I am a total sucker for late night HGTV/TLC viewing. I love “Jon & Kate Plus Eight,” the Duggars (and whatever title they’ve got for their show this week), any house flipping show, “Property Ladder,” the list goes on. One show that seems to be on regularly on HGTV is “Property Virgins.” The show essentially follows a first-time home buyer as they look at three different houses found by the host and realtor, Sandra Rinomato, and eventually the buyer makes a decision on a house, or they decide they’re not ready to commit.
Often, the show starts off telling how much the buyer was pre-approved for their mortgage loan, how much their down payment is, and some of the top priorities the buyer wants in the property. This is where the show pisses me off on a regular basis. Let’s say a couple (let’s call them the Smiths) is looking to buy a house.
The Smiths: “We’re pre-approved for a $350,000 loan and we have enough for a downpayment of $30,000.”
Sandra: “Great, so you’re looking in the mid-300 range.”
The Smiths: “Well, no. We’re not really comfortable taking on that high of a mortgage. We’d like to stick closer to the $290’s.”
Of course, this makes sense. The couple is new to the real estate game. They’re going to have tons of unforeseen costs because they’ve never owned a home before. What if a water heater breaks? What if there’s a huge storm and they have roof damage? The buyers are usually also about to start a family, so they’ve also got TONS of associated costs with having a new baby. I would hope most people watching the show would look at the Smiths and think they’re making a sound decision at that point. They’ve run the numbers, and they know what amount of mortgage they’re comfortable with. Not Sandra.
At this point, Sandra says something along the lines of, “Well, the bank pre-approved you for $350,000. The bank has run lots of numbers on your credit history, debt-to-income ratio, etc, and they know you can afford it. Besides, you’re looking at the larger number rather than the monthly payment. The difference between a $290,000 mortgage and a $350,000 mortgage is only about $300 a month.”
Who the hell hired this lady?! I’m sorry but $300 a month, for one, is not a small amount of money. That’s $3,600 more a year, and it doesn’t even account for the increased amount in taxes for the higher mortgage. But even beyond that, I cannot believe she suggests that a bank knows better than the couple what kind of mortgage they can afford. The bank does not write the buyers’ budget every month (if they have a budget). The bank is not out shopping for groceries every week for the buyers or making sure they have enough money to pay for their electricity bill. I find it absolutely preposterous that this woman pushes higher mortgages on people because they can “afford” the monthly payments.
The only upside to this is that most episodes, the buyers stick to their guns. They continue to say that they cannot afford such a high mortgage and Sandra, the idiot host, takes them to more reasonably priced properties. Please, someone at HGTV, please tell Sandra Rinomato to stop assuming that a bank knows more about a buyer’s finances and comfort level than the buyer.
