Extreme Makeover Foreclosures

[Delawaredave5]

People get given a house, use it as a piggy-bank with 2nd and 3rd mortgages, and then foreclose.....

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[Lazarus]

Always wondered how they were going to pay operating expenses that were probably greater than what they earned.

[audreyh1]

Surprise!

Duh!

Audrey

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delawaredave5 People get given a house, use it as a piggy-bank with 2nd and 3rd mortgages, and then foreclose.....

I blame the lenders. As soon as the owners missed a payment, the lenders could've parked Ty Pennington out front with his megaphone chanting "Move that bus! Pay your mortgage! Pay your mortgage!"

The debt would've been brought current before the weekend was over.

[SarahW]

That show annoys the heck out of me, though I've only watched it once. The amount they spend on ONE house could improve the lives of a dozen families. So DUMB. \rant

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I blame the lenders. As soon as the owners missed a payment, the lenders could've parked Ty Pennington out front with his megaphone chanting "Move that bus! Pay your mortgage! Pay your mortgage!" The debt would've been brought current before the weekend was over.

I blame Ty Pennington, just because he is so phony and annoying...

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SarahW That show annoys the heck out of me, though I've only watched it once. The amount they spend on ONE house could improve the lives of a dozen families. So DUMB. \rant

Yeah - couldn't stand it. The houses were over the top. Sure - there were some needy families, and some children with special needs. But really extreme housing solutions!

But I think that was the point of the whole show. Over the top house remodeling - that is.

Funny - it did coincide with the housing bubble.

Audrey

[tryan]

Always said those people would be better off with half the house they get.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish ...

[harley]

It's TV, people! The advertisers love it! Where are your priorities?

[tinlizzy]

There was one lady that ended up with $27,000 (?) in fines. They ignored easement codes, left piles of debris and no one ever came back to get the porta-potty's. Luckily all the negative publicity "inspired" the show to pay her fines and clean up the mess.

[ESRwannabe]

I never watched that show. I pretty much stopped watching tv over a decade ago.

If someone built a house like that for me, I would immediately sell it and put the money into stocks.

[ziggy29]

Some people look at these "home porn" shows and see a dream home they'd love to win, such as in those HGTV "dream home" sweepstakes.

Me? First and foremost, what I see are huge costs for taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance, requiring an income stream large enough that I will need a j*b for a long, long time to pay for it all. As a result, if I won that, I'd immediately sell it, put 40% of it aside for taxes and pocket the rest.

[Texas Proud]

I have not watched it in many many years... but if some people here remember the first season (maybe two)... they did not do a new home like they do now. They actually would go in and 'fix' the home of the person and make it liveable... but the sponsers were not getting as much bang for their buck as when they started to tear them down... now you have to buy everything new... and people see that and say "I would like that in my house"...


As for the people who use them as piggy banks... well, most of the ones I saw were not very smart to begin with.... so they see 'cha-ching'... and can not resist...

IF you can not pay your utility bills or your gardening bills.... then taking about a $200,000 to $400,000 loan is not going to make thing easier...

[audreyh1]

Yeah - I think I remember those earlier shows which seemed perfectly reasonable. Was that before the "Extreme" moniker?

But then it became this ridiculous "How fancy can we possibly make this Dream House" and I just couldn't stand it. Of course the endless heart string pulling was a total turn off too.

Audrey

[FUEGO]

The local Extreme Home Makeover home a couple miles from my house looks like it is being taken care of pretty well. From news stories, it looks like one owner is disabled and unemployable. The other owner has a debilitating skeletal condition that also prevents her from working. So I guess they are living on 2 disability checks, plus whatever they get for who knows how many kids they have. Their house is worth over 1/2 million (a lot in my city). Taxes are almost $5000 a year. 3300 square feet. I imagine heating, cooling, maintaining, insuring, etc this monstrosity is another $5000-10000 a year.

Interestingly, their 2009 property tax was paid 6 months early. Wonder if the show has stepped in to pay property tax bills so that the homes don't go into foreclosure? I would be shocked if this family had so much excess cash laying around to just pay a $5000 bill as soon as it was mailed, instead of 6 months later when it was actually due.

Also of note is their 2009 vehicle tax bill that was 3 months overdue when they finally paid it in February 2010. Maybe they are having cash flow problems?

[FUEGO]

How about:
Extreme Home Makeover: Foreclosure Edition

[akck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud I have not watched it in many many years... but if some people here remember the first season (maybe two)... they did not do a new home like they do now. They actually would go in and 'fix' the home of the person and make it liveable... but the sponsers were not getting as much bang for their buck as when they started to tear them down... now you have to buy everything new... and people see that and say "I would like that in my house"...

I liked the show better then too. For what they do, I will say that it's harder to remodel than to just tear it down and start over. With remodeling, you have to be more careful with the structure. My current favorite show is Holmes on Homes. He goes overboard too, but what he does is to go beyond minimum code requirements to build a home that will last.

[akck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO Interestingly, their 2009 property tax was paid 6 months early. Wonder if the show has stepped in to pay property tax bills so that the homes don't go into foreclosure? I would be shocked if this family had so much excess cash laying around to just pay a $5000 bill as soon as it was mailed, instead of 6 months later when it was actually due. Also of note is their 2009 vehicle tax bill that was 3 months overdue when they finally paid it in February 2010. Maybe they are having cash flow problems?

I've read elsewhere the show sets up a fund to pay taxes and higher utilities for 25 years, probably a trust that pays the bills directly.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by akck I've read elsewhere the show sets up a fund to pay taxes and higher utilities for 25 years, probably a trust that pays the bills directly.

I guess that makes sense, but yowza, that would be multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars for their typical home. I'd hate to see what happens 5-10-20 years down the road when these houses need new carpet, new paint, new hvac, new roof, etc.

[Bestwifeever]

I had read a couple of years ago that most people in this show never actually moved into the house--they would sell them instead. I wonder if there are so many fewer buyers today that the homeowners can't do that.

It's hard to imagine most of the people featured on the show would be able to get the houses refinanced--most of them don't seem to make enough money to qualify for a big mortgage.