A Priest Encourages Congregation to Buy Property in His Suburb and Now They Struggle to Pay Mortgage

Frankensnore on 04/01/2024 - 19:08
Last edited 04/01/2024 - 22:37

Asking for a friend:

A priest (of a church) influences his congregation to buy a property where he has bought. Possibly for his own benefit. This was before the inflation. Now everyone who follows his advice struggle to pay the mortgage.

My question is, isn’t it a crime to offer financial advice that benefit themselves in public forum?

Some of the words was: Buy in this suburb, it is surely will go up, if you want to live in Australia, buy land, not apartment! Where else otherwise are you gonna buy?

From this advice, many sold their own homes and move to this suburb. However price didn’t rise as predicted and interest rates keep rising.

For privacy reasons, please don’t ask me which suburb or church or priest is this. I will ignore. Thanks.

Financial

Comments

  • Sprayoz on 04/01/2024 - 19:10
    +139

    lol

    • HeWhoKnows on 05/01/2024 - 08:54
      +3

      "Financial advice" ????

      Since when is suggestion to buy property considered "Financial advice" ???

      And yet another busy body OP asking for a friend.

      • richadam on 05/01/2024 - 09:24
        +40

        Found the Priest.

    • sauce2k on 05/01/2024 - 10:29
      +2

      This summarises most of the readers reactions lol

    • anonymous01 on 06/01/2024 - 23:28

      Monkey see, Monkey do lol

  • mskeggs on 04/01/2024 - 19:12
    +130

    Come on!
    Today we have had a drunk yelling as cause for a lawsuit against a third party. Now we have people listening to a priest about real estate as law breaking.

    Is nobody on this site able to just be responsible for themselves without seeking some authority figure to step in?

    • mskeggs on 04/01/2024 - 19:13
      +14

      Are you going to report them to god if you don't make it to heaven?

    • Bargainitis on 05/01/2024 - 01:50
      +7

      Yeah .. and I got downvoted hardddd in that thread when I told the OP to harden the F up lmao

      • Ulysses31 on 06/01/2024 - 10:51

        It'll be because that post didn't mention the lawsuit aspect in the comment.

      • SBOB on 05/01/2024 - 12:22
        +2

        If autonomy and independence are a person's goal, Australia is definitely not the place to live

        Which country would you recommend then, to achieve your 'my body my choice' wish list?

        Strange that you choose to live here then, being that it's just a regressive, restrictive country.

        • RefusdClassification on 06/01/2024 - 15:06
          -4

          How do you feel about abortion then, or sexual promiscuity? People use the argument "My body my choice" to justify infanticide. Nobody if Australia is lobbying to make abortion illegal. It is only rational to extend "my body my choice" to potentially harmful behaviors include drug use. Lots of people in Australia use drugs illegally. Some are fortunate enough to have doctor's legally prescribe them opiates and stimulants and cannabinoids and ketamine (even psilocybin and ectasy have been approved for use in treating psych problems). I don't undertsand why I am getting so heavily downvoted. Psychoactives aren't poisons; they reduce psychological pain and enable people to function better when used in moderation.

          "Which country would you recommend then, to achieve your 'my body my choice' wish list?" Difficult to answer since America's "War on Drugs" has infected almost the entire world. I suspect that drug use enforcement would be slacker in non-Muslim and non-Communist third world countries. There are no libertarian paradises; libertarians would have to create their own country or state like they do in Any Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Moving to another country is hard since I have lived here my entire life. Personally I would prefer to create a political party, one of whose objectives would be to end the war on drugs and also to reduce copyright to 14 years. So much suffering has resulted from prohibitionistic policies. America repealed alcohol prohibition with a constitutional amendment; time to repeal pharmaceutical prohibition. Adults should be able to go to a pharmacist or a supermarket and purchase whatever chemical they want at market price + GST (No sin taxes). No prescription required (unless you want to get a PBS subsidized price).

      • aquavires on 05/01/2024 - 13:07
        +2

        2024 started with the government banning people from inhaling water vapour that has a bit of nicotine and flavouring agents dissolved in it.

        "My body, my choice". People should be able to do whatever they want as long as it does not directly harm another person.

        That water vapour with dissolved nicotine and flavouring agents harms other people nearby who inhale the vapour.

        • Never Pay RRP on 05/01/2024 - 14:22
          +3

          Plus it also harms taxpayers when the vape clowns then need hospitalisation due to entirely avoidable respiratory problems

        • AlanHB on 05/01/2024 - 17:45
          +6

          If that was the true rationale behind the ban they'd ban cigarettes too.

