I don't know if you've watched ABC's Home Make Over on TV. Personally I quit watching TV when they switched to digital and my roof antenna won't pick any channels up. A decision I'm more than comfortable with. I have seen the show though. I think it is one of the better shows on TV. The premise is simple, some needy family gets a break in the form of a new home that their community builds or remodels for them.
The houses I've seen on the show are fabulous. I wish I was able to have something like them for my family. Can you imagine someone giving up their home?
That's what the Hassall family is doing. You see they believe they would be better off if they were debt free. Blame it on Dave Ramesy. Their church held one of his Financial Peace classes and they decided that they would be better off in a house that was paid for, but not as nice. They would rather give up comfort than struggle with bills. So they're selling out.
Some of the folks in their Cynthiana Kentucky town are a bit peeved and feel like the family is profiting at the towns expense and ungrateful for such a nice house. Personally I'm with the Hassalls its better to live debt free than worry about the nicer things in life. I say good on them.
I am curious about how those free home makeover houses have fared over the years. Did they bedome slums again because the residents had no interest in maintaining them?
ReplyDeleteIf so, what would that do to the community spirit of the donors? It should teach them that most charity is counterproductive.
I got sick of Home Makeover a long time ago. It just strikes me as secular replacement for religion, and the motive is profit, not kindness.
ReplyDeleteI do get more channels now with digital. Still only three towers, but they imbed 2 channels on one frequency and 3 on anaother so I end up with 6 instead of 3. Reception isn't as good though. You don't get a snowy picture, you either get a crystal clear one, or halting broken up, or nothing at all.
One problem I've heard about those home makeovers is that they have been known to put the owners in over their heads on the taxes.
ReplyDeleteSB: I wonder if anyone bothers to tell the homeowners about that beforehand.
ReplyDeleteI know many folks here in Indianapolis were cited one amount of taxes due before buying their new homes. But that amount was based on the undeveloped property.
Once they moved in, they got hit with the new tax bill, this time based on the new assessed value.
I have zero doubt the realtors and mortgage companies all knew about this beforehand and said nothing. Fraudulent actions like that add to the reasons I think most homeowners have zero moral responsibility to pay off their homes.
In most places property taxes are based on the "market value" of the property. If the property is a empty parcel of ground, then the "market value" is much less then after a builder builds a house and sells it.
ReplyDeleteReal estate agents (people who failed the ethics test to become used car salesmen) are required to disclose all current, data like taxes. The problem is that the current tax on a empty lot may be $400 a year. After you buy your brand new $300,000 house the market value adjusts up to the new sales price and the tax may be $2,400 a year.
According the the article the county was keeping the value of the Hassalls house at the $119,000 they paid for the house. So I don't think the tax burden was any greater than when they bought it.