When I began the prequalification process for a vacation home in the spring, the mortgage consultant gave me several options. One option was to pretend that I was going to rent out the home and then use the expected income to justify the loan! When he suggested that, I recalled the years leading up to the housing collapse that started in 2008 and thought, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Of course, I rejected that option–Momma didn’t raise no liar. I prequalified in a more old-fashioned way.
At any rate, I found this video on the potential Airbnb ticking time-bomb interesting. Some people maybe got a little ahead of themselves by qualifying for risky mortgages premised on imagined perfection. These dreamers were perhaps some of the same people with whom I would have had to compete for my vacation home. That would make them one of many reasons I tabled the vacation home idea.
A couple of adages that I’ve had in my quiver for a long time, now, have served me well.
“Get off the stage while they’re still laughing,” and
“Nothing good happens after midnight.”
Well, the comedy show has been running for a long time now, and the hour is late.
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present.