A home mortgage is the price people pay for having a house before it is fully paid for. The price the unfortunate homeowners must pay is very high indeed – they must repay more than twice what they borrowed.
Why would people choose to repay so much, in an uncertain economy, for 30-years? Why would people agree to risk losing their house, and all the payments they made, if they missed paying their monthly payments? The simple answer is that new homeowners are normally desperate, uninformed, and easily taken advantage of.
NO-INTEREST OPTION.
Potential homeowners should know that they have a better financing option. Couples can pay for their house in six years, instead of 30, and pay no interest whatsoever. To do this, a group of 12 couples must agree to form a company to build 12 starter houses.
Each person in the group must agree to pay the monthly amount that they would normally pay on a 30-year mortgage for a starter house, for six years. Two strong and durable starter houses (1,000 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1 pantry/laundry room, open concept), that can withstand Category 5 hurricanes and magnitude 7 earthquakes, should be built each year, with the final two being built in year six.
REDUCING RISKS.
There are several methods of reducing the risks of persons not paying their monthly amounts. First, the time is reduced to 6 years, by having each of the 24 persons make the payments. Second, it is for couples, where a person’s spouse can assist if there is a temporary financial challenge. Third, it is for a starter house, where the payments should be affordable for all participants.
To further reduce repayment risks, all twelve properties (houses and lands) should be owned by a company, that is owned by all the homeowners. After all houses have been built, the ownership of each property should be transferred to the respective couple.
In the event of death or disability, each couple should have term-insurance for six years, where the company is the beneficiary.
To address temporary financial challenges, each couple should have an emergency credit card, with a credit limit of six monthly payments. This card should only be used to make emergency monthly payments. To keep persons accountable, the credit card’s monthly statements should be copied to the company.
TERMINATION.
If a couple’s financial situation is so dire, that their only option is to use their emergency credit card to make payments for three consecutive months, then they will likely put the program at risk. The other persons will have to decide whether to increase their monthly amounts to assist the couple in need, or terminate the agreement with the couple. If a couple’s agreement with the company is terminated, then the company should take a short-term loan of the total amount that the couple contributed, for a duration of the remainder of the 6 years. The couple in need should receive the total amount that they paid, less the interest on the loan. A new couple should then be invited to take their place.
At the end of six years, the 12 couples can agree to either close the company, or build one house each year to sell and generate wealth.
BAD ADVICE.
The question is, if a couple can own a comfortable, strong and durable starter house in six years, and pay no interest, then why don’t they do this? Why would anyone pay more than twice the value of their house, and risk losing it if monthly payments are missed over the uncertainty of 30 years?
The simple answer is that they received bad advice, and should dissuade others from doing the same. However, if 12 couples cannot be found in Barbados, to demonstrate how wealth may be created, then we are doing the next generation of Barbadians a grave disservice.
This a topic that will not attract widespread comment because it is not one like GIS etc where people bashing will be the order of the day. However it is a very important one raised by Grenville. How do our people set realistic goals in a market place that is transforming, where signing on to a 30 year mortgage can be described as stupidity.
Tenure is not what it use to be.
Grenville
You missed the most critical points.
Where are the financial statements even pro forma?,
Where are the time value of money calculations?
Without these how could it be possible to arrive at your conclusions?
And we could go on to nail your idea to the cross all day long.
How would it be possible to compare your proffer to a 30 years mortgage unless you present financials with hurdle.
rates, internal rates of return, present values, future values, etc
More generally, we have basic problems with all suggestions for just building houses because you have not even considered the services people need from cradle to grave. Our experience is that such housing degenerates into slums
@Pacha
You are aware this type of “infamily” financing is how the minorities continue create wealth in Barbados and elsewhere?
Buy a house and rent it out so someone else can pay your mortgage and then rinse and repeat setting up a chain of more houses.
You still have to cover any shortfalls between rent and mortgages and any periods of no tenancy rental income.
