Extreme Makeover Home in Foreclosure

[RvUsa]

They built one about 20 miles from me, in youngstown oh, the guys wife died, and he was left with 2 or 3 kids, It is a beautiful house, (blue one with an angel in the top window with a ribbon going down the the kids bedroom windows) it looks really out of place, it is about 4 times the size of all the other houses in the area.

But it was built in a week or so. I didn't go, but it was in the papers, on the news etc, and they had it done FAST!!!

As an ex contractor, I hear ya on the permits/inspections, but when you have an unlimited budget and the power of a huge network and at least one local tv station owned by the show, you can make all kinds of things happen....

Call to local building code office....

Official: Hello smalltown bulding offical, how can I help you?

ABC: Yes this is ABC we ARE building a huge house in your town and you WILL give us the permits. You WILL have an inspector ready to be there at the drop of a hat, and you WILL NOT give us any problems.

Official: Well that is not how it works sir...

ABC: Well then I will call (insert local abc affiliate here) and they will show all the footage of you sleeping in your car on public time.

Official: What time did you say you wanted me to approve your plans?

 

[auntie]

We had one built here on Long Island..and then the family couldn't afford the additional taxes. The school and general taxes here on Long Island are outrageous to begin with. It's pretty much the norm to be spending upwards of $8,000-10.000.00 year on taxes(school and general) for a normal size home...in more affluent communities you are looking at twice that. Then add in .. your mortgage . This is why our kids can't afford to stay here..or our elderly can't afford to retire here. Anyway... when the new BIG house went up..so did their tax bill. How is that helping someone? I mean..if someone is in need..then helping out is the right thing to do. But to move them into a beautiful home that they couldn't possibly afford to financialy maintain, was no favor.

 

[Shannone1]

Here is another thing I don't get. Aside from permits...how do they make things work FASTER on tv ?? Example...we had a garage foundation laid and it took 5 days for the cement to harden enough drive a car on !! And we've had our home professionally painted and they tell you to wait at least a week before hanging pictures and such up on the walls.

So what I am wondering is what these homes look like after the tv cameras go home. If you check the little details are they still as nice as they appear on tv ?? Are the pictures stuck to the walls because they were put up too soon ?? How in the heck do they get the cement to dry so quickly ??

 

[ftwildernessguy]

There are accelerators which can be added to cement to speed the set, but I'm not sure what this does to the overall strength. From my engineering days, I know that in general, the slower the set, the stronger the cement. That's why you will often see sprinklers on roads and bridges - they are slowing the set of the cement by keeping it wet and cool.

 

[RvUsa]

The cement thing, you can order different types of mix, as well as additives, you could have fiberglass put in it to stop cracks, accelerators to make it cure faster... etc. That I get.

The paint I never thought of, I do know that they stay after the "reveal" to fix and repair and finish the little details. If you have ever seen the show "overhaulin" on tv, it's about doing the same thing to a car, and they keep the car for 30 days after the reveal, to actually hook up all the things they didn't need to show on tv. So I am sure it is the same on this show. Wow that is a nice sink, yep just don't try to use it yet, it's not hooked up.


Now what I can't understand is how the heck they can get 40 different trades working in 1 building and not have a war over who should be there first, and why did he do that, and who unplugged my extension. I have seen fist fights over an extension cord..... LOL trust me, its not pretty.

 

[Disney Campers]

I think in this case the family had 2+ million in a maintenance fund on top of a paid for house, sad but I think greed took over in this case by taking out taht mortgage

 

[2goofycampers]

Here is another thing I don't get. Aside from permits...how do they make things work FASTER on tv ?? Example...we had a garage foundation laid and it took 5 days for the cement to harden enough drive a car on !! And we've had our home professionally painted and they tell you to wait at least a week before hanging pictures and such up on the walls.

