Extreme Makeover Home Foreclosure. What went wrong?

There was a little foreclosure in the news that caught my eye yesterday. A home featured on Extreme Makeover Home Edition is facing foreclosure. Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, Georgia were the lucky recipients of a complete home makeover turning their old home into a 5500 sq. ft. mansion. It took 1,800 people to get it accomplished. The estimated cost of the home and donated materials? $450,000. It looks like the dream is over for the Harpers.

Though this is somewhat original, I feel I’ve read something similar in the past. Often it turns out that people get themselves into trouble either furnishing the home, or paying for the utilities that the home requires. Many people forget that home maintenance is not free. It’s not often provided by the game shows, but in this case it was. As if the Harpers weren’t lucky enough the family received a quarter-million dollars – including a home maintenance fund and scholarships for their three Harper children.

In this case, the Harpers may be losing their home for an entirely different reason. Depending on what you read they either took out $450,000 or $575,000 in loans against the home. The loans were to start a business. It appears that the business isn’t doing so well considering the news.

I’m generally a pretty risky guy. I have a lot of my money in aggressive growth funds. One of the things that has always stopped me from going all out on a business venture is this problem that the Harpers encountered. Instead, I would look to build businesses slowly and not risk losing my home like the Harpers might.