CHESSNOID

When I graduated from college in 1988, there was a recession in full bloom. I had no real world experience and after 3 months of searching for a job to start my career, I became less picky about what job to take. The job market was extremely competitive and there were many more qualified people for the jobs I was interviewing for and actually wanted. The first company I worked for was a finance company that originated and serviced the loans. That’s a fancy way of saying they would try to sell or telemarket loans to people and then collect on them when they became delinquent. I remember hating this job, but loving the fact I was no longer unemployed. I stayed with them for about 2 years and went through a formal training 18 month management training program. We did signature loans, secured household goods loans, auto loans and both 1st and 2nd mortgage loans. Successful collections required repetitive calling and following up on broken promises till the loan was brought up to date. Very basic principles of collection.

Through out this time, I became very proficient in this field. I really didn’t want to but I did. I was a natural because of the calmness in my voice and the deepness of my tone. I have been doing collections for almost 20 years on and off. When I did mortgage collections at this company and later on at a few other mortgage companies, I got to experience the whole process from the lender’s side. The part where they protect their financial interest and try to minimize their losses because they had investors to answer to. After awhile you actually start calling on the same people that you collect on and get to know them on a personal level. You basically know everyone by name, their payment habits, recognize their voices like old acquaintances when they call you back, and even predict which excuse they will give you for the month.

While reading my favorite financial blogs, I came upon this link: http://drhousingbubble.blogspot.com/2007/07/foreclosure-story-how-does-process-look.html#links . I have always like the mundane details of actual numbers. This blogger does a great job in capturing the physical numbers of this couple’s budget. This is probably a typical orange county couple in the real estate field. The lifestyle described is something you would watch on Housewives of Orange County. Dr. Housingbubble recounts the lead up to the financial difficulty, then gives a good month by month summary of all the numbers exploding into an uncontrollable financial situation. There are some really good comments made by some people who give good insight like this blogger. A lot of people are going through the foreclosure process right now, and unfortunately many more will join this process once their loans re-set with higher payments. I read that 10% of Orange county homes transactions are because of foreclosures and they expect it to increase.