Then, there's this one from Rude Awakening. They asked their readers to give them "boots on the ground" reports as to what they are experiencing. This request was to broaden the scope for readers BEYOND the media reports. Here's one that really caught my eye:
From Nevada, a reader reports:
I'll give you some "boots on the ground!"
Until yesterday, when I met with a bankruptcy attorney, I thought I could financially survive this debacle. But it doesn't look like I can.
I live in Vegas, own a high rise condo at the Strip that is worth $125K less than the loans on it, am a 50% partner in an LLC that developed 4 fabulous warehouse buildings. Sold one a year ago but still have 3 warehouses for sale that have been sitting empty since built in January, '08, possess First Deeds of Trust with face value of about $500,000 that haven't made any payments in over a year (just now starting to foreclose to get property that can't be sold today) and are worth about 10-25 cents on the dollar (but have no idea when I will see it), have a $1M investment in a mezzanine loan on a high rise condo that is probably worth 30-40 cents on the investment dollar (but have no idea when I will see it), and of course I still have to pay my alimony, pay for my kids college and private high school education, not to mention my health insurance premiums (WHICH RECENTLY INCREASED 22% FROM LAST YEAR), auto insurance and every other daily expenditure to live. My retirement accounts are down 50% and my income from all sources has basically dried up (a few sales commissions and consulting jobs bring in some cash)...Bottom line is unless something happens quickly on the upside, I am in a bit of financial trouble.
The point is, there are probably tens of thousands, if not millions of people in the same overall trouble that I am in...and my story doesn't make the headlines!!! Perhaps it will as my BK filings will ultimately be magnified by those thousands who soon will flood the system with such filings.
I know for a fact that there are no green shoots...everything is browning out! After talking to my bankers who are about to foreclose on my warehouses, from my attorneys who tell me I am not alone and some of the most successful and well known developers in town are in worse shape, and from my "friends" at Bank of America, who after 4 months of trying to get a loan modification so I can continue to live in my hi-rise condo told me "NO" twice, once from their internal "Loss Mitigation" division who said I don't have enough income relative to my expenses to modify, and then from their "Obama Modification Plan" division because the bank had not sold my 2nd TD to FNMA, thus I don't qualify, clearly the world I am living in is not improving.
I only wish the "spin machine" of Wall Street would turn into a "truth machine," but I guess truth, integrity, transparency, etc. are not in our best interests!!!
