Family may lose 'ABC Extreme Makeover' home

[rsmith6621]

http://www.komotv.com/news/16383191.html

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Life before getting a new house on the ABC show 'Extreme Makeover Home Edition' was hard enough for the Byers family, but since that episode aired back in October, things have gotten even more difficult.

First, Jenessa 'Boey' Byers lost her battle with cancer and now the family could lose its dream home to foreclosure.

"There's still $250,000 left on the old mortgage that they have to pay," said Umpqua Bank Manager Heather Rogers. "And then they have to start paying the property taxes on the new value of the home because it's a lot more than the old home was."


****************************************************

guess this is when a blessing becomes a curse.....I'm surprised that someone did not step up and pay the mortgage off like so many other family have had on the show.

[SoCalDem]

1. Sometimes you SHOULD look a gift-horse in the mouth

All these "gift" shows are little more than commercials for Lowes, HomeDepot, Sears et al

Once the "gift" is made, it can become a "beautiful burden" to the family..

It's considered income for some, and is usually taxable..and if the tax is included in the gift, then THAT also becomes part of the gift and is taxed too..

Poor people who have nothing BUT that beautiful gift, often cannot afford to keep it..

It's like giving a horse to a kid in an apartment..

For the shows to pay off a mortgage on an existing house, would be better, but then how would Lowes get their commercial?

[DS1]

2. If they can't sell

It would be a huge emotional blow to sell it, of course, notwithstanding everything they've already been through.

[Lorien]

3. They wouldn't be the first

several families have lost their homes after the EMHE team came in and built them new McMansions. The upkeep, property taxes and energy costs were simply too much for them. If ABC were really in the business of helping people then they would have built them more modest 2,500 square foot homes that they could have afforded in the future-but ABC is in the business of selling advertising, so it's all about the show factor, and not about really helping people who need it.

BTW-my cousin was a Disney exec and had her office next to that of EMHE several years ago. She said that ABC only pays the salaries of the personalities on the show-all the rest is payed by the builders and companies like Sears who advertise within the show itself. If the mortgage gets paid off, it's not by ABC.

[alarimer]

10. I hate this show for that reason.

Just one long ad for Sears, Home Depot, etc.

[Lorien]

11. Plus the fact that they are always promoting the Iraq war as a "fight

for our freedoms"! I swear-every time they build a house for a soldier stationed overseas they go on and on about how "If they weren't over there doing what they are doing, we couldn't be here building this home and enjoying the freedom we have". That may have been true during WWII, but it's false propaganda now and ABC knows it!

[Neecy]

25. I couldn't agree more

How many times in the last couple of months have we heard that others are "fighting for our freedom"? And last week to see Toby Keith doing that American Soldier thing and his little silly salute at the end - I wanted to vomit. Why in the fuck isn't HE an American soldier? The whole show has turned into an ad for Sears, Lowe's and neocons.

[Lorien]

39. Ugh! I saw that too and had to turn it off

I leave the TV on Sunday nights to keep track of the time while I put up items on eBay. I only get a few stations (no cable) so I end up on ABC at least once a month. I caught that and about 15 minutes here and there at the beginning. I wanted to see the final product because the guy had been a Civil War buff who wanted to recreate a historic home that had been on th property. I have a friend like that, and accuracy is EVERYTHING to him. The house they built him kinda looked period-but not very. The canned halogen lighting and monster kitchen ruined it. They wouldn't know good taste and common sense moderation if it bit them in the ass. :puke:

I've got to remember to avoid ABC. :-(

[Neecy]

40. oh, the monster kitchen is standard

That way they can cram as many appliances from Sears as possible in it and have the cameras zoom in lovingly at the Sears refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, etc.

What I don't get is the show features all of these designers, which one would assume have a bit of talent, yet for some reason the bedrooms always feature the most hideous, nausea-inducing wallpaper on the planet. It gives me a headache just seeing a glimpse of it on television and I can't imagine having to live with that. Good taste doesn't seem to be much in evidence, just gluttonous consumption (and almost NO green engineering at all - imagine how much these families would really save if they solar equipped these monster homes instead of putting airplanes in the kids' rooms or racks of guitars).

After the Toby Keith vomitfest I'm going to start avoiding this crap, too.

[Lorien]

42. Oh, and those kid's rooms!

I work for Disney, and even our Imagineers wouldn't put crap like that in a kid's room. Why? Kids grow up, and changing a room to change with their tastes gets expensive-especially when you embed a massive fiberglass angler fish into one wall. The "designers" put crap like that in there to get a reaction from the kids that looks great on film, but they do not make up rooms that can grow with the child and therefore will fit the family budget.