There is unreleased equity that builds up so flipping homes by buying and selling will give you cash when markets are booming.
David
We are well aware. However, all the other aspects of community are held elsewhere by them. Central to these is economy. We don’t have that.
Moreso, we don’t have to do what they do. Let political leaders like Grenville give us a radical land reform, creating the space for us to spread out.
@Pacha
Come to think of it hasnât Grenville finished with working at the ranch? To be fair to him his core expertise is engineering re building. Let some others fill in the blanks who were so trained.
David
That is way he could build a business first and then build houses for the workers. Now you control the entire internal money flows cycle.
He himself admitted that jobs represent a risk to his plan.
Why
I dont understand the concept. You pay what you would on a 30 mortgage each month . Where you going to live and pay rent till your house is built. If you are paying rent and mortgage if they are somewhat equal doesnt that double your payments till yo get your house.
If the reason is to have a co-op of sorts is there sex involved? because somebody is going to take a phucking
Look by making bi-weekly payments instead of monthly you make one extra payment a year that goes directly to interest taking almost 8 years off a mortgage.
Sorry 6 years depending on rate fluctuations
(Quote):
Why would people choose to repay so much, in an uncertain economy, for 30-years? Why would people agree to risk losing their house, and all the payments they made, if they missed paying their monthly payments? The simple answer is that new homeowners are normally desperate, uninformed, and easily taken advantage of. (Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What about the thousands of workers earning minimum wages which food and utilities alone consume the bulk of their post NIS–deducted disposable amount?
How can these ‘economically-disadvantaged workers- many with families and currently renting from slum landlords- get their foot on to the small-scale and affordable property-owning ladder?
Or should the provision of affordable social housing to mitigate the effects of Covid-like events be left to the State which can award contracts to competent and reliable builders like you to supply low-cost but properly constructed structures instead of well known greedy rip-off con artists with no social conscience?
@Miller
Is it the reality some people because of their economic situation will not be able to purchase a house?
@ Mr. Phillips II
You’ve presented a good idea that’s worth further discussion.
However, I believe your “No Interest Option” seems not to be a realistic proposal for people earning a minimum wage or working in categories such as maid, driver, messenger, etc.
You mentioned establishing a company. It would’ve been helpful if you had included for our perusal, a sample business with pro forma budgets for the 12 month period of the first year and consolidated for the subsequent years. It could also include items such as any initial investment by the couples, the estimated cost to build the ’12 starter homes,’ prorated building costs and monthly repayment schedule.
****** You mentioned establishing a company. It would’ve been helpful if you had included for our perusal, a sample BUSINESS PLAN with pro forma budgets for the 12 month period of the first year and consolidated for the subsequent years. It could also include items such as any initial investment by the couples, the estimated cost to build the ’12 starter homes,’ prorated building costs and monthly repayment schedule.
@ David March 24, 2021 8:25 AM
Precisely!!
Isn’t that same reality rampant especially in the urban areas of the high HDI Barbados for everyone to see?
So why not focus on this glaringly disadvantaged lot by making available low cost affordable housing which GP 2’s plan appears capable of realising?
Why can’t the NHC engage him as a contractor to their long-standing housing solution challenges?
Or is he too an upright a guy to offer to shake the politicians’ hands with an outstretched greasy palm?
We know you might take umbrage to the idea (coming from the irritating miller) that the “GP 2” low-income housing solution might miraculously serve to achieve two policy objectives.
One, to keep the greedy hands in-every-pie Mal(m)oney fella from overfeeding from the construction sector trough; and secondly, to prepare the wicket for the housing demand from the proposed 80,000 additional residents “needed” to keep the NIS and economy afloat.
Before you build you need land. 4000 sq.ft. x 12 lots
OK analyzing this proposal is too much work.
I owned my house in six years without what Grenville proposes. I paid the mortgage bi-weekly and made a down payment on the principal on the mortgage anniversary from my income tax refund.
