This housing mess is getting worse and worse. Banks are not lending, more homes are going into foreclosure, and the President and his people and yapping their jaws about how everything is fixed. We know it's not. We see it every day. The banks are not working with people, they are not doing short sales, and there is no such thing as "Obama's Help for Homeowners" Nothing is happening that all this stimulus money was set out to do. Commercial Real Estate is on the brink of disaster.
Curtis tells me daily this whole mess could be fixed if Obama wanted to, but for whatever reason, he wants to tell everyone it is and not do what actually needs to be done. The banks are the problem, and until they get their act together nothing will change. This recession started with housing, and it won't end until housing is fixed. If you talk to anyone in Real Estate, or who deals with banks or relies on lending for their business they understand the true problem and don't understand where the "Economists" are coming from saying this is over.
I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started calling my congressmen, and Senators, letting them know what the banks are not doing. The person that answers the phone, acts like they care but I know as soon as I hang up the phone the issue is already forgotten. I knew I was getting nowhere so I started doing a little research on the internet about senate banking committees etc. I started calling Washington. I finally got the name of the man that deals with banking legislation, Brian Filipowich. I just like to say his name is Filipowich. I don't think I was supposed to get his name. The receptionist slipped late one Friday afternoon after he was gone for the day. She probably just likes to say his name too Filipowich. Every time I called back they did everything they could to not get me through to him. So I found him on Facebook, I sent him a friend invite, but he never accepted. Not surprised since he had no clue who I was. Although I did send him a message through Facebook. I was still getting nowhere.
Once again I called our Congressman, Jeff Flake, and asked for a meeting. By now I was getting more familiar with what terms to use, so I sounded almost like I knew what I was talking about. They told me what to do to request a meeting, but that didn't mean he would meet with you. Congress was soon to get out for their August recess so the timing was good. I called back a few days later and I was shocked. Congressman Flake agreed to meet with us.
Last week, Curtis and his right-hand man James Wilson met Congressman Flake for the meeting. They are on the front lines of this mess, they see the trends, they see the problems with the banks, etc. Curtis went fully prepared armed with his charts and graphs.
Going into this we didn't expect that much would come of it, but we felt we had to do our part. Between the time that I set up the appt. and the actual meeting, there was a two-week gap, during that time the Health care debate really started to heat up with town hall meetings, etc. Jeff Flake was also opposed to the original stimulus (TARP) and he pretty much votes no on everything, which isn't all that bad.
Curtis and James met with him he was very nice, they show him the charts and graphs and the disaster that we are headed for and the congressman says something like "hmmm that is bad, wow those numbers are scary...what do you want me to do about it???" Curtis says "well you are my representative and this is what you could do, raise FHA limits so more people could get lending, prevent more homes from going into foreclosure, or make banks accountable to get the short sales done before the homes go into foreclosure yada yada yada. " He gave him several ideas to get legislation going to prevent long-term disaster. He says "no Health care is a big deal right now, and in his own words I don't see how this would really get me re-elected." WHAT???? You honestly don't care that we are headed on a death spiral?????
I honestly didn't believe this meeting would go anywhere, but I did think he would at least give reasons why he couldn't get legislation passed something like " I'm only one person in congress and the republicans are the minority this would never fly" or "such and such bills would have to pass before we could move onto this" no he didn't even care to try, not unless it was on his agenda for re-election. In the meantime, we will watch and wait as more people lose their homes, more banks will fail, commercial real estate will implode, and unemployment rises, but "the recession is over." As James left the meeting he said "he is nothing but a talking head" He acted like he was interested and he cared, but when it came down to doing something about it meaningless words just spewed out of his mouth."
