“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is now in foreclosure? We have always thought that GIVING houses to people who can’t afford to buy them is a bad idea. The TV show tore down the decrepit home of Milton and Patricia Harper in Georgia and built them a four bedroom mansion. Not only that, but they gave them enough money to pay the taxes for 25 years. The Harpers used the house for collateral for a $450,000 loan to start a business that failed. Hence the foreclosure. GIVING homes to people who can’t afford them makes no sense! Not only do they lack the resources to maintain a house but they don’t appreciate something they never had to work for. How many of these gift homes are now neglected and run down? (The same goes for the Habitat for Humanity charity.) The key to a leased apartment might not be as photogenic, but it makes a lot more sense.
39 Comments
Anyone who spent 450K to start a business after 8 years of expansion is a moron, and here are their names once again Milton and Patricia Harper. Stupid asses like them end up broke sooner or later.
I feel it necessary to defend Habitat for Humanity against your comment which suggests that HFH gives the homes to people. In fact, Habitat homes are purchased by the people who are selected to receive them. They pay a mortgage based on the fair market value of the home, taxes, repairs and maintenance along with all of the other payments made by anyone else who owns a home. The fact that goods and services are donated benefits the Habitat affiliate as a whole but not the individual homeowners who, I will repeat, purchase their homes at fair market value.
Thank you Karen for stating facts regarding Habitat for Humanity. This organization has made a huge difference in my community. We need to remember that Janet uses another part of her anatomy to speak instead of using her brain to compose her thoughts…..
Plus with Habitat the owners must participate in the actual construction of the home. I think those extreme home shows should have a clause where the occupants agree to NOT sell or use the house as collateral for 15 years minimum or they forfeit the home back to the show. Some people will take care of their home – others will trash it like pigs and do something dumb like this last couple.
Plus with Habitat the owners must participate in the actual construction of the home. I think those extreme home shows should have a clause where the occupants agree to NOT sell or use the house as collateral for 15 years minimum or they forfeit the home back to the show. Some people will take care of their home – others will trash it like pigs and do something dumb like this last couple.
I will agree with Karen on this subject as I have built several Habitat for Humanity homes. The people who qualify not only pay a mortgage, but also put in many hours of “sweat equity” on other habitat projects. Habitat is a great organization overall and provides the American Dream for many people who may have never had the opportunity.
As for Extreme Makeover, it
I should have bought the house of my dreams and expect the “TAXPAYERS” to pay for it………..
A good chunk of those foreclosures are on people with seasonal jobs and illegals and people who couldn’t afford them to begin with , no surprise here..
This is symbolic of the entire mortgage crisis–millions of people loaned money for homes they couldn’t afford. You can hate me for saying it, but it’s true.
I think it is unfair to black list the whole business because of one or two people who either do not have the resources to know they are getting into trouble or just don’t care…I whole lot of very decent hard working people have had their lives, and those of their children, changed for the better…Lets help all we can to break the welfare society mentality..
If stupid people didn’t sign up for mortgages they couldn’t afford, we wouldn’t have the housing mess in the country…pure and simple. Everyone’s desire to live beyond their means to “keep up with the Jones'” stems from insecurity and a lack of self discipline. I’m disgusted that now our government has to come to the rescue for folks who were simply too uneducated or self sufficient to take care of themselves and their families. Americans need to grow up and stop looking for handouts: from the government and ESPECIALLy from idiotic reality TV shows that disguise themselves as philanthropic. Do you suppose the ABC network or their advertisers have any such payments problems? No way!
Your comments are very general in nature. A lot of the folks Extreme Home Makeover rebuilds homes for have been severely taxed by illness and other disabilities. The show has built homes for people in need who have payed it forward. Many of the folks they have built homes for are very active in their community and the homeowners have gone on to help others in need. And of course they are going to build homes occasionally for idiots like the Harpers. It falls within the law of averages. The show does tell folks to consult a financial adviser to make sure they don’t fall into the Harper’s situation. I think you need to rethink your stand and maybe even watch the show once and awhile. You will see a lot of the recipients have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical issues for permanent disabilities that either they have or their children have. Are you saying the police officer paralyzed in the line of duty doesn’t deserve a handicap accessible home? Or the woman in Watts who looks out for all the kids and folks in her neighborhood and pays it forward constantly? Or the family with blind/deaf parents and an autistic child who relied on the one “normal” son for so much? Or the single parent that adopts disabled children? These folks don’t deserve a bit of good luck? Shame on you Janet.