[LibDemAlways]

45. On every show that features a soldier or soldier's family,

the whole "this soldier is protecting our freedom" meme kicks into high gear. I just want to scream "Don't speak for me. If he's knocking down doors in Iraq he sure as hell isn't protecting my freedom and he isn't helping the Iraqis either."

I get so tired of the media's ridiculous worship of all things military.

[bleowheels]

34. I always wondered about those things. And yet it always seems like...

nobody (television news magazines) ever does exposes on these type of shows. The masses consumes these shows, think, "Ahhh, that's so nice." But, the viewers never think of the real consequences and that these families end up worse than before ABC got there.

[Maine-ah]

48. 2500 sq ft is modest?

hell, my house is not quite 1100 sq ft.

[Lorien]

52. For a family of four to five is sure is these days

my home is around 1,800 square feet and I'm tightly packed into it-but I'm running a business out of it, so that's why the space is completely used up. If I had a husband and child here I would easily need another 700 square feet. most of the homes in my historic 1880s-1930s neighborhood are 1,100-2,800 sq. ft. , but the new Mcmansions they build when they knock down an old home around here are over 4,000 square feet-just like those on EMHE. It's disgusting.

[kath]

58. My parents raised 6 kids in a 1400 sq. ft. house,

yeah, it was a little cramped, but we survived just fine. For 2 years we lived in a house with 960 sq ft. Aunt & uncle raised 5 kids in a 900 sq.ft. house - granted, it had a full basement, and my aunt used to chase the kids down there to play and get out of her hair on rainy days! (or outside, of course, on nice days. Remember when kids used to play outside??) Another aunt and uncle with 5 kids had more room - a two-story house with probably 1200-1400 sq ft (this county doesn't give square footage on their website) This was how MANY middle class people lived in the 60s and 70s. Looking at the county real estate page for one of our old neighborhoods and my cousins' neighborhood shows that a lot of the original owners are still in these houses built in the early 60s.
This current concept that every kid needs to have her own room and you need about 1000 sq. ft per person is crazy. Part of the problem is that people today have TOO MUCH STUFF - and kath the Pack Rat is just as guilty of that as the next person! :P

In the 60s, families with ONE wage earner who had a high school education could actually afford to buy a house. But, the expectations RE: the *size* of that house were vastly different from today.

[and-justice-for-all]

4. Property taxes should NOT go up....

when you make improvements to your home. Whomever came up with that bullshit needs a beating.

[alarimer]

9. Aren't they usually brand new homes?

Don't they essentially tear down the old one and build a new one? I would think that would have some bearing on it. If the valuation goes up (as it would with improvements), taxes will go up. It may take a couple of years but it will happen.

[Lorien]

15. Yep, the old homes are removed and the new ones are four times as big

or larger, plus worth about five or six times what the old one was.

[GodlessBiker]

13. I tear down my house except for one wall, then improve my house

around that wall. What exactly is an improvement?

And why should I, who buys an already improved house,have to subsidize my neighbor, taxwise,who improves her house so that it ends up looking like mine.

[Xithras]

47. My dad did exactly that.

Levelled the entire house except for one short exterior wall along what was formerly the garage. That made it a remodel instead of new construction, and saved him almost $30,000 in fees and taxes (everything from permit fees to sewer connection charges). He called that his "golden wall".

[AngryOldDem]

5. This is not a new issue with this show.

http://www.organizingla.com/organizingla_blog/2006/10/extreme_makeove.html

<<"How does the family afford the new house once they move in? It’s challenging enough for an average American family to move from a 1500 square foot house to a 2500 square foot house. The houses on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition go from about 900 square feet to 9,000 square feet or more. The heating and air conditioning costs alone will be 10 times (at least) what they were before their house was re-done. The property taxes may go through the roof if the property is re-assessed. And, how do the homeowners afford insurance on this new mega-house? In the new house, there are so many state of the art light fixtures that replacing light bulbs may even present a financial challenge."<<

It seems the true story behind this show begins after Ty Pennington loads up his truck and leaves.

Some provision should be in place for the families who get assistance from this show. I hope the Byers family can somehow keep their home.

[samdogmom]

6. Wow! So sad! Okay, now let's funnel another ten billion into Iraq.

What is wrong with our country? We can pour billions into Iraq, but we can't help these worthy souls keep their house?

