Extreme Makeover Family Facing Foreclosure

[sabra]

Source: wxyz

(WXYZ) An Oak Park family who received a Extreme Makeover for their home is now in danger of losing it to foreclosure.

Larry and Judy Vardon got into financial trouble because of extensive medical bills for their youngest son, Lance. The 16 year old is blind and autistic. His medical treatments are not covered by their insurance.

The Vardons were also hit by the subprime housing crisis. Their mortgage rate jumped to 11 percent after it adjusted. Larry Vardon is also worried about being laid off from his job at the Chrysler Stamping Plant in Sterling Heights.

Many of the Vardons' neighbors had thought that their mortgage was paid off when they appeared on the show in November 2004, but that was not the case. Now the home is one of the 390 in Oak Park currently in foreclosure.

...

Their problems stem from after their appearance on the show when they remortgaged the house. The needed the extra money when Larry was laid off. Since then the mortgage has been resold to different companies three times, with the interest rate jumping each time.



Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story/Extreme-Makeover-Family-Facing-Foreclosure/rmDc6vh40UOtwBO1XcT6dg.cspx

[Double T]

1. Single payer health care would solve most of this problem.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. remortgaged after the show

in other words, "we've been given something nice - let's cash in." They should have sold and downsized if they wanted to pull that money out. They got greedy. Fuck 'em.

[LostinVA]

3. This has been reported on here before -- that's exactly what they did

At least one other family has done the same thing.

I investigated this:

They got the Makeover, the husband was laid off, they mortgaged their paid for home re: subprime loan (which I didn't even know you could do until now), which has now went through the roof. The father has been employed for a long time now, and they do have medical insurance but the stupid company won't pay for certain things.

Some of it isn't their fault (medical bills for son), but some is. They had a paid-for home. They should have sold it and downsized -- it would have also eased their property taxes per the article. They choose not to do so.

I have alot if sympathy for them, but they could have eased some of this burden off themselves years ago. I've been a homeowner and have had HUGE financial problems that weren't my fault, so I did the prudent thing and cut expenses and got a part-time job on top of a full-time job. If things hadn't tuned around, I would have sold my home. I never would have traded in my 30-year fixed for subprime, and I was quite desperate for many months, and my mortgage wasn't paid off.

And, I agree that single-payer health insurance is long past needed for this country.

[truedelphi]

4. Or maybe they needed money immediately -more immediately than the "sale" of the home would have

Offered.

I cannot say whether they are greedy or not, but I bet (like the first respondent here) that if we had Single Payer Universal Health Care, they woul d be in a whole different ball game.

(the housing market has not been good in many parts of the country since late 2005)

[Tempest]

5. Read the Goddamn story

After their appearance on the show, Larry was laid off and they remortgaged the house. Since then the mortgage has been resold to different companies three times, with the interest rate jumping each time.

The family's debts include $20,000 in medical expenses for Lance.


Where are all you heartless assholes coming from?

[uncle ray]

10. what's the rest of their debt from?

if the bulk of it was the 20,000 med bills, then a small mortgage would have a very small monthly payment. it seems a small part of their debt is medical related.

[Tempest]

23. Their mortgage interest rates increased by double digits

How much clearer can the story be?

[uncle ray]

28. the house apparantly WAS paid off at one time.

the article says it was REmortgaged, so how much was it mortgaged for? it seems they must have significant other debts beyond the 20g medical debt. if their only problem was 20 grand in medical debt, the mortgage could have been quite small, with payments of only a few hundred dollars, so even if the rate skyrocketed it still should have been manageable. the interest rate going up doesn't answer my question about what the rest of their debt is.

[mopinko]

16. i have never heard of this- reselling mortgages and changing terms.

in my experience, the reselling of mortgages does nothing to affect the terms. i would be interested to know if others know differently. but ours has been rolled many times in 20 years, and it never made one penny difference to us.

[Tempest]

22. It's all part of the derivative market

And that's the market that caused most of the problems.

[WriteDown]

26. Please elaborate how that works for us?

Haha. Derivative's? Seriously?

[Tempest]

31. Seriously

Whether you choose to believe in it or not is your prerogative.

[WriteDown]

32. That's not an answer. NT

[Lance_Boyle]

30. the "changing terms" was the ARM resetting

it was not a change of terms - they agreed to the adjustment when they purchased the ARM. That's what the effing "A" stands for. The non-response below blaming "changing terms" on "derivatives" makes about as much sense as a drunken toddler reciting Plato.

