Extreme makeover's foreclosure Edition

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.azstarnet.com/business/278313

With huge problems in housing market, TV program's upscale, hit-and-run approach seems oddly out of sync. Instead, how about remodeling modest foreclosed properties?

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.01.2009

The hit TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" blitzed into town last week, capturing our attention with a feel-good story just as the economy shed 72,000 more jobs.
In the span of 106 hours, host Ty Pennington, with the help of hundreds of local volunteers, will have torn down Kathleen and Michael Bell's run-down Catalina Foothills home and replaced it with a 3,100-square-foot masterpiece.

This is something of a fairy-tale moment for the Bells, whose old home was hardly livable and whose 14-year-old daughter, Lizzie, has a rare blood disorder that necessitates transfusions every few weeks. It's a touching story, and one the community has rallied around with volunteers and materials.
And yet at a time when foreclosures are spiking and thousands of jobs are being lost, something about "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's" hit-and-run nature seems out of place, a throwback to our housing bubble.

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But even if the show were paying its permit fees, what happens after "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" leaves town and the recipient's property taxes spike or energy costs soar?
There have been a number of stories of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" families running into financial trouble. Families in Detroit and Atlanta have faced foreclosure, news reports say. Similarly, a man in Oregon had to sell his home because he couldn't afford the increased property taxes and maintenance costs.

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Instead of swooping in and out of town to build one sprawling upscale home, my version of the show would remodel 20 of those foreclosed properties, making sure they have good roofs, quality plumbing and wiring, and working heating and cooling. Volunteers would rush to help. Materials would be donated. Foreclosures would be taken off the market.

It wouldn't be as sexy as building a sprawling upscale home, and the ratings probably wouldn't be great, but it's the kind of work that could go a long way toward improving people's lives and changing the housing crisis we all are facing.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. They JUST left my town a couple of weeks ago.

The local media was full of it (in more ways than one). Why do they tear down the complete house EVERY time? I can understand on some of them as they really are uninhabitable, but the one they did here was to retrofit for a lady in a wheelchair. Instead of retrofitting, they tore down the entire house and, as far as I know, nothing was recycled, like the doors, windows, cabinetry, none of it! I kept thinking what a waste all of it was.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. I don't get the tear downs either. I guess it's more dramatic to reveal an entirely new house. Also

their in a hurry. I imagine it's quicker to tear down and build from pre-existing plans than to spend time analyzing the existing home and renovating it.

[jmowreader]

11. More sponsor dollars, too...

They also don't have to worry about liability issues. If they take an existing home, replace the floor, and six months later a rotten floor joist they didn't see because they didn't have time to look for it gives way with 305-pound Uncle Jordan standing on it, and the resultant injury ends Uncle Jordan's career as a tackle for the Carolina Panthers, there's going to be a huge lawsuit which Pennington's production company will lose.

The people I REALLY feel sorry for in this Extreme Makeover bullshit are their neighbors. Say Extreme Makeover comes in, tears down the $125,000 house three down from yours, and replaces it with a $700,000 McMansion. Five years later the city elects a new assessor...who decides that because the home was unloaded for $575,000 last year he's going to comp-up every house in the neighborhood to match...AND raise everyone's taxes! Happened to me in a limited way...one of my neighbors bought a trilevel, put a sunroom on it, expanded the master bedroom, resided it and did a lot of other shit, then sold the house for $105,000 when the Army sent them to Fort Rucker. Next thing you know, the city sent me a notice of revaluation bumping MY $65,000 house up to $98,500 and the taxes to match. Thanks, guys.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Someone needs to pitch that idea to tv land execs.

Oh...wait....Habitat for Humanity does that sort of thing.

We just need to pitch a few bucks to THAT non-profit.

[flvegan]

3. Yesterday, I was clicking through and I stumbled upon a show called "Mobile Home Disaster"

It seemed pretty tongue in cheek, and the host of the show was a whiny voiced comedian I'd seen somewhere else. The show featured a pretty run down mobile home that a single dad and his 4 or 5 sons were living in. It was in a park, not out on 3 acres somewhere. Very modest neighborhood full of what seemed like good people. There was so little space that one kid was sleeping on the couch and one was sleeping at his grandparents' place. The show took this mobile home and transformed it into a nice, modern, well-thought out floorplan and upgraded everything. It seemed like it really made a difference for the family, but probably wouldn't cause them any kind of hardship in re taxes, etc.

To top it off, the show was pretty funny.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. I'd love to see that show.

[madrchsod]

9. it`s on cmt a "country" channel

cmt was bought by the mtv network and features "my big redneck wedding" hosted by tom arnold and a "country cribs" show. the trailer show is really cool. i never knew anyone could make a double wide look so good...

[NOW tense]

4. Extreme makeover Habitat for Humanity edition?

I wouldn't mind if they still scraped the property and put up a green build 2,000 sq. ft. home. I don't watch the show because I have always thought it was lame.

[Digit]

7. What I would rather see is

Going into run down communities and fixing up their schools, community centers and fixing and/or providing some basic safe housing for the residents.

I would also love to see them transform some of the poor Indian Reservations as well.
I could get pretty teary eyed watching that.

Also, the designs of some of these bedrooms for the children are totally ridiculous and impractical.
What a waste of effort when they could do so much on a larger scale.

[Missy Vixen]

8. I'd watch that show

"Extreme Home Makeover" has been here, too. I wonder how the woman whose house was torn down and replaced is doing; I know her property taxes skyrocketed after the new house was appraised at more than a million dollars.

It's surprising that HGTV hasn't jumped on "Habitat for Humanity" TV, because I'd tune in AND support the sponsors.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. They have done several homes here

and at least one of them is on the market because the homeowners can't afford the higher property taxes.

This is such a dumb show. I refuse to watch it.

[itsrobert]

12. I don't know

"Instead of swooping in and out of town to build one sprawling upscale home, my version of the show would remodel 20 of those foreclosed properties, making sure they have good roofs, quality plumbing and wiring, and working heating and cooling. Volunteers would rush to help. Materials would be donated. Foreclosures would be taken off the market."


I guess if you are talking about buying the houses from the banks first. You think a bank would donate them?