No sympathy

I just read this:

By all appearances, Aaron Wider is the chief executive of a flourishing mortgage bank in Garden City, issuing more than $33 million in home loans to buyers across Nassau and Suffolk counties over the past four years.

A closer look at his lending practices, however, reveals that many of these loans relied on faulty appraisals and exaggerated loan applications, leaving behind angry homeowners who are struggling to pay mortgages on overpriced homes.

"I trusted him, I felt like he was an honest person," said Robin Fitzgerald, who negotiated with Wider to pay $805,000 for a home in North Massapequa in 2005 that a later appraisal valued at $545,000. Fitzgerald is now facing foreclosure. "I wasn't familiar with the prices of houses here. I'm a first-time homeowner."

I'm sorry, but I just can't get that worked up about a guy who buys an $805,000 house without even checking out the prices of comparable homes in the neighborhood. That's just plain stupid. And, if the guy has enough resources to think he can afford an $805,000 home, he should know better. Sorry, but don't come crying on my shoulder for this fool.