• Fallyn said on Jul 31, 2008....

  that really really sucks.......but the thing of it is....so very very few people actually know what to do with big expensive things.....did you know that something like 80% of new multi million lottery winners are broke within 5 years?
  my percentage might be off....but i know it's a big number.
  the other thing is......some of these houses being built by home make over are actually hurting the neighborhoods they are built in.....it makes property values go up....which then makes property taxes go up......there have been a few cases where neighbors have had to move away because they couldn't afford the property taxes.....some of the home owners themselves can't afford the houses...maintenence and upkeep.
  
  i don't think what the family did was smart........but considering the circumstances they were in before it does seem understandable to me....even if not financially intelligent.
  
  
  

• queenparanoia said on Jul 31, 2008....

  wtf... they did that??? i'm piseed too... after all of the thing that was done to them... shit..

• MissMimi said on Jul 31, 2008....

  I heard about this on the news.  I remember hearing a while back that not a one of the winners in the luxury home giveaway they have every year on HGTV have been able to actually keep and live in the homes they've won.  Too expensive to keep.  They have to be sold because the property taxes are so high.

  It's a shame though about the Extreme Makeover home.  So many people worked hard to make this happen for them, and now it seems like all their hard work was for nothing.  Not a very happy ending to this story at all.

• uniquely-ironic said on Jul 31, 2008....

  Part of the tragedy is that these lucky people didn't have the financial savvy to manage their gift.  I always wonder how much of a favor we do when we give such large gifts to people not prepared to manage them.  Sure, while they lived there it is a fabulous gift, but now they'll be homeless or at best renters.  Before they had a shit house, but it was theirs.  Now, they have no equity.

• eurekame said on Jul 31, 2008....

  I dunno, I kind of see where they are coming from. They wanted to do better and start a business...who doesnt want to do that? Then their bussiness failed and on the line was their house...
   
  I guess it could happen to anyone, regaurdless how they got the house, ya know?

• eurekame said on Jul 31, 2008....

  I dunno, I kind of see where they are coming from. They wanted to do better and start a business...who doesnt want to do that? Then their bussiness failed and on the line was their house...
   
  I guess it could happen to anyone, regaurdless how they got the house, ya know?

• Eilan said on Jul 31, 2008....

  Fallyn: About 20 years ago, a professor at my undergraduate alma mater retired from his job after winning several million dollars in the lottery. He traded in his wife of 30+ years for a newer model, squandered all the money that his ex-wife didn't end up with in the divorce settlement, won the lottery again (what are the odds of that happening?!?!), and squandered all of it!
  
  I'm not sure the folks involved with Extreme Makeover are actually doing the people they "help" any favors. There's a family in a city about 80 miles from me that got a home from Extreme Makeover, and they now offer paid tours of the house to offset their utility bills and other expenses.
  
  Some of the who have benefitted from the show would have been better served by Habitat for Humanity or some local charity instead of being given a McMansion that they have no way of paying for/keeping.
  

• Expendable said on Jul 31, 2008....

  When all is said and done, it was their home, nobody else's. Here they used the house as collateral for starting a new business - they didn't sell it to make a profit or lost it in a drug bust. Some might see this as a failed attempt to give back to the community that helped them out by creating new jobs.
   

• dailyachesandpains said on Jul 31, 2008....

  HH:  I heard about this and I felt  AWFUL! 
   
  When that show started out, they didn't give people new homes that needed them as badly as they do now.  This particular home was the largest the show has ever built.  Their septic system was their main problem with the old house.  As far as anyone being out of work, ill, or a widower I'm not sure of.
   
  The volunteers and the business people that donated SO MUCH are very angry.  I don't blame them.  IMO, the family shouldn't have put all their eggs in one basket.  They could have started out with a smaller gamble...250K maybe?  I think that's a pretty modest figure at 250K to start that type of business in GA.  I wonder if they didn't look into any sort of grant programs?  OR, get involved with the new hip thing..."Going Green" it would have been smarter.  Going green will or is the next hot thing.   
   
  I feel bad for the home owners only because I don't think that they thought this new business venture through completely, or had bad advisors, if they even had any.  That's where I stop feeling badly though.
   
  Of course...only my opinion. 
   
  Daily

• Lucytorial said on Jul 31, 2008....

  Instead of giving them the tools to keep and fix their own house, the tools to help themselves start off a small business they gave them a ball and chain around their necks... of course they will hang themselves.... these kinds of programs are stupid in my opinion... more harm than good.  Just like winning the lottery, without the propper counselling its just a fart in the wind at the end of the day.

• RollingC said on Aug 01, 2008....

  I wonder how they felt before and how they feel now.  What a waste.
  Rc

• LOVEMYLIFE said on Jun 15, 2009....

  Hello be happy with what u have why try to get more and put your house on the line they made there bed i dont feel bad for them!

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