Get rid of commissions in real estate

Re: 'Imagine housing without a secondary market' (July 11)

Dear Editor:

I disagree with almost every one of your comments on your 10 points. This entire real estate system -- banks, lenders, secondary market, Wall Street, appraisers, title companies, real estate brokers -- are all bundled up into nothing more than a den of thieves.

The best thing that can happen to this country is to go back to the basics. Live within your means. Save. No free lunch. Get rid of the commission-fee-based real estate system and you get rid of the greed, crime, fraud and outright den of thieves.

The sooner the system goes broke and disappears, the better off this country will be.

I have been in and out of the mortgage and real estate business for 40 years and it is a mess and is as dishonest as anything I have ever seen. The only ones who won't admit it are those who need to screw the next seller or buyer so they can make their payment on their house and car.

You have a good site. It is full of informative and helpful information. But when it gets right down to it, let them all fall where they belong, out of business and down the road.

David Scott
Las Vegas, Nev.

Dear Editor:

I read your article with interest. I agree with most items listed. But in item eight you write: "Those that do lend will revert to back-to-basics underwriting: perfect credit, large down payments, proof of income, personal character and good family upbringing." My fear is that there will not be people who can make the judgment on someone's personal character and family upbringing. We have made those values obsolete and instead judge each other by a number.

Ligia Jamieson
Realtor
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Dear Editor:

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Brad. Only you left one source of revenue for those who know how to handle it: buying and selling mortgages as I did in the late '80s and early '90s. Like you said, sellers will be selling with their financing. They can go further: As soon as the wind changes, there will be loan companies and individuals out there trying to buy up the paper. So, make that number 11.

Dick Dennis
The Landed Gentry Publications (Capitol Real Estate & Funding)
Sun City, Calif.

Dear Editor:

The last paragraph is one of the best and most succinct descriptions I've read of the moral content of the housing crash. And here's a few more "imagines": Consumers bring magnifying glasses to all mortgage doc signings and realize that folks making a profit from the sale are making a profit from the sale. They also start seeing houses as homes, not rungs on a property ladder.

Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Mondo QT
Albany, N.Y.

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