[mountainvue]

34. If the resale of the mortgage changed the

terms then it's a violation of RESPA.

[WriteDown]

24. Uh,

That's impossible. The story makes it sound like each company raised the mortgage rate. It doesn't work that way.

[w4rma]

6. To avoid bankrupcy from medical bills. (nt)

[BR_Parkway]

8. Not to mention, having very little equity in the house would have meant

they could keep it in the event of a bankruptcy - dont' know what the amount is that would have triggered a requirement to sell it and apply to the other debts.

And yeah, there sure do see to be a lot of hard hearted "Democrats" around lately, haven't seen this much "fuck em" attitude since DU:P

[mopinko]

17. little equity? how

could they have that kind of improvements at no cost and have little equity?

[BR_Parkway]

35. If they borrowed out the max to get it under whatever figure the state

says is the amount of equity in a home they could keep in a bankrupcy

[yardwork]

11. Their son has serious health problems - maybe they needed the money.

[wolfgangmo]

13. Lance - a boil on the ass of America

Where is a link that proves what you are talking about? They did not cash in. They took out a 2nd mortgage to pay for medical care for their son. Said mortgage was then bundled and sold and made expensive to help pay some speculator enough money for his 5th mercedes.

So you forgot what it means to be human. So fuck you too.

People are hurting and you are blaming someone for taking whatever mortgage he could to help his son. America should have health care. And you have the balls to blame these parents.

Fuck you.

[cosmicone]

14. I actually agree with Lance...

There was no need to remortgage a free and clear property just because the husband was laid off. He worked at Chrysler so his income didn't go down to 0 but he was earning enough for food and utilities.

I smell a major cashing-in which a lot of people who inherit freebies do.

[Occulus]

33. You need to read post #18. Stat. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

18. you should investigate before writing this family off with "Fuck em" . . .

I saw this show, and the house they received was constructed specifically for their needs . . . both parents are deaf, and the son is blind and autistic . . . the house has all kinds of high tech gadgetry to help them keep track of him (apparently he had a habit of wandering off) . . . for example, they have an in-house tv monitoring system so that the parents can watch Lance no matter where he is in the house . . . also, the bed they were given is rigged to vibrate when someone tries to open the front door or when there's a fire (an audio alarm would be worthless to deaf parents) . . . and Lance has a playroom that has all kinds of tactile activity areas that help him experience the world that he can't see or, for the most part, comprehend . . .

so just selling the house would put them right back to where they were before ABC provided it for them . . . these folks seemed like a wonderful family, and I have a great deal of empathy for them . . . I hope ABC and the Extreme Makeover team will step forward to help them through this crisis so they can keep their house, which for them is far more than just a dwelling . . .

[Zuiderelle]

37. Wow, asshole much?

[slackmaster]

7. Kudos to WXYZ for telling the real story

This story is head and shoulders above the usual empty tear-jerker foreclosure story.

[CraftyGal]

9. I remember this story...

the family appeared on Dr. Phil. The couple has taken full responsibility and are going through debt consolidation and counseling. I would love to see what the hard asses would do if faced with the same issues. I am very thankful that I live in Canada.

CraftyGal

[Fumesucker]

12. The hardest asses are almost always the biggest whiners..

When it is their particular ox being gored.

[One_Life_To_Give]

15. What kind of Mortgage goes up because of sale?

Since then the mortgage has been resold to different companies three times, with the interest rate jumping each time.

What kind of a contract allows that?

[Sadie5]

19. Some do go up a bit

The escrow account which pays for insurance and taxes might fluctuate with each company. some want a cushion of a few dollars, some not.

[slackmaster]

21. That is true

The P&I can't change.

[WriteDown]

25. No...

Its all done by RESPA. A two month cushion is always required.

[slackmaster]

20. The interest rate cannot go up because of a sale

It sounds like transfers were timed to match scheduled rate increases.

Obviously a rate increase also raises the likelihood of a default.

[area51]

27. "... got into financial trouble because of extensive medical bills"

... kind of says it all.

[Miss Chybil]

29. Mortgage rates cannot change when the mortgage is sold to another company.

All original terms apply. They must have gotten an ARM in the first place.

[LisaL]

36. And people who win millions in the lottery sometimes end up

bankrupt. It happens.