@ Dame Bajans,
You can’t compare red delicious apples with green dunks.
This isnt rocket science take the long mortgage and wait for inflation to kick in and you pay for it with inflated dollars. When I started one job in 1980 I was making 14900 a year today that job pays 130000 the house I bought way back isnt even the cost of a car today, take the long mortgage keep leveraging equity to buy other properties as you go along and you will be fine at retirement.
@David
This a topic that will not attract widespread comment because it is not one like GIS etc where people bashing will be the order of the day
++++++++++++++
There you go killing the goose……why reference GIS? The primary mover and shaker for “bashing” (your word) was PLT, one of the more erudite and polite persons on the blog and I don’t remember many other people’s name being mentioned except the Minister and he deserved every negative comment.
If people don’t comment on this is because it makes no sense to them and I seldom agree with Lawson but at the end of the day if they go that route someone is sure to get screwed.
@Sargeant
The reference was made to commenters.
Sounds somewhat like the traditional meeting turn, only with larger amounts and putting the collected funds into housing. Good. But looking at the rate of relationship/marriage breakdown, what is the likelihood that the 12 couples are still married to each other in 6 years time?
In other words if numerous couples can’t ‘gree with one another for 6 years, what is the likelihood that 12 couples can ‘gree for 6 years?
Loss of job or death can be taken care of by insurance perhaps, but who insures relationship breakdown, unexpected serious LONG TERM illness in spouse, parent or child? Who insures against unexpected pregnancies, multiple births, birth a a seriously disabled child?
@Lawson March 24, 2021 8:03 AM “Look by making bi-weekly payments instead of monthly you make one extra payment a year that goes directly to interest taking almost 8 years off a mortgage.”
I did something similar. Going from memory but I think that my mortgage payment was about $980 per month. My bank stipulated that I could not make pre-payments for the first 3 years. After that I started paying $100 per month extra and asked the bank to apply that $100 to the principal. I paid off the mortgage in 19 years and 8 months instead of 25 years. But and it is the big unexpected BUTS of life that can upset the most carefully laid plans of mice and men. Another child was born. Parents got old and sick, one long, long, long term. No health insurance. Which working class couple born in the first quarter of the 20th century had the means to purchase insurance which would pay benefits when it is needed most, that is when the person who has paid the premiums is over 85? I didn’t know any.
Grenville the engineer is the son of an accountant. Both honorable professions which place a high value on precision, on accuracy, on certainly.
Real life alas! is terribly messy. Real life is full of both glorious and inglorious uncertainties.
What to do when those uncertainties hit like a big rock?
We have seen this on BU before?
It is based largely upon savings than can be had by circumventing the financing methods used by institutions. That has merit.
And while it tries to consider some life events, it comes with the rigid structure we have come to expect.
Give me 6 employed Bajan single mothers any day!!! Hence, to begin with a limitation to ‘couples’, largely because their is perceived risk mitigation, is short sighted. And discriminatory.
I done. And I wish them well.
Why 12 houses for 6 couples?
6 houses in 3 years wouldn’t be better?
Or
6 houses in 12 yrs be easier payments?
@David BU, I guess you know your customers, ” not too much interest in this topic..” I had felt the same, asking black Bajans to get involved in a venture as out lined by the gentleman would prove as difficult as getting molasses to flow uphill. As my woman pointed out, there is some semblance in his idea akin to the meeting term/ Sou Sou.I could’ve done with less of her BS regarding how she paid off her mortgage under the stipulated time. What or how the hell hers or anyone’s good fortune is gonna help these young people own their own home? I have a property presently where four of those little fowl cubs at Coverly can fit into mine and I’m a single man, every so often it hits me that these young people aren’t gonna get shit…focus people, stop writing bull shit..
@WhityeHill
It is a hard world after all.
How fortunate that our ISO Taliban is not our Minister of Finance.
