When Brenda and I bought the townhouse we could not believe how much money the bank would loan us. We didn't even need my name on the loan at all to buy it. We bought it under just Brendas name and got some serious tax advantages. I still owned a townhouse that we rented out.
Brenda could have easily gotten a loan she could not afford. One that the two of us together could not afford!
We showed restraint. We knew what size house we could afford. We spent hours drilling the numbers in spreadsheets, analyzing budgets. We played it conservative. Leveraged both townhouses into our current house. Once again, %30 down and a loan we could afford.
That was the key. We bought what we could actually afford. We borrowed what we could afford, not what they would loan us. The Jugheads that took the loans the stupid banks allowed them are the ones that snowballed this mess into a meltdown. Everyone gambled the Real Estate market would continue to climb. Banks and borrowers.
--Gambled and lost.
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