[alphafemale]

7. I despise these "Queen for a Day" type shows.

Absolutely despise them.

Once the Klieg lights dim and the fake tears of the host dry no one is better off except for the sponsor who profited from making a sideshow out of some families life.

[Warpy]

22. I thought I was the only one

who hated this sob story stuff.

Thank you for joining me in cynicism.

[alphafemale]

24. Looking at this thread it seems we are not alone. Worst of all was those plastic surgery things.

Your life sucks because you don't meet "OUR" standard of beauty.

Come. Let us hack at your face and body with a scalpel.
We'll put it on film. Then your life will be magically transformed.

No really. It will.

[bullwinkle428]

26. "Extreme Home Makeover" was actually a spin-off of this kind of show!

"Extreme Makeover" was the plastic surgery show that originally aired maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and the creators later came up with the idea of EHM. I don't think that EM has even aired in recent years!

[Warpy]

27. Not if you get the butcher who does all the GOP trophy wives

You'll end up looking wired and windswept.

:evilgrin:

[alarimer]

43. I also hate excessive sentimentalism

I must be a really cold fish but that stuff just makes me gag.

[Rosemary2205]

64. I didn't even get through the first show for that reason

these pretty little cheerleader types sitting there in a 1 million mobile home sobbing because someone they never met is a little down on their luck. Barffest aplenty.

There's a "stage your home for sale" type show on A&E or TLC - forget which - the designer works absolute miracles with a house on a shoestring budget - but this thing they have about trying really really hard to make the current owner feel toxic shame about the "unsale-ability" of their home is a barfer. If that idiot crew did that to me I'd probably bust out laughing and tell them to go get stuffed.

[bleowheels]

8. This show should be called, "ABC Free McMansion." But I think that...

it is terrible when any of these families lose their house after what they have been through. Really, ABC should be ashamed of the way they use the families on this show. Yes, the families can be getting something very good but does anyone really think that ABC follows up on these families. I mean, ABC is saying, "Hey we'll give you a great, new house if we can put you on TV." Only, to have ABC walk away and not look back after the cameras are put away and the production crew leaves.

I actually have some respect for the show "Holmes on Homes" where they correct contractors' mistakes but it is not over-the-top like ABC's show.

[SoCalDem]

14. I like Holmes too.. he donates the repairs and often helps

the homeowners go to court against the people who ripped them off.. and his show is more about "the right way to do something"..and may have helped many people keep from hiring a sham contractor..

[bleowheels]

17. One time I watched him and you could tell that Holmes was actually...

getting PO'ed talking about the shoddy contracting job leading to that particular episode.

[Bigleaf]

28. Holmes is a good ol Toronto boy, my hometown.

[Bigleaf]

29. One other great thing about Holmes you might not know. He's building the first home for Brad Pitt

in Louisana.

[AngryOldDem]

16. I think ABC or the production company needs to answer for this.

It's happened far too many times for it to be coincidence. I'm sure they'll offer some explanation that the families signed off on all subsequent expenses, etc., but how, exactly, was it explained to them? What was in the fine print of whatever it was they signed to appear on the show?

It's exploitation of someone's bad luck for ratings and product placement. Morally and ethically, you cannot just leave people high and dry like this. (I know, I know: Morality and ethics -- what a concept. :sarcasm: )

[bleowheels]

18. Yeah, I used to think that ABC paid for everything but the property taxes,...

utility bills, insurance, etc. But, obviously that is not the case. I could only stomach this show for a few episodes right at the beginning of it's run. It was so over-the-top. If a family cannot afford a million dollar house to begin with, how can they pay the taxes on a million dollar house?

[Lorien]

30. See post #3

ABC only pays for it's own production staff.

[MidwestTransplant]

12. If they need to sell it, I am sure it would go for more than $250.

[samdogmom]

19. Give me a break!

This was the family home--why would or should they want to sell it? The premise of the show is to give them something they can live in happily (and forget all their troubles--or so it would seem!). If they have to sell the new abode to afford it--then the show's premise is a HUGE bust!

[MidwestTransplant]

51. I was just trying to look on the bright side. I know it sucks for them.

[Wizard777]

20. Not in this market. n/t

[Warpy]

21. People who have won the HGTV dream houses have

found themselves in the same situation, located far from family, friends and job possibilities and deep in the hole on property taxes, alone, never mind the income taxes from such a huge lottery win.

