Extreme Home Makeover -- foreclosure?

Niber · 07-30-2008, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure

Mon Jul 28, 11:32 AM PDT

More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

Three years later, the reality TV show's most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.

After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.

The finished product was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office.

Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple's three children and a home maintenance fund.
ABC said in a statement that it advises each family to consult a financial planner after they get their new home. "Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families," the network said.

Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.

"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Free $450,000 house AND $250,000 in donations and they squander both. Wow.

Rothrek · 07-30-2008, 06:17 PM

People are so fucking stupid/ungrateful.

Faabio · 07-30-2008, 06:17 PM

What an excellent way to spit into the face of the community!

Velvenia · 07-30-2008, 06:17 PM

That is so fucked up.

Illuminator · 07-30-2008, 06:25 PM

This provides a crystal clear argument against welfare.

Laodaron · 07-30-2008, 09:51 PM

No it doesn't. We need free house reform. We need to give them more so that they won't be ABLE to waste it. Give them so much its impossible to actually burn through it.

Miroh · 07-31-2008, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laodaron

No it doesn't. We need free house reform. We need to give them more so that they won't be ABLE to waste it. Give them so much its impossible to actually burn through it.

Yeah, great idea there....Give them more!!!!

Laodaron · 07-31-2008, 02:46 AM

I was just jumping on the "welfare and free shit for those that didn't earn it" bandwagon lol.

Miroh · 07-31-2008, 03:08 AM

Yeah, that didn't seem right...

Skaer · 07-31-2008, 03:39 AM

They put the house against a loan to start a business and it failed.

Maybe a bad decision, but if it had worked we'd be reading a different story. I read a little bit of bias in that reporters piece.