What harbingers did you encounter?
For me, there were three “changes” or “signs” that were unsettling in my professional life:
1. I was visited in the office by a former ‘neighbor kid’ who couldn’t walk and chew gum but was now working, (independently, of course) for a mortgage broker. He had money to sell. Scarey.
2. In the divorce bizz, for a hundred years houses were awarded to custodial parents who would not be able to qualify for a mortgage loan. We just transferred the house, she had the obligation to pay the mortgage and husband remained on the paper. When he bought a house, the underwriter treated that first house debt as a contingent liability because X was obligated to pay it. But as we closed out last century, more and more young attorneys were insisting that the person awarded the house refinance to get the other spouse off the liability. And that could only happen because the underwriting standards started to disappear. Yikes!
3. Then I noticed that people were getting mortgage loans without having to deliver tax returns in some cases. Instead, for example, in the case of a self-employed person, they wanted a letter from the attorney or accountant saying how long they had been in business – no need to document income. Uff dah!
Anyway those were some things in my personal experience that now mean so much more.
