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Extreme Makeover or Extremely Stupid?

It seems at times that no matter how much society does to help those in need, there will always be the few that don't possess the solid decision making capabilities to survive.

Sounds harsh, but after learning of the "Extreme Makeover" home that has had all of the "gifted" equity sucked out of it and allowed to fall into foreclosure, it is the only conclusion I can reach.

In January 2005 Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished the Harper family home and its faulty septic system. Six days later, crews and volunteers, totaling over 1800 people, completed work on the largest home that the television program had ever built.

Replacing their old dilapidated home is a four-bedroom house with rock walls and a three-car garage that towers over homes in their neighborhood. The front door opens into a lobby that features four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush office. A total of $450,000 in materials and labor were donated for the home.

Beazer Homes' employees and company partners raised an additional $250,000 in contributions for the family, along with scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.

After the show, the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 "construction business-loan", which they have since defaulted on and the majestic home is now set to hit the auction block on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5.

Perhaps yet another kind soul will buy it and hand it to them for free, yet again.

Posted by Michael Creel on 07/28/2008 11:33 PM

Comments (20)

extreme makeover foreclosure

20 Comments on Extreme Makeover or Extremely Stupid?

JUL

2008

O.M.G. I have no words.

Most news articles are touting this as "another foreclosure victim". I don't see a victim in this, other than the lender.

I just talked about this on another site earlier today. There has to be a way that you can tie up the title so these people can't undo what othersdo. Maybe someone else should hold title if they can not be fiscally responsible for the home. Maybe there should be something in an agreement that says they can't take out equity loans to go into business. However, I did read in one of the articles that it is rumored that the owners have since worked something out with the bank and the house will not be foreclosed on. We will see in the future how this will unfold.

Generosity is always taken advantage of in due time. Even if the people "work it out" with the bank, I have no doubt they will only sell the home. They were given loads of cash on top of a free home, and still went broke within 36 months! That's pitiful; and it irks me the word victim is being used.

JUL

2008

People generally do not value what they do not work for or what they did not earn. There are exceptions to that of course, some folks are extremely grateful when something generous is done for them, but generally speaking, the more you give to people the more they want to take.

IMHO, this house was overkill. This is just begging for someone to abuse.

Habitat for Humanity is much better for people: the homeowners are required to not only help build their home but they also do have to pay the mortgage. It's not free. And I'll betcha the people in a modest 1800 s.f. home that they helped build and are paying a mortgage on are much happier and more likely to keep their homes than these mooches who get free rides into the lap of luxury most of us only dream of having.

Unbelievable! Such a sad outcome from the hard work and good-hearted donations of labor and material.

Unbelievable, to have such a gift and squander it so quickly, there are no victim's that lost ownership to that house. The volunteers, as well as the next lender maybe, but that is awful!!!!!

The show would have have been better served to build two home for two families with the money. I've seen the show, and they go way over the top. They did one in Kirkland WA. last year, which is a pricey area. That house is likely worth 800k due to it's location. I doubt they'll be looking to help Realtors that go broke. :)

I love watching this show every week.

Im sure since this incident the shows attorneys have drafted documents to prevent any kind of home equity loans on future donated homes. How disrespectful to the generous people and volunteers who worked so hard.

Unreal......I had not heard about this and am really disappointed in many respects.....what a sad comment on our society.

Maybe they can sign up for the government bailout program.

This sounds like the stories of people who win the lottery and end up going bankrupt a year later. Very sad.

More liberalism turning back to bite us. For some reason, if you don't have to earn what you get.... you don't value it the same.

Cameron Novak, Broker
The Homefinding CenterTM
Corona, California

Corona Real Estate Agents

I have often wondered how the lifes of these lucky souls turned out after the wonderful gift of a home. A biz loan? Now thats nuts.

I don't think they could have chosen a worse time in history to mortgage their home to go into the construction business. Still seems like they burned through a lot of cash quickly, I suspect most of it wasn't spent on the business.Easy come, easy go.

