Comments about ‘Readers have little sympathy for real-estate 'gamblers'’

We signed all the paper work yesterday on a home for us-affordable, in excellent condition- an investment only in that someday it will be sold when I move on. That house BTW was never on the open market. The owners were transferred, house for sale, we were told of it, and we bought it. Had we not, two others were standing in line, wanting to move in. Not an "investment". All depends on why one is buying/selling. If a person is goign to invest, rather than occupy, recognize sometimes things go sour. And live with it.

One problem - all of the real estate investment "hucksters/coaches" who sold real estate as a "can't lose" investment opportunity. Most of them charged for this excellent advice. They are part of the cause of this problem, but they have walked with the money that they have (fraudulently) taken from their "students". They didn't invest, they charged people money to "learn" how to invest... and then steered them towards properties they received commissions on.

The laws of supply and demand are pretty much immutable. If the cost of buying a home means that you have to rent it for more than other rentals in the area, then either pray to be lucky enough to get the foolish/rich renter, or expect to take a loss. At some point you run out of homeowners who can afford to buy/live in homes available, and then you are at the mercy of the rental market. $200K-250K houses as rental properties makes no sense, but people bought them anyway because someone promised that they were a "good investment". Buyer beware - and maybe even think things through for yourself.

I have friends who sold their houses at the top of the market. They took the money and ran. They did not share their earnings with anyone and are doing just fine. Why should we bailout their buyers who got stuck???

Where's the sympathy for financially-responsible younger familes with excellent credit scores, moderate incomes, and money in the bank. We've been forced to rent for years because people like this real estate investor and others drove the price of housing up so high that we could not afford to responsibly buy.

That's a large part of the reason you are reading so much anger and emotion. A sizable minority of the population--mainly Gen Xers and Gen Yers--have been hurt by the housing bubble, forced to put their dreams on hold.

All that policies like Obama's do is delay even longer our chance to become part of the homeowning class.

I agree with Anonymous it's sad for the young buyers.....eight houses? Greed Greed Greed...at least they could have had the sense to deal with one investment house at a time. I don't feel sorry for them at all.

You gamble... you lose... too bad.

Homes are not worth more than 7 times the yearly income they bring in in rent. Like PE ratios for stocks, this is how you determine how much a home is worth. When people learn this, they will not be overpaying. People should also save up and pay cash. Paying interest is simply paying rent on money. But it is a lot cheaper to rent the home from a homedebtor or homeowner, rather than rent the money. Just because one can afford it, does not mean one should pay the asking price. I don't smoke or drink, but I could afford to. I could also afford to pay $1 million cash for a home, but that would be stupid. The less you pay, the better. I'm waiting for homes to hit $100,000 or $200,000 again on the coast. It has been years since we had a good earthquake and the TV covered the damage 24 hours a day. Even the overpaying margin borrowing fools don't pay much when that earthquake damage is being shown on TV.

I feel for them, only because I feel bad for ANYONE who is having a hard time. However, that is where it ends. The key word is GAMBLE.

If you gamble and you lose I don't feel bad for you. You took a RISK that you shouldn't have taken. The word GAMBLE means "an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success." That right there is something you should not do often. Now there are justifiable risks, like starting a business, but hopefully you don't put yourself in risk of bankruptcy. You should always EXPECT something back for your investment. If it is up in the air you should do something else.

Some people got absurd amounts of money and won, and they are surely not sharing it. The government shouldn't bail these people out.

When you make a financial decision you reap the rewards or the pain. Your choice, no one else. Don't cry or whine when things go sour. You only have yourself to blame.
The problem here is the savers and people that watched their money are now paying for your mistakes and to top it off we have to read articles about you whining.

What is most irritating is that for a person simply wanting a home as refuge, the market has become so exploited and distorted over the years by people like this that you're stuck renting -- and holler it from the rooftops all you want, but frankly, renting sucks after a while - especially if you're wanting a more stable environment (harder to find a landlord who isn't a speculator) and are sick of moving every couple of years or every year, in some cases.

What was once a privilege to the disciplined and prudent became a free-for-all for larcenists with a misplaced sense of entitlement. As a result, the mere idea of buying a house has become anathema to anyone with any sense -- which, granted, is a rare enough breed. I have saved diligently over the years, but I wouldn't dream of subsidizing someone's greed with my hard earned money. I'd rather buy a freakin' Airstream!

There are plenty of people who were priced out of markets like Washington DC, Boston, NY, LA, San Francisco, etc as the bubble expanded. Now they get to pay the freight on Obama, Reid, Pelosi et al burrying their "American dream".

