When Does Being Equal Really Mean Equal?

 

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

Have you ever tried to buy a HUD home?  I know that most reading this blog have no desire to try to buy another home.   The closest thing to another home they want is a homebase for their RV. They had trouble getting rid of the home they had just so they could get on the road in their RV after retirement.

HUD home purchasing has been around for a long time and sometimes you can get a great deal.  In the past the homes available weren’t as good a deal but this economy and the sliding value of homes has changed some of that.

We have never purchased a HUD home.  Heck, I never really thought much about HUD homes.  Bidding on them wasn’t that popular in my book until recently.  Now I’m not real estate ignorant.  When planning my retirement from an airline, I got my real estate license and worked in that field for a while.  My timing getting into and out of real estate was good.  Homes were still going up when I started and the slide downwards was just beginning.  However, it was nothing like we’ve seen in the last couple years.  I did work with several short sales at the end but working with HUD homes or working with land sales was definitely not my thing. 

 

With that said ….. Tammi and her husband found a HUD home and wanted to check it out.  As a matter of fact, we all checked it out since they  thought they might bid on it.  That’s about the time we all got a little education about HUD homes. 

First, the home can be offered as Lottery or offered as an Exclusive.  Usually an exclusive means that one particular real estate office holds the listing and the home isn’t submitted to the multiple listing service.   To HUD an exclusive means not everyone can buy it. HUD has several selective bidding programs which opens homes only for bidding to certain people.  The bidding changes from lottery to exclusive to extended.  Basically it means that to begin with bidding on homes that had been guarantedd by the government and then foreclosed on are only opened to specific employees of select nonprofits and select government agencies.  Okay, with their stipulations of owner-occupied, I can see that for HUD employees as an employee benefit.  Most companies have some type of employee benefit.  However, I believe it should be at market rate.  If not, guess who's picking up the tab.  You got it!!  The taxpayer would be buying it ... again.

HUD has a Good Neighbor Next Door Program (GNND).  We wondered …. what is that??  This is what we found out.   Only people working in certain fields and for certain employers are able to bid on some homes.  They get the first chance with lots of incentives and some stipulations.   Only if none of the “right” people bid, is the home even offered to the general public.  Who are the right people?  Who does HUD consider to be good next door neighbors?  It’s all based on the employers?  Well, the employers vary just a tad between federal government  county or city employers, etc.  In other words they are all jobs funded by taxpayers in one way or another.  It's not all employees working for these entities but just certain ones.   I read a little about it and the whole idea was originally to move teachers, police officers and firemen into these neighborhoods.  It’s a type of neighborhood improvement.  I’m sorry, folks, a job doesn’t make a person.

I’ve known folks in all of these professions that I would never want to live next to. I also know people in those professions I would want to live next to just as much as I would want to live next door to a nurse, a mechanic or even a store clerk.  So, why is it that people in these jobs are considered an enhancement to a neighborhood where others might not be?  We've read the news.  We know there are good and bad in every job.

It actually doesn’t stop there. 

A value is placed on the home for what HUD feels it is worth at that time.  Many of the homes aren’t in the best of shape but some are.   What do they actually pay for the home?  They are allowed to buy it for 50% of the listed price.  As an example, if the home is listed at $200k, it is available for sale to this special group for only $100k.  All they have to put down is $100 with home, closing costs and repairs all wrapped into one loan.  Doesn’t that sound like you (as the taxpayer) get to subsidize the home a second time around?   Now with the offer of half of the current listed price, taxpayers subsidize it again.  If the home does not sell during this period it is then offered to the general public.  There is no 50% subsidy and your tax dollars would not be contributing.  I just don’t get the special treatment and why taxpayers are picking up the tab for half their house.   No wonder we have a huge deficit.  Was this a pork belly bill?

I understand extra benefit given to veterans on civil service tests.  I do not understand the GNND program and why one segment of employees are considered better in a community than others based on who they work for.  Give the young veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan the discount.  Give him the benefit and help him get into a home.  That I would understand.  This I do not.

Remember this Equal Housing Opportunity symbol.  That is required on all ads for housing by realtors.  I’m wondering now what “equal” really means. 

Being equal means different things at different times.  Some have found when job searching that they may not be as equal as they thought they might be.

My question to you is, "When does equal really mean equal?

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.  I am all for equality but I just don’t get this.

‘Tis life on the road.