Re: "Extreme Makeover" Home In Foreclosure

On Jul 30, 10:34 pm, pkj0...@xxxxxxx wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:58:16 -0400, "Steven L."

<sdlit...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
'Extreme Makeover' home in Atlanta in foreclosure
Harper family may lose luxury remodeled home in Clayton County

By MARK DAVIS
accessAtlanta
Published on: 07/25/2008

Things couldn't look better three years ago for Milton and Patricia
Harper of Lake City, who giddily accepted the keys to a small castle,
plus enough money to pay taxes on it for 25 years. It was a product of
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

Now, the Clayton County house is a two-story, turreted example of how
things can go wrong. It's in foreclosure.

[snip]

Materials and labor were donated, but the home would have cost about
$450,000 to construct. When they were done, the home dwarfed all the
ranch and split-level structures in neighboring lots.

I know it's popular to blame mortgage companies, but this tells me
there was something seriously wrong with the mortgage company's
methods and practices.

Only an idiot or someone very greedy would approve what amounted to a
jumbo mortgage for a house that is THAT out of sync with the rest of
the neighborhood.  Re-sale price is based on comparable homes in the
area, not on how much you spent to build the home or how much money
you put into improvements.

Not to mention, did anyone at the lending company bother to seriously
investigate the experience of this family in running a successful
construction business?  Yeah, the family blew it, but they sure as
hell had a lot of help from "experts" who should've known better.

Of course the lenders are at fault. That's what all this mortgage
bail-out mess is about! And even while the market was sinking and
homes were in foreclosure, making headlines around the country,
Countrywide, for one, was still touting their equity loans on TV like
there would be no tomorrow.

Firstly, the homeowners' ideas were bigger than their expertise; then,
the lender gave them a loan based on the full market value of their
home, inflated; then, the home market crashed, building-wise, so they
couldn't get enough business to make their venture work.

I, for one, resent having to bailout people who weren't smart enough
to figure out what they could and couldn't afford, egged on by the
lenders. I think the lenders themselves should do the bailout.

N.
.

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