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Mortgage brokers the new estate agents? - 18 July 2008

Posted by Paul Collins No comments

Traditionally, estate agents have found themselves in the same unenviable bracket as tax inspectors, dentists and lawyers in the list of the most despised professions in the world. Seen as dishonest, money-centric and generally preying on the needs and vulnerabilities of the general public, estate agents have long been part of that ‘necessary but evil’ section of the working world. Now, and with the help of a US-based website, it appear mortgage brokers are ready to join the select group.

US real estate agent (what does she have to boast about?) and website creator Lisa LaShawn has decided to take aim at the mortgage brokers in the market stateside that she sees as offering bad advice to homebuyers by launching a couple of mildly controversial websites selling anti-broker merchandise. Her aim is to provoke regulation in the mortgage industry there, and help to protect buyers from what she sees as predatory brokers out for commission alone.

Visitors to her sites, www.IHateMortgageBrokers.com and www.AngryMobTshirts.com, will be invited to buy t-shirts and sign a petition calling for official regulation of the mortgage industry in the US. Brokers offering sub-prime mortgages have been blamed for much of the root cause of the property crisis in the US, as borrowers unable to pay their mortgage installments have defaulted and left hundreds of thousands of properties in foreclosure, the equivalent to repossession.

"Many foreclosure victims were duped into bad loans made by unethical mortgage brokers. They pushed adjustable-rate mortgages like candy without warning people about the hidden pitfalls, like negative amortization and prepayment penalties," LaShawn said.

Real estate data group RealtyTrac last week reported there were 252,363 foreclosure filings on US homes in June, up 53 percent from June 2007.

While wearing a t-shirt proclaiming hatred for the mortgage profession as a whole may not be the most effective method of affecting change in the unregulated finance systems, it shows the gulf in protection for the consumer here and in the US.

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