Banks aren't writing many mortgages these days, so they're stuck. These barns will likely go for taxes or other unpaid bills.

All the granite countertops and marble steam showers in the world won't generate the income it takes to keep a mansion going.

[Codedonkey]

23. That show has always disgusted me...

Taking advantage of other peoples misfortunes for ratings....

[Lorien]

32. And they spent what-ONE episode in New Orleans?

Families seem to be selected on their photogenic and pathos inducting qualities-along with a definite tendency to support Right Wing politics (they always gush over outspoken Bush supporting RW country singers and giant red SUVs).

[B Calm]

31. Had a truck driver tell me they built one of these Extreme Makeover homes in his hometown.

He said it looked pretty good on TV, but he watched it being built. He said since it had to be thrown together in one week, they really cut corners on construction. He said it could have been a real nice house if they had more time.

[dajoki]

33. Well...

After scrimping and saving, my wife and I bought a rundown property and rebuilt it ourselves, no help from Ty. I had a serious accident at work which left me disabled, my wife lost her job and then my youngest daughter became seriously ill. It took everything we had and more and now we are in the battle of our lives trying to keep our home, it is in foreclosure. You don't need a TV station to build you a house in order for you to end up on the edge.

[AlCzervik]

35. i'm so sorry to hear that Jenessa has died, how do you handle your child's death

and then losing your home all at once.

[bleowheels]

36. "Monster houses make bad neighbors" read a sign in Minneapolis.

Some developers were building a new large house in a quaint but established older Minneapolis neiborhood known for its smaller but unique houses. One of the neighbors put up the sign noted above. I saw it Dwell magazine. A fairly new magazine dedicated to sustainable, modern living. Like my neighborhood, McKennan Park (a very old neighborhood with old beautiful houses) where an anithesiologist destroyed an aging but otherwise fine house just to put up a new large house. The anithesiologist wants the luxury of this neighborhood but builds a house that represents everything that this neighborhood does not. It confounds me.

[Lorien]

41. Oh man, we have that all over down here

I live in a historic district in Orlando. Small craftsman homes, brick streets, iron lamp posts, huge old live oaks, etc. Spec home builders have been buying up beautiful little 1920s homes, bulldozing them and chopping down the ancient oaks, and putting in 4,000 sq. ft. monstrosities that take up nearly every inch of the plot while dwarfing the rest of the homes in the neighborhood. I bought my home here 11 years ago for the cozy historic charm of the place and these new (unsold) builds make me sick. I'll have to post a few photos some day. The worst is on a once picture perfect cobblestone street overlooking a small park. Every home had been a perfectly preserved 1920's build ranging in size from 1,500-2,000 square feet. One was a beautiful Prairie Mission home in the Frank Lloyd Wright style-the only one in the area, but it fit perfectly into the neighborhood. The builder knocked it down and put a monster two story army green featureless box in it's place. I can't tell you how it's changed that street. It's just awful. :-(

[bleowheels]

44. This is exactly what I'm talking about. My next-door-neighbors beautifully...

restored their house to its original era and a local home magazine profiled them. One of my neighbors had a quote, I'm paraphrasing, "That it's better to live in a neighborhood than build a house in a cornfield." I live in South Dakota and although I live in the largest city in the state, many of the newer developments (where many choose to build their enormous, characterless houses) were cornfields just a few years ago. I totally "get" his sentiment. There is pride here in my neighborhood and people still feel apart of a community, if you will.

[mondo joe]

37. Don't care for those shows - but what do people expect?

Of course their property taxes will increase.

Of course a house remodeled or built in a week isn't going to be done with the finest craftmanship.

[xxqqqzme]

38. I knew there was a good reason I never watched

this program.

[misanthrope]

46. A family in our town got one of those houses just a few weeks ago...

...and the reason was basically because they wouldn't stop bringing children into an overpopulated world.

Husband and wife with about eight kids. Even though they are poor, they won't get into population control because they're Catholic. Kept popping them out until the mother had one in her 40s that was born with Down's Syndrome. The father has been unemployed for a while now. It pushed all the sympathy buttons at ABC.

Had they been black folks, they would have been reviled as stereotypes but because they are good, God-fearing, conservative white folks, locals fell all over themselves to get them on EMHE. When the show came into town, literally thousands of folks volunteered to help load them down with all the latest in materialistic, consumption-driven lifestyles.

The neighbors who complained about the invasiveness of the show were quieted and shamed. No one asked about how it was going to affect property values in what was a pretty modest neighborhood of small houses.

