Posted on 02/24/2009 2:03:14 PM PST by americanophile
You've heard plenty of stories about foreclosures, but the latest victims of this brutal recession are about to lose their cave.
That's right. For nearly five years, Curt Sleeper and his family have lived in a cave. His mortgage is about to come due and, like millions of other Americans, he can't refinance.
So now, the 17,000-square-foot, subterranean home is being auctioned off on eBay.
Sleeper and his wife Deborah bought the cave outside St. Louis in May 2004 for $160,000. To pay for it, they sold their old home, TV and even the DVD collection. They made a 50 percent down payment and borrowed the other $80,000 from the seller. It was a five-year loan with a single balloon payment at the end.
The Sleepers now have until May 1 to pay off the remaining $83,000 or sell the property. It's not a foreclosure sale yet, but if they can't come up with the money, they risk losing the house.
Besides the initial $80,000 payment, Sleeper said he spent another $150,000 on renovations to the cave and the surrounding 2.8 acres he owns.
The original plan was to refinance. But Sleeper, a self-employed computer consultant, said...
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Listening carefully to the story, and reading between the lines just a tad, he HAS NO bank to be pissed off at right now for foreclosing. Rather the people he bought the cave from took a 50% down payment of $80K and agreed to hole the other $80K note for 5 years.
Now comes time for him to refi and no banks will loan him the cash. So the people who owned the cave prior are forcing him to stick to the terms of the note which means: 1. Get financing from a conventional bank 2. Sell 3. Walk away. Looks to me like the previous owners know EXACTLY what they are doing now that they have an improved property heading their way for no money.
Interesting how the ABC bimbette never asked him why the the previous owners won’t modify the current terms of the note.
Talk about Subterranean Homesick Blues....
Nice digs.
A good example of people living beyond their means. I wonder if Osama will bail him out?
It’s called owner financing. It wasn’t a mortgage it was a ballon payment note.
That's comedy gold.
That cave’s nicer than my house... :(
That’s what I thought as well.
(During construction, Sleeper, his wife and their two kids lived in tents in the back of the cave and washed dishes and laundry in buckets. Their third child, a son, was born last week in the cave.)
Get the place livable and then concentrate on paying down the debt.
Too many people think that good times (financially) will last for ever. Some people actually have said the business cycle was over, we would never have a down turn again.
HA! They forgot about Democrats!
Money for nothin’, and the (cave) chicks for free!
Over 45 years ago in junior high math, we were introduced to mortgage concepts. When it came to balloon mortages, as a kid it seemed like a suckers deal. Seems more like it now.
I wonder if this guy knows how much money he can save on car insurance by switching to Geico
I am not sure banks would finance such an unconventional dwelling, regardless of his credit/employment/income status.
I’m in North Texas so I tend to think about tornadoes and hail.
St. Louis is near the New Madrid fault though, which is overdue ...
Might not even need them - STL ain’t that humid.
But, maybe. I dunno.
Exactly - hate to get zotted in the big one.
We’re unable to refinance now due to unconventional construction which means that there are no comparables...yet we got a freddie mac or fannie mae (just not sure which right now) loan at construction. We may have been lucky to slip the original loan past them.
If you owe $80k on a $320 property, financing is pretty darn easy.
Do you own the cave, or do you mean another property?
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