As a part of that section of the population, I highly resent that I am unwillingly being forced to subsidize other people's ignorance, greed or stupidity. One of those three is to blame when a home owner finds themself in trouble with a mortgage, whether you want to admit it or not. The Democratic leadership in Washington continues to put forward individual bailout plans are ill advised and highly irresponsible while paying short shrift to a much larger segment of the population. The Democrats helped create this mess, but they are single handedly compounding it. The more they do to fix the bursting bubble, they longer they will prolong it and the more expensive it will get.

This is what we get when we all life long politicians to serve in Washington. Their goal shifts from representing the best interests of their constituants, to getting reelected. And shame on all of us for reelecting them year after year.

Why feel sorry for those that invested and lost? That is the chance you take in our Capitalistic system.Is anyone who made a lot of $$ borrowing from the banks giving extra money to the bank after they made huge profits? NO. So why shouldsomeone who lost be forgiven? I personally made lotso fmoney flipping over 40 houses during a 10 year period but I also lost a lot of money toward the end. I loaned several clients money and will never get paid back becasue they went under so should the government or banks bail me out of those losses? No, I took a chnace and risk and most of the time I won but not all of the time. No Risk..No Gain. No Pain...No Gain. High Risk=High returns. Low Risk=Low Returns.

We as a nation will learn nothing by this. Financially irresponsible people are being bailed out and those that did the right thing are left to pick up the tab.

Thanks to the government bail outs, the real estate speculators that got burned will learn nothing. As soon as the market turns around, they will be right back at it. What incentive do I have, as a bank or an individual, to be careful when I know that if things go south my big brother, the federal government, will be there to bail me out?

As horrible as the Great Depression was, it ushered in years of financial responsibility, and consequently, prosperity. I am not advocating for another Depression, but when society as a whole does not feel at least some measure of sting from its irresponsibility, then it will not take long to be right back where we are now.

I have no sympathy whatsoever. In fact, not only should get file for bankruptcy but they should be put in jail for a year so they learn that greed is not good. 8 homes - how greedy can they be. The only acceptable reason to buy 8 homes is if you have enough money to pay upfront for each of the 8 homes..i hope they get what they deserve..

I think we should have a moratorium on real estate investing. I have absolutely no sympathy for the investors getting into trouble even if they lost their jobs or got sick. Investments are subject to risk. If you have 8 houses that are beyond what you can safely afford then you are clearly intoxicated with risk and should fail. I don't care if you can't sell them. Everything sells at the right price, and sometimes that price is half or lower than what you paid 2 or 3 years ago.

A lot of younger people like myself would love to buy up houses but people are refusing to lower their prices. I'm left sorting through foreclosures and short sales...most in disrepair or with uncooperative tenants. The alternative to that is to stay with family because many rents are just as high as mortgage payments. Investors like the one chronicled in this story have priced normal people like myself out of the market for years by greedily hoarding housing. How about some sympathy for me and other families who were forced to sit this out or overstretch to achieve their dreams?

Since homes became a speculative vehicle, it is but obvious that it would behave much like a stock market does. No one shed a tear for the people who lost money after the 2000 bust. Why are homeowners special? In fact, this whole game is costing renters in two ways. First, some of their tax money is being used to bail out the losers as well as banks making bad mortgages. Secondly, many renters have been shut out of the market because of the absurd prices and have to play the patience game waiting for normal prices to return. Shed a tear for them, not the greedy and irresponsible homeowners who overreached.

Real estate has never been an investment. When one sells a home, he is lucky to get back his loan interest, repairs, taxes and insurance. However, we all have to live somewhere.

Believe it or not, today there are bidding wars on inexpensive foreclosures in Phoenix. People claim they are paying cash for these "investment" properties. However, they are using borrowed money from credit lines at banks. You see, the mentality has not changed.

Get ready for another drop in real estate sales prices and more foreclosures. Lending continues to tighten and unemployment is still rising.

The hardship is not so much the investment / "gamble", but that they bought houses using borrowed money. Like buying stock on margin. Unlevereaged investors should be able to wait out the market more so than those who borrowed to buy. It reminds me of the couple who took equity out to pay for their kids' college education and when the kids eventually paid the parents back, rather than pay down the mortgage, the parents bought stock -- they've gambled twice and now both their house and portfolio are down. I'm sure these people thought they were smart, and it probably helped that mortgage interest is tax-deductible.

This is embarrassing. Both sides are whining like 6 year olds. Come on, I literally am sick from reading this article and the comments. People who sit around and feel sorry for themselves and blame everyone else for them not having what they want are exactly why we are where we are.

@Big Dragon....no we don't have sympathy for you either. You go off on your lack of sympathy for others then you blame them for your problems and ask for sympathy? It's not other peoples fault that you live in live with your folks. Get over blaming others and do something about it.

@mike...thank you for taking responsibility for yourself, its nice to hear one person do it.