I remember when I prepared to buy my first home in 1997, people said it would be a laborious process. To this day, I cannot figure out what people were referring to as laborious. The mortgage officer provides the list of all documents that need to be submitted. I submitted the documents in 1997. If there were questions, I answered them. If there were glitches, I took care of them expediently. During my closing, figures drastically changed from what was on the original good faith estimate. I interrupted the closing to ask for an explanation. No explanation could be provided. All stakeholders in the room were looking at one another. I announced verbally that no person sitting in the room would get paid if my closing figures didn’t reflect the good faith estimate. Somehow the stakeholders in the room restated my figures back to what was provided on the good faith estimate and I moved into my first new home. My loan was approved and the home buying experience was simple.
Below, I am proposing a solution that involves accountability and responsibility from all three stakeholders involved in the mortgage process.
Proposed solution: Consumer perspective
a) Whether it’s the purchase of a first home or the 20th home, each loan applicant should be required to explain their home loan either verbally or in written form to a third [regulatory] party. The third party will have the final loan documents in hand and will simply ask a series of questions and receive the answers to assure the applicant explicitly understands what they are engaging in.
b) I understand, as the consumer, we are required to provide a lot of personal information. However, I learned a simple principle buying my first home – don’t allow the relationship with...
... middle of paper ...
...e jailed. The federal government will define and legislate predatory lending, predatory loans and predatory institutions. Additionally, all assets these predatory and unscrupulous lenders own, should be liquidated and applied against the current, outstanding mortgage payments.
d) The lending institutions who are choosing to stifle the current foreclosure modification process, should be fined $1 million per quarter. Lending institutions process paper work continuously. It is unacceptable that the paperwork for loan modifications cannot seem to be completed. Since these institutions have received federal bailout money, they should be required to have “x” number of new loans that are modified per quarter. For each quarter this metric is not achieved, a $1 million fine is paid to the government and 10% of the bailout funds are to be returned immediately.
...ancial positions of the borrowers, their lack of knowledge as well as the superior bargaining power of the lender to get the borrowers to agree to these loans. The lenders should bear the major responsibility of these loans, as they are aware of the ramifications of such transactions. The borrowers are also responsible, as they should not enter into contracts without adequately understanding the consequences of such actions. In many cases, the lenders do not provide the information that would assist the borrower in making rational decisions. There are instances when the borrower does not care about the increased penalties, they just want to get their hands on the money, and worry about the consequences later. Some borrowers just live beyond their means but once they get sucked into a predatory loan, they begin a cycle of debt that they just cannot get out of.
With that in mind, it is important to understand a couple of concepts before analyzing and determining the effectiveness of that document. Although people do not always realize it, the purchase of a home is one of the b...
Did you know that almost everything you do on the internet is being tracked and recorded in some way? In the Article, George Orwell… Meet Mark Zuckerberg, by Lori Andrews, Andrews talks about how behavioral advertising, which is the tracking of consumer’s online activities in order to bring custom-made advertisements, is a topic that is concealed to many people and can cause damage. Search engines like Google store the searches you have made and in 2006 there were search logs released which had personal information that people were judged by (Andrews 716-717). Data aggregation is the main way Facebook makes its money. Andrews believes that it’s an invasion of privacy and is not known well enough by the public. This article is aimed at young and new internet users that are ignorant of the possible dangers on the web. Lori Andrews is successful at informing novice users about the dangers of behavioral
The internet, an unregulated environment where both government and advertising agencies watch your actions and create profiles based on various traits. This is the picture painted in “The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry is Defining Your Identity and Your Worth,” by Joseph Turow. Turow addresses the issue of how lack of government intervention and poor industry self-regulation has led to a situation where every click is analyzed to the point that even when advertisers omit the users name and address, users are still very much known. Based on these profiles, targeted ads and deals are sent to each individual, creating a class-based system that is defined by what advertisers have concluded the individual likes. The main thesis by Turow
...direct control over the agents who deal directly with the consumer. The practices of these independent agents cannot be easily controlled. As a result, corporations should require mortgage brokers to screen all of their loan applications to avoid any allegations of predatory lending.
In the Engineering and Technology Journal, two engineers, Gareth Mitchell and Guy Clapperton, gave their thoughts on both sides of the privacy issue. Is gathering information violating personal privacy? They made their arguments using currency as a metaphor for personal information and online services a product. Mitchell argues the case that giving out personal information is “too high a price to pay” (Mitchell, 2013, p. 26). He says that despite the option to opt out of cookies and certain information, many sites are more covert and make their opt out option less accessible than a pop up asking to opt out. The site makes it hard for the Internet user to say no to being tracked. Mitchell warns the reader to take more consideration into what information they are giving away and that “privacy is not to be taken for granted” (Mitchell, 2013, p. 26). Getting information from the Internet would mean tra...
As we move through a typical day, this information is collected in thousands of ways. Charles Duhigg’s article “How Companies Learn Your Secrets” describes the collection, purchase, storage, and use of our personal information by the major retailer, Target. We all should know that we have agreed to the storage and sharing of our personal spending habits. The policies are disclosed in the Privacy Agreement of the stores shopper’s card, which most of us have.
The best way to solve this foreclosure crisis is preventing homes from foreclosing one house at a time. The American family needs a simple option to save their home. My solution is based upon the concept of the homeowner paying what they are capable today, with a long term solution for the homeowner to repay the entire debt eventually. If the homeowner can now afford to make the payments, then they can escape foreclosure, rebuild their pride, and be productive citizens.
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
Price and Sorrells shows that companies are taking too much advantage from the customer, the government, even though their trying, needs to start helping the people protect their privacy, and a balance between the amount of trust people should have giving out their sensitive records to which information is protected. A concern that is happening that the government and corporations is that personal information is not secured well enough. Price states how over 100 million sensitive records were hacked or lost in a year and the percent of increase in data breaches is 650 more than last year. Her description of how unreliable the government is with personal information by using logical and well researched information to put no faith and fear in the reader.
Mortgage loans are a substantial form of revenue for the financial industry. Mortgage loans generate billions of dollars in the financial industry. It is no secret that companies have the ability to make a lot of money by offering a variety of mortgage loan products. The problem was not mortgage loans but that mortgage companies were using unethical behavior to get consumer mortgage loans approved. Unfortunately, the Countrywide Financial case was not an isolated case. Many top name mortgage companies have been guilty of unethical behavior. Just as the American housing market was starting to recover from its worst battering since the Great Depression, a new scandal, an epidemic of flawed or fraudulent mortgage documents, threatens to send not just the housing market but the entire economy back into a tailspin (Nation, 2010).
Buying and owning your home is part of the American dream. Although the dream itself has since changed, the home still remains the main focal point. Today owning a home doesn’t necessarily mean a house. People now buy duplexes, cooperative apartments, and condominiums. For some families it could take up to a couple of generations before it’s able to have the capabilities of buying a home. To many people it means a certain achievement that only comes after years of hard work. It is a life altering decision and one of the most important someone can make in their lifetime. The reasons behind the actual purchase could vary. Before anything is done, people must understand that it’s an extraneous process and it is a long term project.
Papacharissi, Zizi, and Jan Fernback. "Online Privacy And Consumer Protection: An Analysis Of Portal Privacy Statements." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.3 (2005): 259-281. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Myhre, Julie. "Technology Is Invading Our Privacy." Direct Marketing News. N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Privacy is the condition where someone personal information can not be documented and be used by others (Parent, 1983). Privacy has been and continues to be a significant issue of concern for both current and prospective electronic commerce customers. The foll...