It is NOT the job of the realtor or the bank or the insurance company or the seller or anyone else involved the house selling/buying process to ensure the buyer has the means and capability to reasonable be able to afford the purchase. If the buyer can meet the requirements of the sale it isn’t any of these other people’s jobs nor responsibilities (nor accountability) to ensure years from now the buyer can still meet all the obligations of the sale and ownership.

That is the job AND *responsibility* of the buyer only. PERIOD.

(yes, I know the bank does a credit and income check but that isn’t the same as ensuring the person is capable of affording the mortgage for 30 years. It’s much more an at-this-moment view.)

As do I TML but the reality is like you said, the Realtors (like most people who work in monopolized fields where there is little to no choice) are in it for themselves and ever relying on them for much of anything, particularly financing help, is just plain out in out stupid.

I want professionals to act like professionals and not encourage a deal that they know from training and experience will not go well after the deal closes.

I think you missed the point, and read only part of my comment. My point was simple, the oil is flowing into the gulf due to reckless actions by our new corporate citizen BP, and as such, following your logic, should be held responsible for all fees vs taxpayers that you have alluded to in the past. Personal responsibility should not be suspended just because it’s a company you like.

As to the rest of my comment, I agree that the buyers are responsible for this not the Realtor (unless laws were broken).

Peace.
Rick Beagle

@ TML- It’s surprising that you would write an article like this.

As written by others, the Realtors really have no blame just like the banks to me have very little blame.

No one is at fault except for the borrower/buyer.

If a person cannot educate themselves enough about a rough estimate of what they can and can’t afford than it is their fault alone and not the fault of the Realtor/loan officer.

Someone held a gun to BP’s CEO’s head and told him to blow that rig!

Just like those “evil” and “rich” bankers snuck into $8/hr Wendy’s workers’ homes in the middle of the night, dragged them from their beds, and forced them to sign those mortgage agreements for 110% ARM-5 financing with no money down.

Keep that Kool-Aid coming my sorely misguided friend.

I do think it’s fair to blame the folks on Wall Street, who were very knowledgeable about the mortgage backed securities they created and sold. A lot of those people knew very well the loans they packaged and sold were unlikely to perform. They went ahead anyway, securitizing and selling those loan pools to unknowledgeable and unsuspecting buyers. To me, that’s fraud and should be punished as such.