St. Joe, Sell Our House: Homeowners call upon saint in slow market

[NVMojo]

September 5, 2006

Mark and Kristen Shuert have tried almost everything to sell their East Lansing home.

Since listing it last September, they've knocked $7,450 off the asking price, finished the basement and even switched real estate agents.

Now, the Shuerts are calling on a higher authority: St. Joseph.

"I don't know what else to do," Kristen Shuert said. "I'm willing to try anything at this point."

Enter St. Joseph, the unofficial Catholic saint of real estate and the hottest selling religious statue in mid-Michigan and cities nationwide where housing markets have softened.

more...

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060905/NEWS01/609050319/1001/news

[katmondoo]

1. I buried St. Joseph next to the For Sale Sign

Nothing Yet, not even a looker. I will dig him up if I sell and give him a nice place in a new home. I keep telling him that.

[Matariki]

10. you have to bury him upside down ;-)

[larrysh]

2. I once worked as a loan officer for a mortgage broke and.......

The amount of money lenders pay these guys to refer deals is so outrageous it has spawned an entire industry dedicated to one thing,
ripping off the very lenders that are paying brokers these ridiculous amounts! In our office we had.....A credit fixer, a woman who, for the
sum of $600.00, cash, all under tha table, would "fix" a borrowers
credit bureau in order to get the loan approved. Since the bad credit
borrower seldom had the cash to pay the "fixer", the loan officer paid
out of his/her commission. We also had contact with 3-4 "friendly" appraisers. You would basically tell the appraiser where you needed to be on the loan (say, make a $100,000 house suddenly be worth $150,000, thus jacking up the profit for the seller, and also jacking up your own commission on the deal). Of course, when the house was repossessed the bank took a beating on the re-sale. Bad credit borrowers paid a premium just to get their foot in the door with "up-front" processing fees, fees to cover the taking of the application, faxing the application to say, 10 different banks, then haggling with the banks to squeeze every last drop of commission out of them. Bad credit borrowers also paid way more in interest than necessary (with the mortgage broker getting to keep "X" number of "points" above the rate the lender demanded, so the loan officers "sold" borrowers on why they had to pay 13% interest when good credit people paid 6.25. And on, and on, and on. I had deals where my commission was $3,000-$4,000 dollars just for driving to the peoples house, taking their application, turning it in, and baby-sitting them all the way thru to closing, to make sre they didn'tback out. I quit after about 6 months as I coldn't sleep at night, knowing how bad people like the couple in this article were getting ripped off......

[NVMojo]

3. wow, what you describe about these unethical mortgage brokers

is discussed here ...

http://itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=381

[larrysh]

4. Money made off others misery.....I just could not be a part of it

one minute longer. And the guy I worked for, who owned the mortgage brokerage....was an ex Green Bay Packer!!!!!! Thanks for referring me to that thread.....

[NVMojo]

5. while at the employment office last week, an employee there told me

about a laid off mortgage processor who talked about being fired for refusing to ignore incomes in processing. As in, not enough income to make house payments. The goal was just to make the deal instead making sure the deal would work for the buyer. Turns my stomach.

Hang in there, Larrysh.

[Eurobabe]

6. Our house is under contract in Cincy, set for 9/15

We took a big hit $$, just to get rid of it, since we are paying rent overseas. Sept. 15th can't come a minute too soon!! Guess I better thank St. Joseph.

[PurityOfEssence]

7. God, help me screw other people and become rich.

I've been good. I've been really, really good. I've been your dutiful little child.

It's so unfair. All I want is to dally in the lap of luxury and get in on the frenzy before it's over.

[fasttense]

8. I use to pray to God to make me money.

Then I learned how God works. So now I steal the money and pray for forgiveness. ;-)

[Delphinus]

9. A couple of years ago,

I actually buried THREE! People kept giving them to me and I kept burying them in different places. Nothing worked. I'm still here.

Better luck to them!

[Javaman]

11. They forget that sometimes the answer is no. nt

[Exultant Democracy]

12. The people who complain about atheist mocking religion

need to realize that your cohorts in faith sometimes act in a fashion that requires mocking.

[shrike]

13. Shows how desperate people are

when those who are admittedly not religious (or even Catholic) would resort to such measures.

I remember my aunt and uncle burying a St. Joseph statue and selling their home a few days later. But the market then was nothing like it is now.