          • aquavires on 05/01/2024 - 22:04
            +2

            @AlanHB: @AlanHB I don't know about the "true rationale" behind the ban. I was pushing back against @Thaal Sinestro's assertion that vapes don't harm another person.

            • AlanHB on 05/01/2024 - 22:41
              +3

              @aquavires: Again, if the governments issue was that second hand vapes harm others, they would have banned cigarettes too.

        • RefusdClassification on 06/01/2024 - 15:11
          -8

          What harm? Water vapour is in the air we breath. Nicotine is a mild stimulant like caffeine (who is pushing for a ban on caffeine?). You can purchase nicotine cheming gum and patches from a pharmacist; it isn't even Schedule 2 (behind the counter). Flavouring agents are in processed foods and perfumes contains various molecules that stimulate our olfactory receptors.

          Vaping, unlike cigarette smoking, is almost completely harmless. The radon you inhale from granite boulder walls and granite counter tops is of more concern than vapes.

      • Jolakot on 05/01/2024 - 15:01
        +2

        We live in a society

      • juki on 05/01/2024 - 22:32
        +2

        your body your choice, our costs

      • goraygo on 05/01/2024 - 23:53
        +1

        As long as you are paying for all the medical costs associated with your choice. I am not going to be responsible to your Medicare bill.

    • gyrex on 05/01/2024 - 14:45
      +1

      Is nobody on this site able to just be responsible for themselves without seeking some authority figure to step in?

      Unfortunately it's not confined to this site but the lack of personal responsibility and accepting the outcomes of one's choice is pervasive in society too. eg. break the law: I've got some faux disease I can blame it on.

    • payless69 on 06/01/2024 - 05:05

      My mother in law keeps telling me about the stressed out woman who got her soul cleaned by the priest she apparently had fallen in love with.
      So she invested big time to have her 2 sons both getting a law degree. The younger son stayed over 12 years at uni and besides his wig he can claim the title of Queens Council!
      Now many years later the topic of getting even with that priest is slowly fading away.
      Church law and civil law was something that had been tried way too many times to be brought in line.

      • MrFrugalSpend on 06/01/2024 - 11:35

        Queens Council don't exist anymore and won't for the forseeable future (Charlie, Willie, George, and/or perhaps a republic or other law change like SC in some states)

    • kaleidoscope on 06/01/2024 - 10:43

      From this advice, many sold their own homes and move to this suburb

      double face palm… I really hope this is a troll post by OP.

  • Dlw on 04/01/2024 - 19:14
    +4

    ACA probably have experience with this sort of thing.

  • Drakesy on 04/01/2024 - 19:18
    +53

    Maybe it was because god wanted it to be this way.
    Classic entitled behaviour. they wouldn't complain if it was the opposite outcome ;)
    Adults make their own decisions and have to learn to live with the consequences.

    Honestly don't have much sympathy for organisations that don't pay tax and yet have hundreds of millions, if not billions in investments.
    Oh, all the while trying to cover up child abuse (assuming this is the catholic church).

    • MrThing on 04/01/2024 - 19:22
      +12

      billions…….its billions, the catholic church has its own damn country to fiddle kids in

    • coxjon on 04/01/2024 - 20:05
      +1

      A priest wouldn’t be able to buy or own property in the Catholic Church

      • brendanm on 04/01/2024 - 21:29
        +7

        Yes, religious people always adhere strictly to their religion and never stray.

        • coxjon on 04/01/2024 - 21:53

          Well I imagine it would be difficult without a salary…

        • CommuterPolluter on 05/01/2024 - 00:30
          +3

          A Catholic parish priest is provided housing within his assigned parish and has no need to buy a house.

          • payless69 on 06/01/2024 - 05:09
            +1

            @CommuterPolluter: In Europe catholic priests also have a cooking lady provided and paid for by the Vatican.
            Seperate bedrooms are mandatory but to keep them comfortable, each gets a good double bed.
            All further privacy to be respected and no more questions by Church Law!!

            • CommuterPolluter on 06/01/2024 - 13:16

              @payless69: Yes I know a man who lives at home with his widowed mother. They both have double beds, the rotten sods!

      • thesilverstarman on 05/01/2024 - 09:32
        +3

        Common misunderstanding. Catholic priests can own property. Only those in orders take a vow of poverty. The rest can own whatever they like. There have been plenty of priests and Bishops who have had property like holiday homes,for example Bishop Mulkearns from Ballarat who had a home on the coast, which the media found out about when he died. Ive even seen a Cardinal in Rome with a ferrari, and the locals never even blinked.