Your comments are very general in nature. A lot of the folks Extreme Home Makeover rebuilds homes for have been severely taxed by illness and other disabilities. The show has built homes for people in need who have payed it forward. Many of the folks they have built homes for are very active in their community and the homeowners have gone on to help others in need. And of course they are going to build homes occasionally for idiots like the Harpers. It falls within the law of averages. The show does tell folks to consult a financial adviser to make sure they don’t fall into the Harper’s situation. I think you need to rethink your stand and maybe even watch the show once and awhile. You will see a lot of the recipients have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical issues for permanent disabilities that either they have or their children have. Are you saying the police officer paralyzed in the line of duty doesn’t deserve a handicap accessible home? Or the woman in Watts who looks out for all the kids and folks in her neighborhood and pays it forward constantly? Or the family with blind/deaf parents and an autistic child who relied on the one “normal” son for so much? Or the single parent that adopts disabled children? These folks don’t deserve a bit of good luck? Shame on you Janet.
Your comments are very general in nature. A lot of the folks Extreme Home Makeover rebuilds homes for have been severely taxed by illness and other disabilities. The show has built homes for people in need who have payed it forward. Many of the folks they have built homes for are very active in their community and the homeowners have gone on to help others in need. And of course they are going to build homes occasionally for idiots like the Harpers. It falls within the law of averages. The show does tell folks to consult a financial adviser to make sure they don’t fall into the Harper’s situation. I think you need to rethink your stand and maybe even watch the show once and awhile. You will see a lot of the recipients have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical issues for permanent disabilities that either they have or their children have. Are you saying the police officer paralyzed in the line of duty doesn’t deserve a handicap accessible home? Or the woman in Watts who looks out for all the kids and folks in her neighborhood and pays it forward constantly? Or the family with blind/deaf parents and an autistic child who relied on the one “normal” son for so much? Or the single parent that adopts disabled children? These folks don’t deserve a bit of good luck? Shame on you Janet.
Extreme Home Makeover goes overboard. I would rather see them build a modest home, or remodel in a modest way. Habitat for Humanity is a good community program and shouldn’t be lumped together with the extreme makeover show.
Wow. I bet you pretend to be a liberal democrat, too. Shame on you for profiling and generalizations of people who have less than you do.
Thanks, everyone, for standing up for Habitat for Humanity — they are a GREAT organization and DO NOT GIVE AWAY homes! Re: people who have been foreclosed, every situation is different. Health insurance costs have skyrocketed, people are losing jobs, the economy is a mess — but prices keep going up! The same thing, by the way, is happening in the UK…I love you Janet, but you’re way off on this one! 🙂
Tiny bit off subject but regarding houses:
The government is bailing out mostly first -time buyers. Who are mostly first-time buyers? Illegal immigrants mostly from Mexico. The banks have been forced to loan them $ for a house; it was in USA Today. Of course, there are the legit ones…ones who bought a house they could afford and then they lost jobs, etc. But mostly, it is a government conspiracy to blend in illegal immigrants in with us. We are now almost a 3rd world country. And us, the taxpayers, are the ones to bail them out. No one ever gave me a penny to help with my mortgage. Gov’t sucks.
It’s amazing to realize how many non-thinking people there are in the world. Yes, I’m talking to those of you who are so judgemental about others. The Harpers didn’t make good decisions. Their failure in this situation doesn’t make them bad people, and it doesn’t mean the act of generosity wasn’t worth it. I’m going to have to stop reading your page, Janet.
My thoughts exactly, Janet. THANK YOU for having the guts to say this in Hollywood. I live in LA and brought a house two years ago at the height of the market. My husband and I live well within our means. We put down over $200,000 on the home, have made every mortgage payment on time and now we are upside down on our mortgage. Meaning we owe more on our home than our home is currently valued. We have done NOTHING to be put in this situtation. We are paying for everyone else living beyond their means. I am beyond annoyed by this but will stay in the house until the market turns around and hopefully recoup some of the lost equity. We will not foreclose – we simply were not brought up that way! We honor our committments and we were taught the value of money because we always had to work for it!
My thoughts exactly, Janet. THANK YOU for having the guts to say this in Hollywood. I live in LA and brought a house two years ago at the height of the market. My husband and I live well within our means. We put down over $200,000 on the home, have made every mortgage payment on time and now we are upside down on our mortgage. Meaning we owe more on our home than our home is currently valued. We have done NOTHING to be put in this situtation. We are paying for everyone else living beyond their means. I am beyond annoyed by this but will stay in the house until the market turns around and hopefully recoup some of the lost equity. We will not foreclose – we simply were not brought up that way! We honor our committments and we were taught the value of money because we always had to work for it!
Girl, you just ig’nint.
Janet clearly you are uneducated about the realities of poverty and homelessness and of Habitat for humanity.
excellent point!
So Laura and your hubby are the only people in America who actually work, huh?
