Laurie Thompson admits she needed to sell her townhouse in Smithville, Ont., fast.
The pandemic had done a number on her finances — the bar where she worked had shut down, twice — and rising interest rates meant her monthly mortgage payments of $2,000 were going to almost double last January. Thompson was facing foreclosure.
“I was desperate,” she told Go Public.
Thompson had seen street signs and posters in her neighbourhood — companies offering to pay quick cash for houses. She’d even received what appeared to be a hand-written flyer in the mail, advertising a hassle-free cash sale — no renovating, open houses, or Realtor commissions.
She hit the internet and found a company with positive reviews and attractive promises called Honest Home Buyers Incorporated (HHBI), based in nearby Hamilton.
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This woman owned more than one home and could no longer afford one of them due to interest rate changes.
I have reread the article multiple times and can’t find anything that said she owned multiple homes. Where did you get that info from?
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Assumptions make an ass out of u and me.
Well, to be fair, they mostly just made an ass out of him…on your side it just resulted in wasting time trying to figure out what he was talking about. If you had repeated his assumption it would have put you in the same spot.
I think the correct phrase is when you assume it makes you an ass. Not quite as clever, but more accurate.
I think the correct phrase is when you assume it makes you an ass.
It’s an old-timer’s play on the spelling … ass-u-me.
But you’re right. If I would have believed it, then I would have been an ass as well.
That’s a big assumption there, and I think people are going to find out just exactly how hard it is to compare renting to owning after this ridiculous bubble again. Renting isn’t any more expensive than owning, you just don’t end up with equity….which sounds like a horrible trade off in view of the crazy bonus homeowners found in this market where the equity jumped ridiculously upwards. But all these guys have the chance to see their investment turn upside down and the equity will look more like a noose than a pile of cash.
Honestly, a lot less disastrous than I thought it’d be. She used a sketchy realtor to sell her house but still got 90% of the value.
And, maybe this is just the Vancouver in me talking, but expecting two months to sell a house, wat?
yeah 90% aint bad. I looked up the ug buys ugly houses thing and they evaluated the price fully renovated then took out the expected cost of renovation and then like an additional 30%.
This is somewhat evocative of that thing in The Big Short where I believe a stripper or waitress of some kind has like 7 houses and has to roll the “moment” the subprime crisis kicks in for her particular use-case
Edit: there doesn’t seem to be any evidence in the article itself that supports the claim she was a multiple-property owner. I think the use of various buzzwords may have led to a misunderstanding. Maybe lower our pitchforks a teensy bit and defer judgement until the story expands or some eagle finds said deets
I can’t see a reference to her owning multiple homes in the article.
Do you have a link for that info?
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You seem to be working hard to blame the CBC for your error.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The pandemic had done a number on her finances — the bar where she worked had shut down, twice — and rising interest rates meant her monthly mortgage payments of $2,000 were going to almost double last January.
She hit the internet and found a company with positive reviews and attractive promises called Honest Home Buyers Incorporated (HHBI), based in nearby Hamilton.
The website promised other advantages, too — “more cash” in a seller’s pocket, a quick closing date, no Realtor fees and it claimed homeowners sometimes get a cheque “the very same day!”
When HHBI owner Mike Chow arrived at Thompson’s townhouse for a walkthrough last January, she told him her employment had been sporadic, the mortgage lender wanted her debt paid off immediately and that she was struggling emotionally — a few months earlier, her partner had unexpectedly died from a heart attack.
“It’s clearly preying on people who are desperate and vulnerable,” said housing-market analyst Ben Rabidoux, who dislikes how the contracts lock sellers into terms that cut them out of potential profits.
Rabidoux, lawyers and real estate experts Go Public spoke with all expressed concern that homeowners often don’t understand what a “cash for house” deal actually means — all saying the contracts are often misleading and unethical.
The original article contains 1,473 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 86%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