        • CommuterPolluter on 05/01/2024 - 12:48

          That house was purchased in 1986 while he was a bishop, for $55,000 ($164,000 in 2022 dollars).

          Not sure how a parish priest on a $20,000 per annum stipend is buying in a suburb expensive enough to result in mortgage stress. Or why he’d be encouraging people to move to another suburb, presumably outside of his parish.

      • garage sale on 05/01/2024 - 22:33

        doesn’t specify religion, probabaly not catholic due to wages they pay, other religions allows priest to buy property.

    • LFO on 05/01/2024 - 10:45
      -1

      LOL
      Chastising "churches"
      How about chastising those THAT FOLLOW THOSE CHURCHES Mayhem would not happen if it wasn't for the followers.

      It is not the institution, it is the followers.

      • Drakesy on 05/01/2024 - 11:03
        +1

        It is not the institution, it is the followers.

        It's an institution that actively has tried to conceal the child abuse though?

        • LFO on 06/01/2024 - 10:49
          -2

          Do you mean like the government does?

          • Drakesy on 07/01/2024 - 13:03

            @LFO: This being the stolen generation?
            Classic deflection, two wrongs don't make a rifht though

            • LFO on 07/01/2024 - 14:36
              -2

              @Drakesy:

              two wrongs …

              Classic deflection to ignore everything and anything else around but my chosen target.
              Not new.

      • Lunatic on 05/01/2024 - 14:30

        Por qué no los dos?

    • Hangryuman on 05/01/2024 - 16:05

      'Adults make their own decisions and have to learn to live with the consequences'

      not if they speak womanese - I saw this last night - speakers of womanese do not have the ability to make their own decisions as this would inhibit their right to later complain about what happened to them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY2H1Gd_Pkw

      • Drakesy on 06/01/2024 - 00:38
        +1

        I like the part where if all else fails bring your child into it

    • furyou on 05/01/2024 - 23:35
      +2

      It's not for us to understand God's plan. Perhaps it's to teach them all financial literacy. Now they know not to buy property w/o research. Job done.

    • ceroau on 06/01/2024 - 10:30

      Many are taught from an early age to trust in various establishments as authority figures and that those authority figures can be relied upon and trusted to guide them throughout life they're essentially groomed as a child to adulthood to follow a broken and corrupt system and have never had reason to belief otherwise. I agree they're adults and that the game of life should have rebelled more or something but I do sympathize with their situations none the less. Most these folk were never were taught independent critical thinking skills. Everything even in our modern society is designed to raise sheep, not free thinkers.

    • KangaDrew on 09/01/2024 - 16:08

      It's not just the Catholics that are covering it up. Jehovah's Witnesses had a higher numbers than the Catholics when you look at the raw data. But schools, sport/recreation centres, arts, culture, community and hobby groups, contemporary detention environments along with other religious institutions were all part of the RC.

  • freefall101 on 04/01/2024 - 19:20
    +15

    This has everything, a dodgy priest, a cost of living crisis, housing prices out of control. They'll be able to make their money back by auctioning the story off.

    • Chael Sonnen on 05/01/2024 - 12:18
      +1

      Can't wait to see this on news.com.au

      • kiriakoz on 07/01/2024 - 15:53
        +2

        This is more ACA/Today Tonight, assuming they both still exist.

    • bargain huntress on 17/01/2024 - 20:13

      Best advice. Sell story to a current affair.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2024 - 19:20
    +4

    Old mate priest forgot to put in fine print at the end ‘warning not financial advice’

    • Breno785au on 06/01/2024 - 10:39
      +2

      Past performance is not an indicator of future performance

  • MrThing on 04/01/2024 - 19:21
    +3

    OP should have got his own financial advice not taken that of his cult leader priest

  • spackbace on 04/01/2024 - 19:21
    +7

    Laughs in religion

  • holdenmg on 04/01/2024 - 19:22
    +15

    I can't see how the Priest has benefitted personally (yet).

    Does he plan to buy any of those Properties that are in Mortgage distress?

    Hasn't his property also gone down in value?

    Property in the Long-Term will win out, but there will always be people in the short-term that buy near the top of the market and are adversely affected.

    Most mortgages are 25-30 years but how long have these people owned the properties…

    Seems more like speculation and disappointment or buyers regret.

    I feel for those adversely affected by the successive interest rate rises, but the Reserve Bank did that and the Lenders followed.

    • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 19:37
      -1

      "I can't see how the Priest has benefitted personally (yet)."

