Larry’s Daughter Told Me A Story
August 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pm by MicheleI could write at great length about this, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I could tell you about a guy named Larry who owns a construction company in Florida, who hired a Mexican guy named Luis a few years back to act as foreman/translator over the other non-English speaking employees. I could tell you that Luis was a good employee and a good son who saved enough money to move his entire family to the states. I could tell you how the housing market tanked and Larry no longer had any work for Luis, so he was unemployed when he was looking for a home. I could tell you how a very upset Luis called Larry from a mobile home lot, trying to see if he could borrow money for a down payment. Unfortunately Larry was broke too. I could tell you how three hours later, Luis, the unemployed illegal immigrant called Larry. He was elated. “Obama gave me the money!”
You might say. “Well that’s a bit shady. Actually sounds a bit like fraud. Maybe someone should turn him in.” My Mister said that too.
Guess what? What Luis did is completely legal!
16. I am not a U.S. citizen. Can I claim the tax credit?
Maybe. Anyone who is not a nonresident alien (as defined by the IRS), who has not owned a principal residence in the previous three years and who meets the income limits test may claim the tax credit for a qualified home purchase. The IRS provides a definition of “nonresident alien” in IRS Publication 519.
What about proof of income? I don’t know. All I know is that he has a Clayton home now.
Now there’s this sneaky little thing in the healthcare bill that I read about over at Ace’s place.
These accidents of ommission seem so intentional.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Yup.
I’m “in the business” so to speak. And right now there is a mad rush for everyone to grab their free gubbermint handout before it expires.
Here is what sickens me…I qualified a woman in one of my territories who was looking to buy a home who had:
* $11,000 in income last year
* Extremely marginal credit where a glitch in the credit scoring models gave her a barely qualifying credit score (by 1 point)
* Earned income credit and child care tax credits (which she took despite having her mother watch the kids…do you think she is an audit risk?)
* FOURTEEN dollars in the bank
* A 22% down payment grant funded by Obama Stimulus money through a local non-profit organization
* No housing payment history (she lived with her mother)
Believe it or not, using that stimulus money (despite not being able to prove the ability to pay her bills or take care of herself) she “qualified” to purchase an $80,000 home with an FHA loan.
Keep in mind…there is more to owning a home than making the mortgage payment. And where she lives, the electric bill alone is more than 15% of her monthly income during the summer time (and if cap and trade hits?!?!) and she has less disposable income with which to feed her two children after making a house payment, utilities, gas and insurance for her clunker car (which she had not yet traded in)…
I refused to originate the loan. She was flabbergasted and upset that I was cheating her out of her $8,000 tax credit. Fortunately, Bank of America was willing to step in and originate the loan. I guess they know that Barry has more money coming their way if they do more crap loans…
August 28th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
They’re more like Bank of Central America. You go and visit their branches and there are tellers with big gold epaulets on their shoulders and wearing mirrored sunglasses indoors.
The bailout of the banks has punished the good, responsible Lenders who had previously been forced to compete with the highly leveraged, unsecured Lenders. The government essentially replenished the bad Lenders’ coffers so they could continue to make risky loans.
What’s LIBOR today? What’s the cost of funds of a Lender who buys their commercial paper off the street?
That’s of course when they make loans and don’t just keep the money in the safe to offset the 2nd wave of foreclosures that’s coming when the states’ unemployment runs out.