So what I am wondering is what these homes look like after the tv cameras go home. If you check the little details are they still as nice as they appear on tv ?? Are the pictures stuck to the walls because they were put up too soon ?? How in the heck do they get the cement to dry so quickly ??

Once in a while there will be a close shot of the walls. Normal drywall finishing has 3 coats to it, their walls look like they have had 1 and 2 coats to them.

I've wondered if when the TV crew is done, do they stay and do things right, or are you left with a slop job?

 

[big kahuna1]

GOOD NEWS! We are gonna bail em' out now with this Mortgage bill they just passed so they will get to keep the house after all. Ain't that just wonderful? Our hard earned dollars get to pay their mortgage. Man, don't you just love our congress critters for asking us if we would like to pay our mortgages and pay theirs also.

 

[Shannone1]

GOOD NEWS! We are gonna bail em' out now with this Mortgage bill they just passed so they will get to keep the house after all. Ain't that just wonderful? Our hard earned dollars get to pay their mortgage. Man, don't you just love our congress critters for asking us if we would like to pay our mortgages and pay theirs also.

To be fair, not everyone going into foreclosure is doing so because they were irresponsible or reckless. I know two families it is happening to. The first is a woman who just lost her husband. If she also just hadn't been laid off she may have been able to save the house. But now she is on her own with two kids and no job. It is VERY hard to find a job in Michigan right now. Even the part time fast food jobs are hard to get.

The other family has a small business that just went under. They tried very hard to keep it open, but they lost it anyway. Now they are losing their home too. It wasn't a huge house or anything...they didn't get it over their heads. The economy is horrible and people aren't spending the money they used to so it is hard to keep small businesses running

I am glad the government is trying to do something to help. I don't know what the right answer is...I just know something has to be done. I don't think there is a quick fix

 

[2goofycampers]

GOOD NEWS! We are gonna bail em' out now with this Mortgage bill they just passed so they will get to keep the house after all. Ain't that just wonderful? Our hard earned dollars get to pay their mortgage. Man, don't you just love our congress critters for asking us if we would like to pay our mortgages and pay theirs also.

I guess we need to look for a second job, to pay THEIR mortgages.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

To be fair, not everyone going into foreclosure is doing so because they were irresponsible or reckless. I know two families it is happening to. The first is a woman who just lost her husband. If she also just hadn't been laid off she may have been able to save the house. But now she is on her own with two kids and no job. It is VERY hard to find a job in Michigan right now. Even the part time fast food jobs are hard to get.

The other family has a small business that just went under. They tried very hard to keep it open, but they lost it anyway. Now they are losing their home too. It wasn't a huge house or anything...they didn't get it over their heads. The economy is horrible and people aren't spending the money they used to so it is hard to keep small businesses running

I am glad the government is trying to do something to help. I don't know what the right answer is...I just know something has to be done. I don't think there is a quick fix

Unfortuneately, the proposed bill probably won't do anything for these people. It is designed to assist people who shouldn't have qualified for mortgages in the first place, and were given high risk loans. The reality is, the only reason the government is getting involved is that the lenders who made these risky loans are HUGE. If I, as an individual business person, cannot pay my mortgage due to the crappy economy, the government could care less.

 

[RvUsa]

OMG!!! Don't get me started in "We are NOT going to bail them out.... pssst hey fanny want a couple BILLION dollars? ITS NOT A BAIL OUT MY ***!!!

I am sorry, if you were so shortsighted as to take an ARM and not read that hey, in 3 yrs your payment will TRIPLE, you need to loose your house. There is a difference between having unexpected circumstances threaten your home ownership, and just being greedy.


Did anyone just see the Exxon just posted an 11 BILLION dollar quarterly profit today, the largest quarterly profit EVER posted by a company in the US.

