Are you the next target?
I discovered BiggerPockets as I searched for a HardMoney Lender to fund a deal involving a Farmington HIlls, Michigan office building. I was excited to discover a treasure trove of valuable information in the Forums, Podcasts. etc. Ann Belamy's BP 09 Hard Money Lending was a terrific introduction. I was excited to get more insight with another hour of great ideas in BP 16-- dealing with Seller-Financing, Private Money, etc. but to my dismiss I heard only a 4minute announcement that "We had to remove this program because new legislative ' Dodd-Frank' rendered many of its recommendations illegal."
To any who have ever thought, " There ought to be a law....." I would respond that our Patriot - Founding Fathers were compelled to a revolutionary war because their overseers imposed too many laws that impaired their ability to realize their desired liberty and pursuit of happiness.
In Fall 1978 my Real Estate Finance professor made a political announcement to our class as a preface to that day's lecture. " Today it is now illegal for any lender in our state (Idaho) to make a mortgage at prevailing market rates." Well-intentioned but informed lawmakers had determined that no lender should ever charge more than 10% for a mortgage loan so they wrote Usury Laws that forbade any higher rate. The problem with general price inflation greater than 10% no rational entity would commit money to loan when economic conditions rendered his transaction a certain loss. The Idaho State Legislature was called to an emergency session to change the statutes or else the state's economy would grind to a halt.
I eventually made Real Estate Finance my full-time profession. During that time I have witnessed many new laws championed by idiotic politicians. Without exception, every one of those laws has denied access to funds and denied home ownership to people who could have enjoyed property ownership if there were a free market.
The number of workers in my chosen profession, mortgage brokerage, is down by nearly 80% from its 2007 peak. Without exception profitability of each transaction has been slashed because of the ramifications of Dodd-Frank and its associated Consumer Finance Protection Board. To those that say " They had it coming" mortgage brokers earned too much. I respond that transaction costs did not get reduced to benefit consumers. The net result is that big banks, especially those that were deemed "Too Big to Fail" were empowered to grow even larger as they were actually given money to devour their former competitors.
Chances are that the readers of my post did nothing to stop this terrible development because they believed that they were not being harmed.
If you did not protest when my business was being harmed by over-reaching regulators because your business was not directly targeted, I ask you . " WILL YOU BE THE NEXT TARGET ? "