I really wish the media would just SHUT UP. I mean it - for more than 20 years the ONLY media sources that have had anything nice to say about REALTORS have been industry-published real estate magazines and journals. So it's no news that the media's favorite whipping post - after the war - is the equally-evil world of real estate practitioners.

Now, let's be fair: I pick on REALTORS all the time in my blog. But, actually, that's what I'm paid to do: help the real estate industry improve by pointing out its insanities and, from time to time, it's opportunities. And my reputation stands for itself: my company has helped more REALTORS improve their service to the public than almost any other training company nationwide. Certainly more than the "required" CE hours that most government agencies require agents to take (mind-numbing courses on the ever-changing never-clear agency law) in which not even a quiz is required to determine if anyone was awake...

But this stuff about the mortgage crisis - and the REALTORS' supposed-role in creating it - is just about enough to make me scream. Even for a battle-hardened industry insider like me. Granted, I personally feel that the a lot of the market downturn has been facilitated by the real estate industry itself: From the top all the way down to the street, every possible bad-news item has been given center-space online and offlne - while plenty of normal markets and decent sales chugging quietly along - but out of the news. Yet now, to consider the level of garbage spewing from the mouths of journalists, intellectuals and politicians, I just have to say: SHUT UP ALREADY!

For starters, you don't know what you're talking about.

There is NO SUCH THING as predatory lending. That's right, I said it. NO SUCH THING. Now, mortgage industry, listen up. It's time to get a spine and some self-respect. Just look at the word: PREDATORY. That means someone hunted someone down and forced them to take a loan on pain of death. That's what predators do, right? They hunt their prey and either kill them, or, in this case, somehow force them to do something against their will. Now, I'm not saying there weren't a fair amount of of "lies of omission" happening during the hot-market-bubble; and I'm certain that some mortgage brokers lived on the edge of perhaps-not-so-perfectly ethical. But nobody - and this is absolutely certain - forced anyone to sign mortgage documents. Period. I can't find a single story of a mortgage banker holding a gun to the head of an applicant and forcing them to sign away their life's savings.

For two reasons: First, the applicants were begging the brokers for the loans. And second, all of the consumers in so-called crisis didn't have any savings!

Look at this carefully: the vast majority of loans in crisis were to people with no savings. They put no money down, and financed everything, including taking second mortgages at the same time as their first to avoid paying PMI. All of which was perfectly legal and continues to be. Now, I'm sure this isn't everybody, but let's face it: Nobody who put 20% down on a mortgage on a fairly-priced home (didn't get into a bidding war) is in any crisis of any kind - even if they had an adjustable mortgage and their property value has dropped 20%. Oh, sure, there's some perfect storm crisis out there: the guy who spent all of his savings on his downpayment, in a bidding war for some property in downton Boston when he should have just walked away and found something more to his affordability - AND he has since lost his job and now sells hotdogs for a lot less income - and sure, he's in a mortgage crisis.

BUT whose fault is that? The sellers? The financiers? The REALTORS? Just who thinks any of these people was going to stop Mr Emotional and his Hysterical Wife who had to live in that overpriced property - even if it meant an interest-only loan and all of their savings - because, well, if they didn't make a high-bid soon, the property would be gone soon.....?

.... which is exactly what the MEDIA was saying in all the hot stories back during boom! Want to talk about culpability? Let's go back and read some of the real estate sections on media websites and newspapers where the frenzy was fueled by the very same journalists who are now milking the sob-stories to sell more advertising.... But you knew that, didn't you?

And let's be doubley-clear: MOST buyers did NOT have buyers' agents during the boom. So the SELLERS' agents had a FIDUCIARY (means, legal responsibility) obligation to represent the seller which did not include disabusing the buyers of the notion that bidding against other buyers for the property was not so good..... If the REALTORS had tried to put the chill on the bidding, then I'm sure the media would have been up in arms that the REALTORS were somehow harming the sellers' ability to get the most they could from the sale of their home.

But never mind that. Let's get back to the media darlings: The Sob Stories. First, I readily admit I have NO PITY for them. Caveat Emptor. I've had good luck and bad luck in my life: and I was taught to just pick myself up and keep going. But that's not the media's line here: somehow, all of these buyers were duped, suckered, snookered, taken-advantage of and outright exploited by lenders who were in cahoots with the REALTORS.

Now, let's just stop right there: First, it's the LENDERS who are suffering the MOST here. Who's losing money? NOT the 100% financed buyers! The LENDERS are losing because they won't get their money back, and stand to lose a lot on the principal loaned even if the house goes to foreclosure. The "owners" who were financed up the whazoo are simply going to go back to being RENTERS - sure, with a black-eye on their credit - but that's the price all of us pay when we overextend ourselves. No sympathy out there for people who max out their credit cards on RingDings and Xboxes, is there? No, drop-kick them right into bankruptcy (again, a lender absorbs the pain) and let them go back to paying cash for junk-food and busfare.

And in the third ring, just in the back of the circus, there's the REST OF US: We are feeling the pain - even though we're perfectly good credit-risks and pay our bills on time. First, it's harder for us to get credit now, because lenders have to implement more loops-and-hoops to double check they aren't about to get in more trouble (and if not, the government is about to make them do this anyway). And secondly, we're the ones who are STILL PAYING PMI INSURANCE - which is a false-economic instrument designed to make the credit WORTHY pay to insure against the credit UNWORTHY. So you can imagine why I have no sympathy for the poor sods who got to live in fancy-schmancy houses (nicer than mine) for the last three years and paid no principle on their loans.

But back to the main stage before we go: Watch the lions jump through the hoops. The media has stirred up the ringmasters - the politicians who will exploit these sob stories to the max and make every "exceptional case" the poster-child that proves the evil-intent of the REALTORS and lenders. Why not? Who's going to believe the mortgage rep - who had a family to feed and a mortgage of his own - when they say they provided all of the legal disclosures and statements required by law. Oh no! It was their responsibility - according to someone, somehow - to have counseled the consumer on how to live their life and manage their finances. Sure, that's the message being hammered on the REALTORS' heads now: You're not just helping people buy a home: you're suppossed to fix their credit, create a budget for them, help them save, even pick up their dry cleaning. And of course, use a stick to beat back all those even lenders who are just prowling around the unsuspecting, doe-eyed buyers who are so confused about life, the universe and everything.

Check the premises, folks. Look at the facts. Who is really being "harmed" in this market meltdown? Who is losing the most money, having their reputations tarnished, being politically scapegoated and taunted in the media? Not the credt-unworthy, no-income-verification, can't-read-a-HUD-statement-but-won't-ask-a-question consumer. Once again, the evil empire has been revealed for what it is - a money-hungry, predetary pack of wolves just preying on unsuspecting-sheep consumers.

I can hear the lawyers sharpening their knives now. And the politicians pens are dripping with more ways to regulate the market. And the foreclosed-upon have their palms out ready for taxpayer-funded handouts to salve their (self-infliced) wounds.

So.... WILL THE MEDIA NOW JUST SHUT UP?