Cry me a river. This guy raised his 14 children in an 89 square foot house. Luckily, his wife left him, so now there's room for a dog.
Posted on 07/25/2010 8:07:03 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
MOKENA -- The foreclosure crisis has hit home for the Triezenbergs of Manhattan Township.
Mark and Tia Triezenberg and their five young children, including one with severe disabilities due to autism, must leave their home by Aug. 29.
The foreclosure, one of many nationwide and locally (see sidebar), caps a troubled couple of years for a family that saw its income soar with the home-building boom and plummet with the recession.
"This is like Pearl Harbor," Mark said during an interview at a Mokena restaurant. "Only a few people saw this coming."
The Triezenbergs still don't know where they will move. Mark, who ran his own home-building business from 1999 to 2008, is looking for a rental unit.
"It's overwhelming," Tia said. "I've grown closer to my faith at this point because I think that's what's going to get me through it. ... This was not supposed to happen to us."
Lincoln-Way Community Bank is foreclosing on the home. Mark said bank officials visited him at one of his model homes when he was doing well in 2005 and urged him to switch his business to the newly formed bank.
"The whole thing is, they prided themselves on being a local bank," Mark said.
The couple took out a mortgage on their 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home with Lincoln-Way. The mortgage was sold off to another company, Citi Mortgage.
The Triezenbergs also took out a home equity loan on the house through Lincoln-Way so Mark could buy 10 lots for his business. The two loans totaled $825,000.
When Mark missed three payments on the second mortgage last year, Lincoln-Way bank sent a delinquency notice. Mark said Citi Mortgage has been willing to work with him. But the couple doesn't believe Lincoln-Way Bank has done everything it could to help keep them in their home.
"They approached us when we were doing good," Tia said. "Then when things got tough, they pushed us aside and said we're on our own."
George Alexenko, chief credit officer for Lincoln-Way, said he worked with Mark to try to avoid foreclosure.
"It is our policy to make every attempt to seek resolutions to problem accounts without pursuing legal remedies," he said. "Unfortunately, after working with Mr. Triezenberg for over two years, we weren't able to find a reasonable compromise."
Alexenko also disputes the characterization that the bank "lured" Mark in when he was doing well and "went after him" when he wasn't.
"He wasn't responsive so we couldn't reach a compromise with him."
Alexenko said it's a tough situation.
"Nobody in his right mind takes any joy in throwing somebody out of his house," Alexenko said. "... I feel badly for him. I feel badly for him and his family." Fighting to stay hopeful
Though he knows the bank is within its legal rights to foreclose, Mark is still angry. He started an electrical business a year ago. His income is increasing and he wishes he could work out a deal to stay in his home.
The house went to a sheriff's sale May 29, but no one bought it, so the bank will take ownership. On June 29, a judge ordered the family out by Aug. 29 and entered a default judgment for $112,000 against the Triezenbergs.
"So they pushed us into bankruptcy," Mark said.
Tia is worried.
"Since October we have tried every idea," she said. "We're still at the same confused state as October as far as not knowing what to do."
The couple has raided their kids' bank accounts of baptism and birthday money to try to survive these past months. But the children, who range in age from 1 to 9, haven't been told they're going to move. That day is coming, though.
"We could write a book with all of the stuff we have gone through," Tia said. "You find out how your true family and friends are and that's the hard part. You feel sort of left alone."
Gamble at the race track, you're a lowlife...gamble on the housing market, "this isn't supposed to happen to us!!"
These whiny douchebags can go pound sand as fas as I'm concerned.
Cry me a river. My wife and I have raised our three kids in our 1953 ranch with 1,700 square foot. We've put on two roofs, redone the interior, put in new windows and landscaped. It's a fine, affordable home and allowed us to save for rainy days.
He knew he was in a volatile business. He chose to be a grasshopper, not an ant.
No sympathy for this clod. At all. None.
Yes - That would be those people who did not have their collective heads up Obama's behind and could actually see.
What idiots.
“Foreclosure: ‘This is like Pearl Harbor’”
Oh, I don’t know, do you suppose it has anything to do with buying a huge ticket item you can’t afford?
-this is not like Pearl Harbor, this is like what happens when Barney Frank re-distributes mortgages.
It does appear that there were some bad decisions made here, but I don’t get the “entitlement” vibe from these people.
Sad story. There *are* a lot of people losing their homes, and not just 4500 sq. ft. ones either.
Whining is right. My plan has always been: iy I can’t make a house payment from my paycheck, I use savings. If it goes on a few months, I sell my house and move to an apartment. No whining. No asking the bank for “help”. Just deal with it.
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Very similar to our sense of smart living. About ten years ago we could have traded up a giant step. Instead we re-did our place and used the additional funds to buy rental properties. Our house is fine, our neighborhood is fine and those two properties have been leveraged into six, each one turning a profit after all expenses and allowances for vacancies.
I lost my home to foreclosure. But we are lousy money managers. I guarantee the next chance that we given, IF, we are given another chance, mortgage payments will come directly out of my paycheck (most payrolls allow one diversion to another account)and we wont eat until the mortgage is paid. It really sucked for us, but we have no one but ourselves to blame.
What we don’t understand is how these people are staying in their homes for 18-24 months without paying a dime-four and half months from the auction we were out and renting the place we are in now..
Being a small builder is always risky. Buying these lots rather than options on the lots appears to be his biggest mistake.
“The Triezenbergs also took out a home equity loan on the house through Lincoln-Way so Mark could buy 10 lots for his business. The two loans totaled $825,000.”
It would have been nice if they had included what their family home was worth, as well as the 10 properties?
whoops!
Not sure how that post wound up there.
sorry about that.
Beyond the big ticket he borrowed against the home to buy more lots for his home building business. Hows that for putting all your eggs in one basket?
"They approached us when we were doing good," Tia said. "Then when things got tough, they pushed us aside and said we're on our own."
I'm still not sure if the financial crisis of the last few years is primarily attributable to irresponsible borrowers or irresponsible lenders.
You should have sympathy. He was working, employing people, then the economy went bad. I doubt he built his own home for nefarious reasons.
“So they pushed us into bankruptcy,”
“lured”
Shows that he still hasn’t learned the lesson.
But this sounds like he took a business loan and failed to pay.
During the *housing bubble* there were millions of home owners and flippers making huge windfall profits - subsidized by mortgage lenders.
I remember; young families *traded up* using the profit for down payments. The elderly who had no mortgages, sold their homes and used the funds for retirement or assisted living arrangements.
The dizzy days pulled in people who normally would not have been eligible for any mortgage - but there they were - being helped along by Freddie & Fannie.
Now we have all lost our fannies!!! It’s up to us to solve our own problems and not play victim. Nobody died for square footage!!!!
To use Pearl Harbor for an analogy just illustrates how ignorant these pitiful people are.
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