I figure the "lucky family" ought to be selling the new monstrosity chock full of energy-guzzling gadgetry within a few years.

[Lorien]

53. I hate it when they reward excessive breeding

and downright stupidity. TWO children are hard to afford for most, but eight is just downright child abuse these days. No family I know can make it by on just one paycheck anymore, so time is precious enough and one or two kids barely get enough of it from their overworked parents. With a family of eight there is potential for extreme neglect. On top of that, the world simply doesn't need more "miracles". Kids today are facing a grim enough future as it is without adding more to the suffering. :-(

[Karenina]

55. Hear, Hear!

:hi:

[Lorien]

57. Hi Karenina!

:hi:

I just listed to your CD again the other day. Beautiful stuff from a beautiful person. :loveya:

[MiniMe]

49. Don't they have to pay income taxes on it too?

Thats another thing that these families usually can't afford

[Toucano]

50. Why doesn't '60 Minutes' do a piece on this?

That would be compelling viewing, IMHO.

[Vanje]

59. Not likely

Arent 60 Minutes, and the house make-over show, on the same network?

[Deja Q]

61. 60 Mins is on CBS

[Rosemary2205]

54. THIS THREAD NEED RECOMMENDS!!

For a long time I've wished this disgusting show would be forced off the air.

They built a house for a family I personally know. It is a 5000 sq ft house in the middle of 800-1200 sq ft houses, but that is not the part that pissed me off. We who love them begged them not to apply to ABC - and when chosen, begged them to change their mind before signing away their future.

They were so overwhelmed by life, not sophisticated nor educated enough to hold their own against ABC lawyers shoving papers under thier noses. All they could see is that, in the middle of having a shithole of a life, someone was going to "give" them a decent house.

Within 2 months they were in deeper shit than they were to begin with. A bad roof leak at the chimney revealed a repair that cost $800 for materials alone to fix - a couple church guys climbed up there and fixed it for them but it was money they didn't really have - so the credit cards got whipped out. The brand new water heater died and the products were installed specifically without a warrantee - so a 3 month old water heater had to be replaced - more $100's on the CC.

The utility bills started showing up. -- more nails in the coffin.

Then the property tax bill came in September. The final nail.

They still didn't have healthcare coverage to pay for the medical problems that got them in the shithole in the first place. They still had the same crappy education (and no money to get a better one) that got them in the shithole in the first place.

They got their 15 minutes on TeeVee - they got their "free" house. Now they are living in a church member's basement. The kids are being raised in a school system so bad it's about to lose it's state accreditation. None of us around here can afford to help much more than we already are.

We figure about half a million was spent making that episode of TeeVee. I can't even imagine what they half a mil would have done for that family if it had been spent just a little differently.

Oh and fuck you Sears.

[renate]

56. I wish I could K&R a specific post

But I'm happy to K&R the whole thread.

This first-hand insight is really interesting. Thanks. I'm sorry about the family's problems... I wish the rest of their lives could have been fixed by a one-hour TV show.

[maui9002]

60. We have a successful local raffle here in AZ

All of the big ticket prizes (homes, cars, etc.) come with cash presumably to offset at least some of the tax. If the funds raised are for legitimate charitable purposes, and people who buy the tickets can't deduct the cost of the raffle tickets, it seems to me that an exemption would be in order for those who win (otherwise, the current tax policy either forces the charity to pick the tab (meaning less money for the beneficiary) or creates potential hardships for the winner. With respect to Extreme Makeover, the $250K the family owes was in place before the new home was buil--it doesn't appear they had to pay taxes on the value of the home (presumably because someone stepped up and paid it for them). In any case, it sure seems an appropriate exemption from income tax for this type of situation could be legislated.

healthwealthraffle.org

[John Kerry VonErich]

62. Here's my take

I never thought of it as a commercial for Sears, etc. This is more of a lesson of "let the buyer (or in this case recipiant) beware". They should have known that newly built houses raises property value, which means taxes will raise on their house. This show needs to be protested on site because emotions are the show's ratings, and never reveal to the public of the consequences of the houses they will build.

[Medusa]

63. I've often wondered about this

the people they pick to redo houses for are often so poor they could barely afford electricity, heating, taxes, etc. on the houses they had and then ABC sweeps in and builds them a mega-mansion? How do these impoverished families afford to do that? It's why I won't watch the show.

[lame54]

65. They just need to change the title - ABC Extreme Takeover