Lots of people lose houses and start over, wiser, more cautious than before. And they’re better for it in the end.

I surrendered a house to a lender in 1998. It was depressing and even humiliating at times, but it taught me valuable lessons about risk and I learned from my my mistakes.

It’s not the end of the world. Make sure she understands that.

You are right and I think when it is someone you know it also highlights that there are fellow humans on both sides of this debacle. The key for me is that I know I was/am unwilling to take the risks those on the other side did and over time I have had to wrestle with feeling like I am dumb or timid when the “risk takers” were apparently awash in wealth. Now I have some validation that my prudence was wise seeing that in many cases the risk taking has not paid off and may actually end up for many as a net negative. I just wonder what it was that separated those of us on the two sides? I guess it is time to go read Galbraith or whoever wrote the seminal work on manias.

p.s. twist, LOVE the anti-spam word selections!

it really is different when it’s someone you know.

sorry.

I put this cartoon out there and then I find out my cousin NEEDS to sell her house.

This is weird, I just got an email from my cousin who is an appraiser in OC. She says business has sucked for 18 months and she has to file BK and sell her home. She is spending lots of time working, but is getting nothing. Apparently she gets called to do preliminary pricing and when it comes in too low the sale is canceled and she gets squat. She said she is working harder than she ever has and making nothing do so. She said she has been depressed for 6 months and finally broke out of it far enough to realize she needs to get the monkey off her back.

She is a great person, but drank the kool aid. Now she is hosed and even the “bail outs” being bandied about in Congress will not help her because they require income. She has been living on her house ATM and unfortunately the chickens have come home to roost. Game over. I have been sending her my cartoons for some time with links to bubble blogs, but alas, the kool aid was too strong for too long.

I offered her a place to live if she needed sanctuary. That’s all I can do.