Should There Be A Test To Get A Mortgage?

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As an accountant, I have a lot of insight into how my clients live their lives.

More so than perhaps their friends, family, and neighbors do.

I can see how much they make each year.

How their investment portfolios are doing.

How much they spend on housing and more.

The most telling thing I have seen is how poorly people manage their money.

Particularly so when it comes to their homes.

I have seen a surprising number of people working to avoid foreclosure.

Some of the people had simply made poor choices by purchasing more of a home than they could possibly need.

They didn’t properly account for the costs to maintain the homes or property taxes.

Some even got in trouble when their ARMs were reset at higher rates than they anticipated, causing a major strain on their finances.

Granted, the lenders didn’t make much effort to go over all those things.

They were more than happy to hand over the keys based on an ability to cover the mortgage alone.

It got me thinking about what consumers would do if they were relieved of these burdens.

If they were able to start over again.

Whether they actually learned something from this financial mess they are in, or if they would simply fall back into their bad spending habits.

This last idea got me thinking about all of the people who have gotten into trouble by overextending themselves with mortgage payments they never should have taken on in the first place.

Back to when I was looking to buy my first home.

How the state-sponsored down payment assistance programs required each applicant to complete a course on homeownership.

I am now left wondering if that should be applied to all future mortgage applicants.

Education is a major key to success in any undertaking, and finances are no exception.

The problem is that many first-time homebuyers think that they only have to pay the mortgage payments, along with the regular set of bills such as:

Just like they did when they were renting a home.

Unfortunately, things like insurance, upkeep, homeowners association dues (again, depending on the region), property taxes, special assessments, etc do not even cross the minds of many first-timers.

Especially those who do not have a support system around to warn them of such expenditures.

The point of the homeowner’s course was to make aware all of the applicants in an effort to prevent them from getting in over their heads with these unplanned or unforeseen costs related to homeownership.

Granted, not all people are ignorant of these facts, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

All drivers are required to take exams, both theoretical as well as practical before being licensed.

Results show that some people just are not meant to be licensed to drive a car.

Owning a home is a responsibility just like driving a car; it takes certain knowledge and skill ie: being able to budget for all necessary expenses.

Just as with driving, not all people are cut out to own a home.

Once they are made aware of the responsibilities and potential ramifications associated with failure in this regard might cause some people to realize (for the better in some cases) that homeownership is simply not for them.

And, the same way that a driver’s license can get revoked for violating traffic laws requiring drivers to go through additional courses and re-certification, perhaps the same needs to be done for those who have gone through prior foreclosures as well.

After all, wouldn’t it make sense for the governments-local, state, or federal, either one(s)-to take preventative measures to ensure that all mortgage applicants are educated as to the responsibilities of owning a home rather than waiting for problems to arise before being forced to deal with these issues.

It would certainly reduce the chances for another housing crisis to emerge in the future

It would prevent the federal government from having to bail out both the lenders who were blinded by profits in giving mortgages, as well as those who had no business even accepting a mortgage who couldn’t possibly afford them.

There can be no finger-pointing here, the blame goes to both parties in this instance.

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2 Comments

  1. We used to have to take a Family Planning Course in High School and part of the course was budgeting for a family.  I think all HS students should have to take a financial literacy course that includes budgeting, retirement planning, debt management. etc. 

    1. I’s hard to disagree, but when you consider that many kids come away from their primary educations still unable to read or do math at a decent level (or even know their own state’s capital city for that matter), arguing the merits of adding yet another course to an already taxes education system probably won’t fly. I’ve always been of the belief that most things start at home: the talks about sex, drugs, smoking, and yes, money. Unfortunately, even that isn’t a great option in many cases, but perhaps somewhere down the line people will start to figure it out.