@ Grenville
An A for your idea. Wrong audience my brother. We were never educated to take risk or try new ideas. We were educated to watch and admire others succeed while we write what they did wrong and how they could do better. About forty or more years ago, I saw a man get in his Austin Cambridge , almost every evening after work and drove the length and breath of the country, encouraging his colleagues to join and help build a financial enterprise. Today, that entire profession is better off and less dependent on foreign banks.
“Just fill out the form and join the thing”. He left the financial gurus wherever they were , drinking Johnnie Walker black and pontificating and “winning” arguments. They are some folks who would come up with a business plan for Cheffette and Cave Shepherd. They will walk in there and tell the people what to do. Then they will travel, to Oistins and tell a man with a forty foot boat how to fish. The population is about 300 000. We have about 300 million experts.
Good try Grenville.
Would work with family oriented cultures.
I know of investments clubs that work something like that developing land.
But they start with families with money to invest, not a large amount, but enough to have a stake in the club.
They know one another and it just takes a single leader to get it to work and draw them together.
Many large families build wealth like that over a few generations because they are made up of smaller families.
There are legal mechanisms that facilitate the exercise developed years ago so it isn’t new.
@ John
“Would work with family oriented cultures.
I know of investments clubs that work something like that developing land.
But they start with families with money to invest, not a large amount, but enough to have a stake in the club.
They know one another and it just takes a single leader to get it to work and draw them together.
Many large families build wealth like that over a few generations because they are made up of smaller families.
There are legal mechanisms that facilitate the exercise developed years ago so it isn’t new.”
Thank you, Sir ! You are more than correct.
Sometimes we just like to spout what we read yesterday or last week. Our educational system and intellectual arrogance almost guarantees us poverty. We clowns need to use some of our abundant knowledge and research how hundreds of rural Barbadian families acquired real wealth without all the pretty talk that we think is so damn brilliant and impressive.
@ William Skinner March 24, 2021 10:31 PM and
You can’t be serious?
It seems as though you apply your personal ‘logic’ to every situation. The man and his Austin Cambridge you presented as an example to this issue is ‘comparing apples with oranges.’
I ‘said’ Grenville “presented a good idea that’s worth further discussion.”
Are you suggesting people should accept his proposal WITHOUT any queries, just because he is a Black man?
Someone asking for further explanations on how the proposal will work, which could be done by presenting a simple pro forma financial statement that includes estimated building costs and how they would be prorated among the couples, indicates that person is an expert or he/she is dismissing Grenville and wants his plans to fail?
I don’t know about you or any other BU contributor, the “300,000 population, 300 million experts” and the ‘Austin Cambridge man’ you mentioned…………….
…………… I’m NOT going to put my money on the ‘poker table,’ without KNOWING how to play the game.
William Skinner March 25, 2021 6:43 AM #: “Thank you, Sir ! You are more than correct.”
@ Mr. Skinner
I’m assuming your above response also applies to, John March 25, 2021 1:12 AM #: “Would work with family oriented cultures.”
Does Barbados currently have a “family oriented culture?”
Remember, this is 2021, so, don’t come telling me ’bout wuh happened in the 1930s, 40s, 50s or even the 1960s.
Just ANSWER the question.
@ John March 25, 2021 1:12 AM
“Would work with family oriented cultures.
I know of investments clubs that work something like that developing land.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Would the Bajan closed brethren community qualify as a good example to be followed by the poor (black) Bajan community?
What is your view on the government’s ongoing policy of ‘divesting’ itself of those NHC built and owned housing estates to its long-standing tenants ‘gratis’ with the only consideration being the write-off of those massive rent arrears and a vote for their favourite politician?
It is always best to invest money in all ventures without any due diligence, any measurements at all.
All one has to do is to follow those who espouse emotional bullshiite but have not a fucking clue how to distill an idea into a language understood by those who should.
Just follow what has happened in the past without reference to modern systems of management. For these are the same idiots who are here everyday opining about this same shiite by politicians.