      The history of the Catholic church in Straya may provide some clues.

      • brendanm on 04/01/2024 - 21:30

        Are the properties full of choir boys?

        • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 21:40
          -4

          Potentially (if the OP's 'friend' is Catholic).

          It may also be something as simple as one of the priests rellos owns property there, is a REA etc.

          • CommuterPolluter on 05/01/2024 - 00:13

            @Protractor: This is obviously not a Catholic priest as they don’t go around buying property, calm down.

  • ihfree on 04/01/2024 - 19:27
    +11

    They're just being tested.

    Spicy story, maybe even worthy of theft by news.com.au

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2024 - 19:33
      +6

      The year is 2024, you can just pay to unlock the fast track dlc to get past the hardships and trials for a yearly donation of $69,420.

      • ihfree on 04/01/2024 - 19:41
        +2

        Tempting. Will try the $420 dlc to start with. Avoiding the $69 tier for obvious reasons.

      • DashCam AKA Rolts on 04/01/2024 - 20:00
        +3

        Nice. Cheers.

    • lachhelix on 04/01/2024 - 19:42
      +1

      Tracey Grimshaw will crawl out of retirement for an ACA exclusive

      • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 20:39

        Not if it's a Catholic church/priest. The msm may as well have aided and abetted the whole child abuse era.
        Mind you the 'flock' were all zip lipped about the whole touchy feely priest behaviour too, and since the RC and findings , not many have spoken up, or quit the church.

        • MS Paint on 04/01/2024 - 21:23
          +6

          My guess is 7th Day Adventist

          The followers already happily agree to give 10% of their income to the church which ironically gets syphoned via Sanitarium which ironically pays no tax as they are a registered charity. It's one giant fraud with heaps of sheep.

          • Eeples on 05/01/2024 - 09:33

            @MS Paint: It is true that sanitarium don’t pay company tax but they do pay payroll tax, fringe benefits tax, stamp duty and GST.

  • The Value on 04/01/2024 - 19:29
    +1

    if you want to live in Australia

    Moonies.

  • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 19:33
    -1

    Follow the orgy thrower, pay the price. Sucked in.
    Got a brain? Use it

    Hahaha a crime? The only crime, in this tale of Karma,is religion.
    OP, name the suburb, we'll do the homework

  • MS Paint on 04/01/2024 - 19:34
    +2

    Asking for a friend

    That old chestnut 🌰

    If people are dumb enough to follow property and financial advice from a priest then they only have themselves to blame. FFS.

    Edit: FFS. Just Googled biblical references of financial advice and this came up…

    But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth

    Deuteronomy 8:18

    FFS

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2024 - 19:54
      +1

      But remember the LORD your God

      praise be to Thak

    • Never Pay RRP on 05/01/2024 - 15:51

      I’m sure they’ll spin the line that it’s just a “test of faith”.
      If you donate more at the next church collection plate you’ll surely be rewarded.
      Failing that the promised payback is in the afterlife 🤑

      • MrFrugalSpend on 06/01/2024 - 11:55

        Many Priests and Churches have unfortunately been epicentres of manipulating people's faith and desire for guidance / answers using twisting of theories, predictions, and stories for the gain of powerful men for thousands of years… (nowadays been somewhat replaced by algorithms and manipulation in 'personalised content' tracking on social media), but the old ways are clearly still lurking for some people.

  • mskeggs on 04/01/2024 - 19:35
    +1

    Maybe switch to the prosperity gospel people

  • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 19:38
    +5

    Bikies nuns

    • DashCam AKA Rolts on 04/01/2024 - 20:02
      +1

      Sisters of the Saint?

      • MS Paint on 04/01/2024 - 20:07
        +3

        Hells Belles

        • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 20:16
          -1

          The one's on Father Ted?

    • dazeller on 05/01/2024 - 08:10
      +12

      How much prophet did he make ? Nun. Hehe….

      • imurgod on 05/01/2024 - 11:43
        +1

        Underrated comment.
        Have an upvote on me!

      • Superjia on 05/01/2024 - 12:33
        +1

        Hehe, too

      • CocaKoala on 05/01/2024 - 18:51

        Amen!

  • Protractor on 04/01/2024 - 19:41
    +6

    "A Priest Encourages Congregation to Buy Property in his Suburb and Now They Struggle to Pay Mortgage"

    Actually I came here for one of those 'walks into a bar joke', and was not disappointed.
    Still larfin'

  • ihfree on 04/01/2024 - 19:47
    +4

    OP, due diligence is posting to Ozbargain before purchasing a house on advice of a priest

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