson in financing. With his shoeshine kit under his arm, he set out for the barber shop to earn the money he owed his “lender”.
It is family folklore today that my brother has been debt free since his shoe shining days, but he is one of the rare folks who can make that claim.
Last night the housing package to the Stimulus Plan was unveiled to the country and the mixed reviews will be debated for a very long time. While the economic experts, industry leaders and elected officials have been meeting and holding court with each other over the housing debacle for a period of time, Realtors have been meeting with and holding clients’ hands for a far longer period of time. We know first hand in our own homes and in our clients’ homes that something HAD to be done…even if the plan to help homeowners who can not pay their bills is unfair on its face to those homeowners who have paid their bills….and it is.
In short, 9 million homeowners are going to get a break with their mortgage debt and many more millions of homeowners will not.
“But, Daddy, Bobby’s parents didn’t make him work for the library fine.”
Putting all debates aside, the cold hard facts are that our country’s lenders loaned money to anyone with a pulse for several years. Those folks were all on borrowed time because they could never pay back the loans and tidal waves of foreclosures have been hitting the beaches and driving down the values of all homes everywhere. IT MUST STOP.
In my days as a nursing student, I remember being completely disgusted one day in class when we were taught that live leeches were actually placed on infected wounds because they ate up the dead tissue and promoted healing.
Sometimes it takes a jar of live leeches to clean up a festering wound and save the patient.
The inventory of properties MUST be moved. Increasing the inventory with more foreclosures MUST NOT be allowed. The way to move this inventory and unclog the plug that has “stopped up” the whole world is to make it possible for homeowners to STAY IN THEIR HOMES, for buyers to BUY HOMES, for lenders to LEND RESPONSIBLY.
Two hundred billion dollars will be given to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for such purposes as refinancing mortgages and lowering rates. Seventy five billion will be used to modify mortgages into smaller payments so that 9 million homeowners can STAY IN THEIR HOMES. Even without equity in the home, there will be refinancing possible now.
Some specifics include incentives for both the lender and the homeowner to come to the table and rewrite a deal with which both can live. There are additional incentives for the lender and homeowner to enter into a better deal BEFORE the homeowner is late on payments.
Our Constitution remains the greatest experiment in the history of the world and no matter what fix we get ourselves into, we will have the shiniest shoes on the block as we get ourselves out.