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Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Bitner
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $10.51
You Save: $9.44 (47%)
New (31) Used (10) from $10.51
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 24537
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0470402199
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.7220973
EAN: 9780470402191
ASIN: 0470402199
Publication Date: June 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Former subprime lender Richard Bitner once worked in an industry that started out helping disadvantaged customers but collapsed due to greed, lack of financial control and willful ignorance. In Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance, he reveals the truth about how the subprime lending business spiraled out of control, pushed home prices to unsustainable levels, and turned unqualified applicants into qualified borrowers through creative financing. Learn about the ways the mortgage industry can be fixed with his twenty suggestions for critical change.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Doesn't get better than this August 24, 2008
C. Blakely (Washington, DC)
To be honest, I was a little skeptical reading a memoir of the mortgage meltdown from a 6'4'' tall subprime lender with a thick goatee. However, after slowly creeping into the tales and unfoldings of Bitner's subprime lending company, my prejudgment began to fade and I was hooked. While allowing a smooth mixture of anecdotes from the subprime industry coupled with detailed descriptions of a few of the first mortgage backed securities which were sold to investment banks, there is a good chance that Bitner's book is most likely the best on the market for the mortgage and real estate non-savvy. Being a fairly easy and quick read (I read it on a plane ride from San Diego to Washington, DC), I learned more about the failing credit market reading this book than the likes of Philips' "Bad Money" and Morris' "Trillion-Dollar Meltdown". Bitner's description of how mortgaged backed securities are packed and sold from start to finish and how the incentives of credit rating agencies are completely lost and tangled up due to greed couldn't be more informative as well as entertaining.
One would tend to be swayed into thinking that Bitner lets himself and other subprime lenders off the hook in terms of being caught between greedy investors thirsty for more MBSs to tranche up and sell off and the sleaze-ball mortgage brokers looking everywhere they can to sell a corrupt loan package. However, we see clearly that when a mortgage broker commits fraud, the lender must prove it to make the broker buy the loan back; a nontrivial task requiring much capital. Thus, fraudulent brokers were simply denied business. The investment banks above the lenders who bought the mortgages only needed proof that fraud has occurred to force the originating lender to buy it back; an unfair disadvantage for lenders as Bitner tells us he found over 70% of brokered loan applications submitted to his firm were fraudulent, forged, or false. The real problem of the subprime meltdown? The sleazy mortgage brokers.
Quite an entertaining read of our latest financial disaster while being thoroughly educational. Bravo Mr. Bitner.
 Descriptive, but lacking August 23, 2008
another opinion
This book will basically confirm what you already know about Subprime loans, if you believe that lots of people knew the system was broken, but chose to look the other way because it was profitable. The author talks about how the system encouraged and accomodated fraudulent players, while "consciencious" players (such as the author's firm, of course) played by the rules and remained completely above the fray. The author was shocked by the behavior of other subprime middlemen, but his company made millions and grew due by focusing on these types of loans.
It's a quick read, and useful if you know nothing about the industry, as it identifies the basic players participating in the provision of subprime loans, and their functions. I suspect you could get as basic a primer on the internet for free, without the specific examples provided of system abuses.
prime time truths August 20, 2008
John Garibaldi (Camano Is. , WA)
I liked the book, and it reminded me of how greedy and corrupt
human nature has become, all in the name of the almighty dollar.
This has been an extraordinary demonstration of pyramid schemeing
to the nth degree.
Layman's book for understanding Subprime and how the mortgage markets work August 17, 2008
mrc (CUPERTINO, CA United States)
If you want to understand the current Subprime crisis, this is the book for you. I was trying to find some books in Jun 2008 on this Subprime and Credit Crisis topics since from reading the daily news on this, I didn't have a clue what is subprime, prime and all these.
At that time, I found only this book on the topic of Subprime, which was just published 1 week ago then. I was skeptical of this book, but had no choice but to try this book.
I am glad i picked it up. The best thing about this book is it's presentation of these complex topics in a simple and interesting way with practical experiences and case studies from author's experience as a Subprime lender. It starts with how mortgage markets (both prime and sub-prime) work, the roots of the current crisis and author's suggestions for resolving the crisis. Though this book mainly focuses on Subprime, you will get a good idea of how mortgage markets work in general.
This book may not be a complete look at the Subprime since author's experience was not vast in this field and also his experience seems to be more as a Small Subprime mortgage lender.
Also, one complaint I have about this book is, author's pompous tone, especially at the beginning of the book.
But, despite the above, I think, because of the lucid way author explains the things, this book is more than worth its weight and very helpful in understanding current Subprime crisis. So, i am giving it 5 stars.
I was reading this book along with another good book The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, which is a macro level take on the Credit crisis. I recommend both the books.
Confessions of a Subprime Lender August 4, 2008
Sage
Am in the process of reading this book. So far, I like it. The writer uses humor to get his point across, and it adds to the quality of the book. The old saying, If I don't laugh, I'll cry, certainly applies here.
Recommend it.
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