Greg Rand is mad as hell, and he”™s not going to take it anymore.
He has left Better Homes and Garden Rand Realty, his family”™s real estate business, and formed his own company, OwnAmerica, offering investment services nationwide and hosting a radio talk show on WABC-AM called “Rand on Real Estate.”
Don”™t mention the Dodd-Frank legislation to this former Realtor turned investment adviser and radio personality. “It”™s an embarrassment they have their names on this legislation, considering they had a hand in creating the bubble,” said Rand.
“Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA”™s dramatic lowering of mortgage standards altered the entire nature of mortgage underwriting,” he continued. “Now, they are on their high horse, trying to blame private lenders for the housing crisis.”
Part of the Dodd-Frank Act is calling for private lenders ”“ like community banks and other lending institutions ”“ to require a 20 percent down payment for potential homeowners. “While the government says it wants to get out of the lending business, it appears what the government is actually trying to do is put private lenders out of business,” said Rand.
As far he”™s concerned, “Chris Dodd, former chairman of the Senate banking committee, and Barney Frank, the former chair of the House financial services committee, “should both be hiding from the public. For those of us who are informed, we know who started the initial snowball, it was Freddie, Fannie, Dodd and Frank who created the crisis we are in now.”
When the mortgage companies make loans, 90 percent of them are sold to Fannie or Freddie, and they will not be bought unless they conform to their standards, said Rand. “Fannie and Freddie set the guidelines. They are the backbone of the mortgage industry.  There are still a large percentage of mortgages done that are 5 and 10 percent down. If they tell the private sector lenders they must have 20 percent down, essentially they are regulating lenders ”“ along with the private mortgage insurance industry ”“ out of business”
Rand does not believe the legislation will stand as is. “I gave up the real estate business for a reason. They can”™t hurt me anymore. They are just trying to intimidate the banking industry. And they (bankers) have a right to be afraid with the wild-eyed regulators running around. That”™s why I got out.”
But he can now dish out his commentaries, as well as his investing and real estate expertise, to his radio audience and in his new book, “Crash Boom.” Unlike Peter Finch”™s character in “Network,” however, many who know Rand say he is not the “mad anchorman of the airwaves,” but giving his new audience the real deal.
Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, still sits in the House of Representatives, while his legislative co-author, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, retired in 2010, taking a position with the Motion Picture Association of America as its chairman and CEO.
