Underneath this Pile of Paper

We've read and reread all of the documents, emailed back and forth so many times I think even my gmail is tired, and texted with the various parties and vendors all to reach the same conclusion that in a few days we'll finally own something.

A tiny place to call our own that is metro accessible, has garage parking (gasp!), a little balcony, and requires no actual work to be able to inhabit it (beyond of course my our OCD tendencies to change things). Once the ink is dry more on our new little place.

However, what I have been thinking about is how not simple mortgage paperwork is for consumers. Seriously, Truth in Lending Act, there might be truth in there, but you did not make it easy to find.

Forget market euphoria driving people to make delusional decisions about how much house they can afford. Let's talk about how dense and complicated we've made the purchasing process.  I've lost count of the number of times we've stopped someone in the process and said "Can you explain that again?" "Why do these numbers not actually add up to this other number?" "What does that mean exactly at it relates to this other item?" "What are the ramifications of doing this vs. that?"

Given that people often just smile and nod when you explain something to them, even when they don't understand, I can only imagine how this paperwork tsunami washes over folks and leaves them gasping for air.

Of course you say, for important decisions like this they'll pay attention. Really? And while I'm not alleging that the banks can make consumers read the paperwork, the paperwork could be more legible.

It's more examining the process as a whole and considering people who are far more intimidated by this process, unsure what they can and can't ask, and who feel rushed. Why would we feel the need to rush people into something they have financial obligations on for the next 30 years? Surely with all of the fees we're now paying to process all of the paperwork the new Lending Act requires, someone could actually say, "hey, we should think about the consumer in this process and not just try to rush them through the paperwork."

We're indebted to our realtor for filing in gaps of knowledge along the way, but what about the people who have representation that isn't as knowledgeable and they don't even realize it. The fact that people are staking their financial futures (in part) on sometimes a leap of faith is disconcerting to me. I'm beginning to have a new appreciation for all of the stories of people saying they didn't understand what they were signing. I'm not willing to accept it as a blanket excuse for bad decisions, but it certainly points to a continuing need to figure out how to greater empower and educate consumers.