Has your house been repossessed?

G

grazia

With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.
I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.
I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
 
grazia said:
With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.
I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.
I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
Click to expand...

Hi Grazia, just wondering why you only want to speak to a couple or a woman?

Cheers,
Nick
 
It sounds like you are going to write one of those columns that we all have so much fun pulling apart and critisizing. :D

Seriously, it sounds as if you have the gist of your article already, and just want some examples to back you up. What about doing some real journalism, and actually finding out if people are is as much 'stress' as all your media buddies seem to report.
 
The email address provided by Grazia corresponds to an Erin Miller who works for Grazia magazine (thanks google). Given that the magazine's home page spruiks the following headlines: ''Lara Bingle tells all'', ''Shop the look: graphic prints'' and ''Shrinking Jen's desperation diet'', I'm not sure we can expect hard-hitting investigative journalism. That's not necessarily a criticism - I'm just pointing out that it's a fashion-women's mag (which might also explain why Grazia wants to find a woman or a couple of talk to). Just saying.
 
grazia said:
With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.
I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.
I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
Click to expand...

When you do find these people, make sure you include in your interviews just exactly what their spending habits versus their income is as well.

Most "cry poor" interviews on these types of issues never tell the whole truth.

Will you be the first to do this for a change?

I'll bet not. Your editor wouldn't let you.

Why not?

Because the majority of readers/viewers are yer lower middle class/poor who want validation for their actions (or lack of them).

Who wants to watch ACA, Women's Day et al, and see interviews on the people who get off their arze and do well?

Certainly not your Shazza and Dazza out in Endeavor Hills with the 'formadore and the plasma in their Jennings 4 x 2 or their rented digs.

It just wont rate; wont sell the paper/magazine or get the ratings.

They want to associate with those like them; the battler, the down-trodden, the hard-done by.

read my sig.
 
So what, people love watching stories about other peoples downfalls, why do you think hit shows like Jerry Springer, ACA do well? Why do we pay to watch action moves, just look at Iron Man 2, another box office smash about some hero who blows things up. :D

People like watching people go dowwwn and feel good about themselves.
 
yes - but one does get tired of watching/reading about someone crying poor, that the bank repossessed their house because they owed $5,000 ... only to see a 2yr old car in the driveway, big screen plasma in the living room and a gold dog collar sized necklace on.

most of these people one see's has better furniture than i have!!
 
grazia said:
With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.
I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.
I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
Click to expand...

I'd suggest that you might be advertising in the wrong place. I doubt many regulars here would be likely to have experienced this level of financial hardship.

Maybe we could suggest some more fruitful forums?
 
grazia said:
With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.
I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.
I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
Click to expand...
Why not show both sides of the story,might make some people wake up, start with the get rich quick property spruikers-high flying real estate agents and do the numbers on who turns up on the night and signs up on the night without even going away and looking at the contract, and what happens in the end over a 5 years period 1 year in investing terms is just a bump in the road..
willair..
 
Well, just to be contrary, I think it's a good idea for a magazine to run stories like this journalist wants to.

It would just be a tiny blip of negativity in the huge river of information that people read implying that its one's civic duty to buy a house as early as possible and you are a failure if you don't. Well, that's codswallop, but the media bangs on and on about it in payback for the revenue stream from the RE industry.

There seems to be no Life Maths education in schools going on about mortgages, compounding interest, good debt versus bad debt etc etc, so all these young kids get their information from the mainstream media which is heavily biased in favour of whatever the RE industry wants.

That is one reason why these completely ignorant and unprepared kids get themselves into trouble. And then they get derided for the utterly stupid decisions that they made. If young people don't know what it is they don't know, and the media doesn't write about some terrible decision making, how else will they ever find out?

Go for it Grazia - you won't find your interviewees on this site but I hope you find some elsewhere because the reality really needs to be told.
 
You're right Amadio, there is a need for that sort of education and that sort of thing has been said here often. But I suspect Grazia's editor doesn't want that sort of story.

