Posted on 03/03/2009 12:00:27 AM PST by wzlboy
Their 5,300-square-foot mini-mansion is scheduled to be sold on the Clayton County Courthouse steps Tuesday.
And they’re not alone among winners of “Extreme Makeover,” the popular reality show that refurbishes or rebuilds home for families in need.
Eric Hebert of Idaho lost his home in February with nearly $400,000 owed to the bank, the Associated Press reported.
Families living in two other “Extreme Makeover” homes, one near Detroit, the other in central Florida, were granted last-minute reprieves after their financial struggles were publicized.
The Harpers, who have three sons, are unlikely to get such charity. In fact, Milton Harper said Monday his family has received death threats since their first brush with foreclosure was reported in August.
“People are going to be people and I love them and bless them anyway,” he said. “We’re in God’s hands.” He declined to talk about specifics of the foreclosure.
The Harpers were granted a loan modification last summer to avoid foreclosure on their house, the biggest built by “Extreme Makeover” at the time. They had used the house at 5489 Ahyoka Drive in Lake City as collateral for a $450,000 loan; the family says the money went to a failed construction business. According to state real estate records, the couple agreed to make payments of $2,279.35 until June 2047 on the outstanding $468,245 mortgage.
The Harpers have struggled for several years with finances. In January, a State Court judge ordered Milton Harper to pay Southern Regional Medical Center $10,000 after the Riverdale hospital sued for the amount.
Harper said he told the hospital he was unemployed but did not follow advice to get indigent services agencies to help with the bill “due to my pride.”
ABC-TV issued a statement Monday: “‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ families aren’t immune to the current state of the U.S. economy. EMHE has always strived along with our volunteer builders to create not only ‘extreme’ homes, but homes that work for the owners for years to come. As always, we are striving to build greener, more affordable and environmentally responsible homes, and redoubling those efforts for years to come.”
The Harpers were selected by the show’s producers after they learned of the couple’s problems with a septic tank. Hard rains would cause raw sewage to flood their then modest-home, which was made over into a sprawling behemoth.
The AJC would love for most of their readers to believe that this poor family is just another foreclosure 'victim'.
These people were GIVEN a half million dollar house and they still lacked the financial sense to hold onto it. Irresponsible people should not have qualified for mortgages or received FREE houses for that matter.
Reminds me of all the lottery winners who are flat broke within years of winning millions.
That is what caused their financial woes, not the people of Extreme Makeover or anyone else. They did it to themselves. So sad though. I just don't want the gov't (i.e. the taxpayer) to bail them out of their mess.
Maybe if they hadn’t given these homes free and clear. What if they had actually fixed up the people’s homes for their special medical conditions, without buying them? Or what if they had helped with a small down payment and made sure the mortgage payments would be the correct % of their monthly income?
Were the Harpers employed before they got this brand new home? If not, how were they able to refinance the house if they didn’t have any jobs?
Bump for morning
Yes they did it to themselves... that is the point. They received a ‘private bailout’ from Extreme Makeover and they still could not resist the urge to financially self-destruct.
I watched the one near Orlando being built. Pretty darned impressive.
I’m not exactly sure why she’s having problems. Last I heard it was something to do with violating her zoning ordinance. She ran a charity business collecting and donating clothes, which she had done prior to the Extreme Makeover home, and now they are saying she can’t store the clothes there?(I think) Anyhow, whatever the violation is is racking up daily fines which she can’t pay. And, yes, they knew what she was going to do with the residence before she had the EM house built.
The funny part about the zoning issue is that the EM house sits on the edge of a commercial/light industrial zone (faces it) and the back of the house faces a neighborhood that is one step up above slumage.
Anything she does with her EM house is an improvement to the area.
I got this from my formerly down and out cousin who actually lived on the streets for a number of years...
He told me he had a really nice box he was living in and one day someone took it. My cousin told his friend (they were all drunk) that someone had stolen his box.
The guy looked him in the eye and said in a voice of absolute amazement “YOU had a box!”
If nothing else about this financial mess sticks in people's minds, it should be the subprime mortgages that were forced on many banks initially, that snowballed into giving a loan to anyone and everyone.
I really feel for the kids here. Eventually they'll realize that no matter how predatory the loan companies were, it was their parents who wanted the loan and agreed to it, putting their future at risk. They probably voted for Obama too, who's doing the same on a far grander scale.
I love how ABC could NOT help themselves and HAD to comment on how “GREEN” their houses were. Thes uber-Enviro-Religionists are maddening with their constant in your face world view for approval of liberals who have them scared to death of not mentioning how they worship their world view.
even if given a 500k home most of the families will be in trouble simply from gift taxes and real estate taxes and insurance, most don’t have the income to mainatin their new lifestyle....
With most of the families who are awarded new home at some level of financial distress, ABC would be wise to take a co equal position on the deed for a specified period of time. That way, the contestants can’t go out and obtain a cash out refi on the newly paid off property.
Our local Habitat affiliate has built 300 homes in the past 10 years and we have had a total of 5 get foreclosed. That is an equal performance to prime credit grades, and these people have to pay a mortgage back to Habitat.
That is a great catch!
Not only were they given the house, they were given $250,000 in their bank account to help pay for maintenance and taxes.
It is foolish to make such a large outright gift to people with poor credit histories. Don't tempt people like that.
Sounds like we may already have done so: "The Harpers were granted a loan modification last summer to avoid foreclosure on their house...". More than likely, that was one of the gov't sponsored mortgage bailouts.
The part that makes me sick is that these people didn't even BUY A HOUSE with the money. They just took the cash.
If the GOP had any sense, they would be demanding that any "mortgage adjustments" be limited ONLY to amounts used to BUY the house...no cash out refi's qualify.
This show is a relic of different times. The few times I’ve watched, I’ve been amazed at the sheer excess of these places. The level of self-centeredness, even narcissism, that goes into the children’s bedrooms can’t be healthy, and is surely not age appropriate in a few years time.
Going forward, maybe the producers should adjust their projects to reality, as far as property taxes, heating and cooling costs, and insurance costs. These aren’t well off people, not even solidly middle class really, otherwise they wouldn’t be writing in begging for a new house from some television show.
Maybe some sort of a contract preventing encumbrance of the property, in exchange for the new house, would keep the show from being continually embarrassed by foreclosures, too.
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