Poor people don’t work for a living. Poor people just subsist on the tax dollars generated by Laura and her husband!
anyone who owns a home knows that there is a propert tax! these people are either literally dillusional or uneducated. Honestly, what on God’s green earth did they expect? you have to live frugally and save even when you are given this opprotunity. a grown man or woman who is the head of these households have got to know this!! how can you not? is there not one good story/happy ending to any of these stories.? maybe Janet is right. Except fot Habitat for Humanity comment; that was just negative and useless.
…………TRY SATURN or CHEVY’S!!
Wow! I’m always surprised at how ignorant people are. I think others have successfully defended Habitat for Humanity and Extreme Makeover (yes they go overboard, but most of these people have homes already, the show just helps them out, as in the case of making a handicap-accessible house). As for the people who are saying that the majority of people who are facing home foreclosures are illegal immigrants from Mexico, do you get your “facts” from Fox “News”? Do you really believe this? I’d like to see some statistics backing this statement up. The majority of people who are facing foreclosure are Americans, and yes, while they are often people who went in over their heads or made poor decisions, there are others who are in this predicament b/c of being laid off or illness or being ill-advised and manipulated by unscrupulous mortgage lenders. And if you actually do some research on this topic, the credit industry and others (while profiting greatly themselves) bear a lot of the responsibility for this mess that we as a country are now facing.
Janet, is this how you choose to get traffic to your site? By making insane comments directed at lower income families? You’ve made your living on GOSSIP, stick to that. And I think you should participate on at least one HFH event in your area… and then let the selected homeowner know just how you feel about them. Oh and kick their kid while your at it…just to let them know how disgusting they all are… the ingrates!
“I live in LA and brought a house two years ago at the height of the market. My husband and I live well within our means. We put down over $200,000 on the home, have made every mortgage payment on time and now we are upside down on our mortgage. Meaning we owe more on our home than our home is currently valued. We have done NOTHING to be put in this situtation.”
Hello, Laura, maybe buying at the height of the market was what put you in this situation. You could have waited, you could have bought elsewhere, you could have not put so much money into an already overpriced house. But you didn’t. That’s why you’re in the situation you’re in. Quit crying. You still have a house. You should be grateful that your bad choices haven’t left you homeless. Yet.
My husband and I bought a house in Redondo Beach in 1997 for 310K the previous owners had paid 425K just three years prior. We sold it in 2006 for 929K. Made 700k. We haven’t bought another home yet because we know the market is still going down. Like the couple above we would hate to have the house be worth less than we paid in a year or two. The moral of the story is always buy low and sell high.
I get tired of seeing people with struggling incomes cranking out 5 kids… etc. Nothing annoys me more than “poor people” crying that they struggle to care for their kids. Hello! If you are poor then why the hell are you pregnant and why do you have 4 kids. No sympathy here.
Just give them a new cardboard house, a can opener, scissors, knife and pot to pee in, then move on PEOPLE!
The better show to watch is ‘Clean House’, where they show people how to manage their stupidity, clutter and foolishness.
Exactly, Janet. While what you say might be unpopular, it’s true. Why encourage people to make bad decisions? If people were responsible and hard-working like most Americans, THEY WOULDN’T NEED A FREE HOUSE! And, I’m tired of the medical bills argument — get a good job, and you get good insurance. I’ve never had a problem with health insurance BECAUSE I WORK FOR A LIVING. Simple. Also, I lived in an apartment for many, many years before I could afford my first house. Good idea on giving a leased apartment for a temporary fix. Giving away too much doesn’t teach anything constructive to people — they just learn they can get more stuff for free if they stay poor, lazy, and sorry for themselves.
If you vote for Obama expect more of your middle income taxes go to support the same people looking for hand outs. But on the so-called positive side it will make us all “equal” economically only you’ll have paid the bill to drop down to a lower income level. What a bargain.
Are you really compararing A tv show with Habitat for humanity?
Do you really think that those people that get a place to live thanks to HFH doesnt have a home because they dont work enough to get one?
Come on…you should investigate a little bit more before saying things like that.
That “Extreme Home Makeover” show disgusts me. They build these way over the top houses which would be very expensive to maintain, heat and cool. And bedrooms and other amenities are very trendy and will be outgrown by the kids’ changing tastes over time. It’s such a waste. Would it be nice if a showed America how to build nice an affordable homes that will waste nothing? Waste not, want not.
Janet, shame on you for lumping Habitat w/ Hollywood. Habitat families receive financial counseling and can not borrow against their mortgage. Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful program. Obviously the reason you have this dinky website that only gets checked once a month is because you are ignorant.
NO BETTER THAN PEREZ – ONLY LESS RELEVANT!