If they are looking for a story about how people lost their house because they weren't able to make payments, the angle won't be that they got into this predicament because of stupid decisions. They will be painted as victims.
 
Amadio said:
There seems to be no Life Maths education in schools going on about mortgages, compounding interest, good debt versus bad debt etc etc, so all these young kids get their information from the mainstream media which is heavily biased in favour of whatever the RE industry wants.

That is one reason why these completely ignorant and unprepared kids get themselves into trouble. And then they get derided for the utterly stupid decisions that they made. If young people don't know what it is they don't know, and the media doesn't write about some terrible decision making, how else will they ever find out?
Click to expand...


Are you serious ?? So it's either up to the school or media....and if they don't come up with the beanies....then that's it ??


I dunno, I was sort of thinking that maybe the parents might have something to contribute in this regard. I know we aren't leaving the children's financial security up to the poor teachers nor the idiot left wing media. I know plenty of parent's in this suburb are also teaching / guiding / nurturing their offspring in wise money matters.


Aside from parents, which should always be the main source of info, even if the kid has a bunch of financial loser's as parents....and looking around they count in the millions in this country, if they have anything at all burning in their belly, then parents will not hold them back. There is always a very rich vein in all libraries that deal with money management. Plenty of free books available if they have any inkling at all.


OK, it's not quite as sexy as a Pink concert, but then who cares. Actually, I take that back.....it appears that almost everyone aged from about 14 thru to 24 can't think of anything other than fiddling with their bits and other kids bits and couldn't give a rats about this boring subject of making money. That's for the old fuddy-duddy's above 25. If push comes to shove, we'll just crawl back to M&D and they'll cough up with the bread. Too easy !!! Now let's party.....
 
grazia said:
With recent rate rises and the global financial crisis many people have been placed under immense stress with paying their mortgages.

How did the GFC put stress on mortgages?
GFC actually decreased mortgage stress because the RBA dropped rates to their lowest historical levels.

I'm a journalist working for a weekly magazine and am looking to speak to a couple or woman who have had their house repossessed recently because they were unable to meet payment requirements.

So you want to speak to someone who bought a house during the GFC when rates were at historical lows, and are now struggling as rates rise to their historical mean? Because anyone who bought a house pre GFC were paying much higher rates pre GFC than now.

Maybe you mean someone who took up Mr Rudd's FHB bonus.

I can appreciate this is a difficult subject to discuss so any interview would be handled with sensitivity to the stressful situation you've been in.
Please do email me if you'd be willing to speak on [email protected]
Click to expand...


Or maybe what you are looking for are people who lost their job due to GFC, and had subsequent mortgage stress.

Well Erin, the chart below (ABS6202.002) reveals women aren't the right group to find those most adversely effected by the GFC. It's actually blokes. But your story is about 10 months late, because the unemployment rate has been going down in that time.

And in fact Erin, anyone who thinks unemployment was bad during the GFC, wasn't around in the early 80s and 90s (that's the two big mountains on the chart dear)

So how bad unemployment was during GFC?
It only increased the number of women looking for f/t work by 1 in 200. That's 300% less inconvenience for women than men (because an additional 3 in 200 men had to look for f/t work.

Go figure.....



unemployment1.jpg

 
I wonder what sort of opinion Erin is getting of people who post on property forums.

It is a tragedy for anyone to lose their house. Yes, in these situations people often make poor decisions, such as spending habits or buying poorly, but that doesn't make it any less sad for those who lost their home.

The point about media such as ACA doing the 'woe is me' stories is well-founded, and I agree with much of what has been written here.

I just wish we could make the point with a little less smugness and condescension.
 
Last edited:
Biggles said:
Maybe she could change the article to the other topic in the media so much; the rich, mean, nasty, smug, evil landlord property investor. :D
Click to expand...

I think I saw an ad for ACA or Today Tonight a few weeks ago, showing a bad tenant! I didn't see the story, though. Maybe I was dreaming.:confused:
 
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