Part 5 of 5 of a series… [Part 4]

Component One: Job creation and income.

Component Two: Flow of Credit.

Component Three: Foreclosures and the Destabilizing of Home Ownership amongst Black Families in America (i.e., ‘predatory lending scams’).

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Q: Does Black America create jobs for one another like white people create jobs for each other, even as they toss us the future-less leftover jobs out of the bottom of the job market fire sale basket? A: No, we do not create enough jobs in the Black community to wrestle ourselves out of everyday and all ways workplace racism.

Q: How do we treat credit? How do we need to treat it? Credit should mean as little to us as it was meant to mean to us – de nada.  It is not “safe harbor” for Black America, at all. Do we need it, or are we subjected to it because we have no other options? A: We are subjected to credit. It brings with it high race-baiting implications. Everything from ‘redlining’ to ‘blacklisting’ to ‘white papering’ is embedded in credit stipulations, but there is good news to go with it.

Ownership is always better than debt.

As long as no one is giving us any retail marketplace credit without giving us a hard time about it, we will always be forced into ownership and they will forever be in debt. In a nutshell, that means that your $100 in cash is worth more than their $1,000,000 of debt, but then there is the converse of that: The economic majority is always figuring out new ways to get that $100 out of your pocket and into theirs in order to pay their debts and leave you dead broke.

3 How do we keep this destabilization of Black economic flow, income, and loss of land, home, hearth and property (these revolving door financial effings) from ever happening again?

President Obama stated that “we” must move away from using foreign indebtedness as leverage to stimulate economic growth, and that “we” must also take a long hard look at the improvements needed in our healthcare system in order to make it all worthwhile. Well, we got Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act. But we did not get what we asked for, which was expanded Medicaid, Medicare, and Veterans Benefits for all. We did not get universal nationalized health insurance – guaranteed for all Americans. Yet. But it’s coming, because it has to, whether the GOP likes it or not.

In the meantime, the economic powers leveraged and hedged bets on Wall Street based on how much of our future income they could get out of us in order to pay THEIR bills. This “foreign indebtness” was someone deciding that they could squeeze money out of us forever by making it harder for us to live on a daily basis — harder to grow and flourish in our own economics, and easier for us to give up, throw in the towel and turn it all over to them.

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That is not cost containment for Black America, that is a cup running over for white America in this wise:

Here is what you do:

1- Take advantage of what is available, not what is not. New and more creative initiatives come out of what is readily available. Black people have never lost their ability to create, but it has been “twisted” into an unrecognizable form by those who teach you only to beg them or starve. UNTWIST.

2-Never sign ANY document or documents for higher interest rates at more than prime-plus 1 percentage point REGARDLESS of your credit rating. Your interest rate has NOTHING to do with your credit rating. The two have never been intertwined by any stretch of the imagination.

3- Never pay more than $1.50-$2 per thousand for Lender’s Title Insurance. You do not need Owner’s Title insurance EVER, and if you do purchase it, it is no more than a 50-cents to $1.00 “add-on” policy.

4- Check your appraisal. Inflated appraisals are an automatic loss of mortgage home equity before you make the very first payment on the home loan.

5- Form a Black Housing Coalition of Lawyers and Real Estate Professionals in your area in order to protect your interests, as they form places like ALEC to protect theirs. Then FUND IT. The revolution will not be televised, but it must be funded. We cannot get anything done without throwing our money and backing behind it.

6- Be aware of the signs of a predatory lender/broker/RE agency. Read Michael Lewis’ books, and know the warning signs before you sign. The buyer’s agreement, the GFE (Good Faith Estimate), the Promissory Note, the TIL (truth in lending document), the escrow accounting disclosures, and the security/warranty deeds are the most important documents in the file. Everything else is known as “Junk Docs” – including other DISCLOSURES, which are written with verbiage to protect the Lender, not to protect your rights or vested interest in the home you are trying to buy.

7- Try before you buy. Rent the house for a stipulate period of about 12 months and let it be known that no less than half (50-percent) of your rental payments will be used toward the Good Faith down payment on the house, or no less than half will be refunded in cash IF you do buy it. If you decide not to buy, all payments are counted as rent only.

8- Check the deed for ownership/title and to see if there are any potential foreclosures coming up on the property, and to be certain that title is vested in the person who will be signing the ownership (title or warranty) deed over to you.

9- Get a paralegal’s help with reviewing legal documents if you can’t afford a lawyer of your own. If they cannot produce preliminary docs for your review at least 3-7 days ahead of closing, then tell them there will be no closing and that you do not expect to see any surprises or additional fees AT closing, if it happens. It should include a GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE (gfe) with the numbers on it.

10- EVERYTHING is up for negotiation.

DO NOT SIGN ANY “BOILERPLATE” (those stock, pre-cut “all for me and none for you“) AGREEMENTS or DOCUMENTS, ever.

Members can always contact us at the King’s Town Family Foundation & Trust if you need help with any of these matters.

References

Return to: PART 1