Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

[Christiern]

Even ABC's Extreme Makeover - Home Edition beneficiaries are facing foreclosure. There are several cases pending.

[vajerzy]

I've wondered about the bigger homes they're building....the family's money remains the same. It's like the HGTV Dream Home where the people who win can't afford the cost involved- so they sell it....I would.

[Bright Moments]

Even ABC's Extreme Makeover - Home Edition beneficiaries are facing foreclosure. There are several cases pending.

The point being?

[tkeith]

Even ABC's Extreme Makeover - Home Edition beneficiaries are facing foreclosure. There are several cases pending.

The point being?

The point being that any man with Marylin in his sig should post as frequently as possible -- in all threads.

[Dan Gould]

This is a problem that could be foreseen for anyone who is a "beneficiary" of that show, regardless of the mortgage crisis. I haven't seen more than bits and pieces when I stumbled across it and the remote didn't want to function but it seems that they target middle to working class people, often those with medical or other hard-luck stories. Everyone cries, but at the end of the day you've changed the economics of their home ownership, and if their luck doesn't change, anyone could foresee trouble ahead. If the show really wanted to change people's lives, it would transform their home while paying off the debt so that all the lucky winners would have to worry about going forward is property taxes.

I'd be really curious to know how often this has happened previously, as well as how many participants sold their transformed properties because they realized they couldn't handle the additional expenses like enormously increased taxes and utilities.

[JSngry]

Count me as another one who's long wondered about the long-term benefit for a struggling family who suddenly has their overhead substantially increased.

I mean, it "feels good", but feel good don't pay the bills.

Except, of course, for the network...

[Bright Moments]

Even ABC's Extreme Makeover - Home Edition beneficiaries are facing foreclosure. There are several cases pending.

The point being?

The point being that any man with Marylin in his sig should post as frequently as possible -- in all threads.

[Rooster_Ties]

Well, from what I've seen in the local papers (I've never seen the show myself, but there was an Extreme Home makeover here in the KC area a year or so ago -- with a lot of local coverage), the size and scope of the resulting house is TOTALLY out of character with the surrounding neighborhood -- thus driving down the value of the home (well, down from what its expected value might reasonably be after the makeover), and frankly driving down the home values of the dozen homes in closest proximity to the offending McMansion in the middle of 'normal' houses.

But hey, it makes for good TV - so who cares what the long-term impacts are.

Edited July 27, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[Christiern]

I have seen a few of those shows and the clearly go overboard. Sometimes they do pay the mortgage in full, but not always. I don't know how well those houses are built--5 days seems like a very short time, but they seem to spare no expense when it comes to furnishing them, lots of flat-screen TVs, the latest in kitchen appliances, etc. they will also throw in a car or truck, sometimes. The kids' rooms tend to be horrid, tasteless and--often-impractical creations made to reflect the kid's current fancy. If he/she likes guitars, they often throw in several, where one would suffice. I have always wanted to see what these homes look like a year or two later.

[tkeith]

I'll just keep my shithole and continue dropping money into it.

No need to upgrade to a Halle Berry house without provocation.

[DTMX]

I thought you were talking about the one in Atlanta: 'Extreme Makeover' Home on Auction Block

They were given a $450k house, which they used as collateral for a $450k loan to start a business that failed. They were also given donations of $250k to cover the taxes for the house (and to pay some college tutions for the kids). Apparently they don't have the donations anymore, either. Some people are not good at managing money and giving them money is not going to help them. If the producers & builders had really wanted to help this family they should have built them a nice middle-class home and put all of the donation money in a protected fund to be doled out by a hired manager to pay for taxes and other house-related expenses. But none of that makes for good Cinderella-story television.

And unless I'm missing something, the reason that they were chosen to get a new house was because sewage was backing up into the house when it rained. We had the same problem at my parents house and I don't remember any television cameras around when my step-father and I dug up the septic tank in the rain on a Wednesday night. I do remember my mother holding a flashlight for us until she said, "this is stupid, I'm going back inside."

Meanwhile, 50 miles north of the foreclosed property, DTMX installed an attic fan into his 28-year-old shithole of a house sans television cameras. Maybe they'll be here next week when the toilets are scheduled to be repaired (my bear-in-the-woods solution has not found favor with the neighbors).

Edited July 27, 2008 by DTMX

[Christiern]

Same thing, different case--like I said, there are apparently several instances of ultimate failure. It does not surprise me. If they could do this with moderation, they could help more people and I bet there would be fewer disappointments. Of course, this is really more about producing a feel-good tear-jerker and promoting a lot of products.