With all these cherry picked stories and anecdotes from one’s own history. Where are the representations of failures. We are sure the stories based on emotionalism dwarf the feel good ones.
BTW, a regular house is just a place to live. Nothing more. Sometimes it maybe better to rent than to own. To lease than to own. These decisions can only be made through analysis.
A house is only an investment to the misguided.
@Pacha
Yes, a house is not an investment for some if you consider maintenance, insurance, mortgage interest etc. What happens in the life of owning a house is some of the requirements to maintain the home owning model is neglected.
David
Precisely. However, it may be a store of wealth. A bank account for some.
@ Artax
I have stated my position and its clear. I don’t have any questions to answer re : whether Barbados has a family oriented culture.
Interesting you stated : ‘Remember, this is 2021, so, don’t come telling me ’bout wuh happened in the 1930s, 40s, 50s or even the 1960s.”
BTW , you or nobody else prescribes or proscribes what I write. We agree to disagree and move on as we have always done.
William Skinner March 25, 2021 8:00 AM #: “BTW , you or nobody else prescribes or proscribes what I write.”
@ Mr. Skinner
Far from it, my friend.
How dear should anyone, especially an appallingly ignorant, learnt by rote buffoon, such as me, think about giving any consideration to doing so?
This is not about family ….the simple fact is some people are not meant to own a house just like some people are not meant to be landlords . It takes commitment to own a home , bills ins mortgage etc. have to be paid beforehand to be able to enjoy the lifestyle that comes with home ownership its not easy, upkeep is a way of life if you cant see yourself doing it rent.
.
@lawson
There is some truth to your statement, however, it does not address the issue at hand read how more people can aspire to home ownership by operating outside the traditional financial system.
David I have given a couple of ways that any banker will tell you to lower your mortgage, but the fact remains family and friends have screwed me over property and money and you think getting a group of people with no allegiance to each other to work on the kinda honor, socialist, capitalist hybrid system will work. Maybe if you are a bunch of hippies living in a commune spoking weed every day.lol
Lets for arguments sake you have to put 25% down that takes a lot of people out of the pool considering I used to read in the paper a court fine was 50 bucks or 6 months in jail and the people had to do the time.
How is this any different than halequin except on a smaller scale we each put in the money for a condo and when its done we each will own one but instead of halequin owner screwing you over it will be the general contactor overseeing the building of the houses.
Look, to buy property that ticks more than one box example can be commercial or residential , extra land that can be severed, ,in a tourist area so if you have to move out its rentable, the ugliest house on street that you can use your own sweat to fix up, remember profits off a family home are not taxable ( at least here) etc. Take the longest mortgage possible , pay it off with inflated dollars , take in a boarder if you can till salary increases , Qwning a home isnt solved by some new idea they have all been tried….. working hard and smart ,learning how to fix that water leak or repair that roof will let you have that house.
Families and friends working as proposed by Grenville will not be possible based only on an idea it makes economic sense. If you analyze the minorities who do it routinely working together occurs as a matter of cultural behaviour.
@Lawson
The recommendation to take the longest mortgage and pay off with inflated dollars run contrary to advice that is often given, but there is some sense in it. However, I still believe that people should try to own the property as quickly as possible.
I find the mathematics of Grenville’s proposal to be incomplete.
I will check again, but it seem as if he did not factor in the cost of land and the initial purchase of building materials.
He sees 6 couples as 12 individuals, where one spouse can step in if the other spouse falter. Family economics is often a joint effort and when we see one member of the unit having difficulty, most likely the other spouse is already in over their heads.
Where I am having difficult also is, if a couple go on an gressive saving campaign for six years, then at the end of it they should almost have enough money for a starter home.