 

[AuburnJen92]

My wish for the Extreme show is what they do for the extremely obese in the Big Medicine show. Not only do they give them the surgery they need to get the weight off, they have a full staff of psychologists, psychiatrists, social work teams and such to help the people transition from a life of eating and thinking to a different way of life of eating and thinking. Now, if a person has been poor his whole life and someone walks on their doorstep and says, "Here is a new house, free mortgage and all this money to send your kiddies to college and pay the utilities so you don't have to worry!", I find it hard to believe these people have the life skills to cope with this. IF the show gave a damn, they would have a social team to stay with the family to teach them how to manage this new found wealth to be able to keep it to pass along to their children, to which it was meant for in the first place. It seems that most of the time, they pick families where 1)there are children, and 2)children are in dire need. These people have been working in survival mode for so long that they have no life skills to deal with any thought of the responsibilities of wealth, much less the barrage of relatives that will be on their doorstep once the bus leaves and the cameras are packed up.

Ok, the teacher will get off her soapbox.

 

[lawnspecialties]

There have been multiple Habitat for Humanity homes with a very similar situation. Habitat homeowners receive an extremely low or even 0% loan to finance the home they've received at a very low cost. Then quite often, the homeowner receives an offer in the mail pushing refinancing and drawing cash out of their home. They get cash, a hugely higher interest rate, and subsequently higher payment. Next thing you know, they're out.

This statement certainly doesn't apply to everyone but "most people are in the financial situation they're in due to their own doing". So often, the rich do get richer and the poor do get poorer because of the decisions they make, period.

 

[ntsammy5]

This was predictable. It's not only about poor decisions, it's also about lack of a work ethic, lack of common sense, lack of a lot of things. I don't watch any of these shows - I want to be entertained not revulsed when I watch TV.

I watched a news show the other night and listened to a couple who had flipped several houses over the last few years and ended up with a $1.5 million McMansion that they couldn't afford. They were critical of the government because, they deserved a 3% mortgage rate and a moratorium on making payments and couldn't get either. DESERVED? Of course it was the government's fault, not theirs. The entitlement mentality annoys me.

 

[lawnspecialties]

This was predictable. It's not only about poor decisions, it's also about lack of a work ethic, lack of common sense, lack of a lot of things. I don't watch any of these shows - I want to be entertained not revulsed when I watch TV.

I watched a news show the other night and listened to a couple who had flipped several houses over the last few years and ended up with a $1.5 million McMansion that they couldn't afford. They were critical of the government because, they deserved a 3% mortgage rate and a moratorium on making payments and couldn't get either. DESERVED? Of course it was the government's fault, not theirs. The entitlement mentality annoys me.

Every word in this post was extremely well put.

 

[RvUsa]

Every word in this post was extremely well put.

Bailing these mortgage companies out just chaps my goat!! The money is going to the companies, some of it may trickle down to the smoe who bought the mcmansion that was way out of their range, but in the end it is just shoring up companies that used greed instead of good business practices to guide their business.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Personally, I think there are a bunch of employees of these mortgage companies who should be in jail. It is unbelievable how people can pull crap like this that essentially has devastated the American economy and nothing happens to them. And was all this mortgage mess really unpredictable? I figured this was going to happen years ago. I'm actually surprised it took this long for the crap to hit the fan.

 

[RvUsa]

Yeah, I saw this one coming a mile away too, I just never thought about what it was going to do to the rest of us. I just figured that I could buy a couple of foreclosed houses cheap, fix em up and make a buck. Well I was wrong, I can buy 100's of houses near here for less than 10k, but they are worth 9k... LOL

 

[PolynesianPixie]

They actually did one of these homes in our area.(blacksburg,VA) Single mom with MS. She had been a dancer. My sister has MS so i was glad this lady was chosen. It's no easy disease.

I drive by that house every now and then just to check on it. It still looks picture perfect! The dance studio they did for her is another story. It was actually rental property that they fixed up and the landlord didn't keep the roof up so the whole thing leaked and did a whole bunch of damage. They aren't using it for the studio now, despite all the incredible stuff they put into it~maybe they will never use it again.