The Daily Soak - July 30

Extreme Makeover: Foreclosure Edition

ABC's lame home improvement melodrama has an annoying habit of building mega-houses for ingrates who are prime candidates for the Darwin Awards. Case in point, the Tate family in Tampa were painted as "victims" after a plane crashed into their living room, when in reality they were too stupid to buy home insurance. Now news out of Georgia that the Tate's have been one-upped by the Harper family. It seems EM gave the Harper's a brand new $450,000 home in Lake City (which would be the most expensive home in town, per Trulia) and enough cash to pay their property taxes for 25 years. So what do the Harper's do? Relax and enjoy their new crib? Pay off their other debts? Give thanks for their good fortune? No, they decided to double down and take out a $450,000 loan against the value of the house. Now that they've defaulted on that loan, Chase is forcing foreclosure on Casa Darwinia. If you're always dreamed of owning a slice of really bad reality TV, it's yours here for the taking. (VideoLink: Patricia Harper can be seen in her driveway wearing a "Save Energy" t-shirt. Her "Save Money" t-shirt must have been in the wash.)


Extreme Defaults: WCI Edition

Coincidentally, Bonita Springs developer WCI built the Extreme Makeover home in Tampa. The WCI management team probably thought it would be a nice diversion in 2007 from the plummeting stock price and record high-rise defaults. Judging by the company's second quarter earnings report released yesterday, WCI could use another reality TV diversion. The company's losses more than tripled to $100.2 million in the second quarter bringing losses for the year to $184.3 million, and WCI is now in default on several of its loan agreements. Real estate analyst Jack McCabe says the outlook is beyond grim, “As far as them surviving this, it may be 1 in 5. Chances are extremely slim that anybody is going to step up to the plate to try to save this company, prior to them filing for Chapter 11." Reacting to yesterday's news of record cancellations, defaults and contract recissions, New York credit analyst Vicki Bryan put a poetic spin on her stock summary, “At long last, it appears that the curtain is falling on WCI.


HousingBath.com: "We're Ridin' the Wave of the Future"

BusinessWeek says the surge in second quarter foreclosures took everybody by surprise, but the news has been a boon for Web sites catering to the needs of homeowners facing foreclosure. comScore reports the Web saw 1.8 billion searches for the term "forelcosure" in June alone, a 117% increase over last year, and sites like Foreclosure.com, Zillow and Trulia are posting double and triple-digit increases in site traffic. (Chart) Demand for reputable real estate attorneys is also good news for a brilliant site like Avvo.com which lets users rate attorneys in their area. A quick search of Miami turned up 253 real estate attorneys...some highly recommended, others...not-so-much. HB.com jumped on the distressed real estate dotcom train earlier this year and is committed to delivering news and information that can help desperate Florida homeowners "Get Out of the Tub." Sincere thanks to the over 10,000 visitors who have turned to The Daily Soak since May. Just like Stewart and Mr. B. in that classic Ameritrade commercial, "We're Ridin' the Wave to the Future." Rock on.