Theo this is just an expansion of the money pool which everyone pays into and gets a turn at the lump some of contributions but if you are last what is different in putting your own money in your bank without risk. Now Grenville puts in the caveat that nobody gets title till all homes are built still iffy in my opinion
When you try to pay off your mortgage too fast other things suffer, vacations ,new vehicles dining out clothes ,braces university etc being a scot gives me a little insight into finances lol little not lot but I owe double on my house now than when I bought it 30 years ago , leveraging the equity in my house. let me buy other properties. Remember its not what you owe but what your worth. My buddy has 20 properties in our area …now because of people wanting out of toronto over covid…. prices in our area have gone up 30% math says he has made a killing , sure things could go the other way but its the banks money
@whiteHill March 24, 2021 6:25 PM. “…As my woman pointed out, there is some semblance in his idea akin to the meeting term/ Sou Sou.I could’ve done with less of her BS regarding how she paid off her mortgage under the stipulated time. What or how the hell hers or anyone’s good fortune is gonna help these young people own their own home?”
Don’t be so hard on me man.
I was not dismissing Grenville’s idea nor yours.
Just throwing out a suggestion for anybody who may already be paying off a mortgage, on how they can finish sooner if they wish and if they can.
A good year to you.
This article explained the concept. The next article should provide the numbers.
Come on Grenville
There is no distinction between concept and numbers. Indeed, the concept is essentially numeric.
To proffer some separation is a sleight of hand. LOL
We prefer you to be an honest engineer than a dishonest politician.
@Cuhdear
So it’s official ?
Pach:
You are, as normal, always wrong with your baseless accusations.
I have a word limit in my weekly articles. The first presented a description of the concept. The second is to present the numbers to support its workability. Wise up.
@Sargeant March 25, 2021 8:59 PM @Cuhdear. So it’s official?”
Lol!
I am a child of the sun.
Yes Grenville
We’ve been wrong about everything under the Sun.
And you have been and will always be a rightness!
No Patch:
You have been consistently wrong with your baseless accusations – always.
I am no longer in elective politics, so you do not need to continue with them. Why not simply, for once, just focus on the topic?
Grenville
It’s incredible the notion that you are no longer in elective politics..
And incredible only means not credible.
We are therefore wrong to have always assumed that your thirst for powah, so unbridled, could have been constrained by successive defeats.
Unlike most here, we have no determination to be right at anytime.
MillerMarch 25, 2021 7:26 AM
@ John March 25, 2021 1:12 AM
“Would work with family oriented cultures.
I know of investments clubs that work something like that developing land.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Would the Bajan closed brethren community qualify as a good example to be followed by the poor (black) Bajan community?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don’t know enough about their ownership model to comment.
I’ve collected about a dozen examples of families who worked together to build wealth.
The legal agreements and conveyances are practically identical except that the names of the participants and assets change.
In those examples, housing is a perquisite the company owes the individual company owner.
You don’t have to own the cow to drink milk!!
All you have to do is own the entity that owns the cow and you will drink milk, once the cow is productive.
Pach:
Again, you are entirely wrong in your baseless accusation – as is your consistent custom.
I have no thirst for power. I declined the BAPE presidency 5 times, before finally accepting it. I much prefer to work in the background, as I have for most of my career.
This is all easily verifiable, but it never stopped you from spreading lies, and encouraging others to do the same. Wise up.
There is HOPE for some.
” Government is off to a good start towards achieving its goal of 640 housing solutions in this financial year, breaking ground earlier today on construction of 165 middle-income units under the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) initiative at Vespera Gardens, Lancaster, St James.”
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/03/26/govt-launches-hope-project-lancaster/
We need to see more of these type of innovations across the sectors Hants. Let us hope it comes to fruition.
I hope the housing project comes to fruition as well.
But, why establish a company, HOPE Inc., to undertake construction of the houses, when the requisite resources could have been invested in the NHC?
Such ‘political maneuvers’ always arouse suspicion of untoward motives.
A ‘special unit,’ for example, could have been established within the NHC, for the specific purpose of constructing those houses.
All many of the statutory and quasi government corporations need is an urgent reform of their operational procedures to improve efficiency so they could effectively fulfill the duties they were originally mandated to perform.