I feel bad for the builder that donated the time and money, only to have this happen. I'm sure that builder isn't rolling in cash these days either.

Just worried about the children what will they do in a situation like this.

we will just pray for the whole family

I have always thought that they (Home Makeover) go overboard in my opinion ... but then I guess they are only reflecting what is going on in our country ... buying into houses that are way beyond what can be afforded.

JUL

2008

They made the same mistake hundreds of thousands of people have made; just on a larger scale. Just proves how important it is to be fiscally literate.

Hi Michael!

GREAT post; when I read it several questions immediately came to mind:

I wondered that if the Harper's knew so much about the "construction business" that they borrowed $450,000 to start, why didn't they fix their original home? (septic tank, etc)

Answer: After thinking about it for several minutes, I realized they didn't..I realized that the Harpers are the "Newest generation of Americans" that sit on their cans while 1800 volunteers & Extreme Makeover handed them and their kids over $1,000,000 and the opportunity to change their lives; maybe, just maybe, for the first time in their lives...help someone else!

But they did what they have always done...that's why they got what they have always gotten!

I also wondered that since Extreme Makeover "overbuilt" this house and made it 4x bigger than anything else in the neighborhood;

Do you really think that this property will sell at auction?

How would you like to buy a home that was built if 7 days by volunteers?

My conclusion: The Lender will be the proud owner & be able to brag that they have an "Extreme Makeover" home in their portfolio (You know that it will make the stockholders giddy:)l

Final question: Who ultimately, be it mortgage broker, underwriter, committee, etc, thought that the Harpers were "credit worthy" to repay a $450,000 loan? (Would pay a $100 to find out at what interest rate their credit report qualified them for)

I realize that a mortgage person can't get involved with "WHY" a person is borrowing money..but people please, approving a loan , with no visible means of repaying (and no, POTENTIAL future income does not count) should require a little common sense on behalf of whoever is loaning the money, especially since the potential borrowers have none.

So, who is accountable?

I surmised: It doesn't matter; who is to blame when a teenager gets pregnant? The boy? The girl? the parents? The "system"? The government?

It doesn't matter:There is a certain amount of cost and responsibilty that SOMEONE is going to incur, whether they are the responsible party or not.

Everyone wants to fix the blame...

How do we fix the problem?

(So that as we are trying to raise, educate, and pay for this "child", the teenagers will not be having unprotected sex and reproducing AGAIN.)

I do not know the Harper's; but know hundreds just like them.

Always a victim; never responsible for anything; always needing help, never quite able to help anyone else; if I could only "get ahead"; if I could only win the lottery.

All across this great country , hardworking small business owners who started out with nothing (much less $450,000) and built a business that paid their mortgages ,supported their families, sent their kids to college, are reading about this amazing "Gift", an Extreme Makeover home paid for "FREE & CLEAR" that the Harper's squandered and I believe in the bottom of my heart, that these hardworking small business owners can't help but shake their heads in amazement when they think about all the sweat and hard work they exerted; all the hours that they could have spent with their families , had they been "lucky" enough to have had that kind of help when they started their businesses from scratch.

I agree with you 110%.

I believe there is a limit as to how high your I.Q. can be..but there is NO LIMIT on the depths of how stupid you can be!

Thanks for your insight; I appreciate you

Bobby Wallace

Publisher - Bobby's Hotlist

"The Underground Source for Killer Deals In The Charleston Area...

We have over 27 Rent-To-Own homes, 279 Investors, 175 Buyers,

9 lenders, 22 Realtors, 12 Short-Sale Specialists, and other resources

that cannot be found anywhere else!"

Bobby, I'm glad you got the chance to get that off your chest!

Jackie, to me there mistake seems pretty unique. I doubt hundreds of thousands have been a given the opportunity they were, only to throw it away. If they were, I'm sorry I missed out on it. I do get your point though.

Karen, your exactly correct, they go way to far on those homes. In that particular case, the home likely looks completely out of place in the neighborhood and will be hard to sell. If they spent 450k on it, it should be worth a bit more than that.

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