Cry me a river. This guy raised his 14 children in an 89 square foot house. Luckily, his wife left him, so now there's room for a dog.
Posted on 07/25/2010 8:07:03 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
MOKENA -- The foreclosure crisis has hit home for the Triezenbergs of Manhattan Township.
Mark and Tia Triezenberg and their five young children, including one with severe disabilities due to autism, must leave their home by Aug. 29.
The foreclosure, one of many nationwide and locally (see sidebar), caps a troubled couple of years for a family that saw its income soar with the home-building boom and plummet with the recession.
"This is like Pearl Harbor," Mark said during an interview at a Mokena restaurant. "Only a few people saw this coming."
The Triezenbergs still don't know where they will move. Mark, who ran his own home-building business from 1999 to 2008, is looking for a rental unit.
"It's overwhelming," Tia said. "I've grown closer to my faith at this point because I think that's what's going to get me through it. ... This was not supposed to happen to us."
Lincoln-Way Community Bank is foreclosing on the home. Mark said bank officials visited him at one of his model homes when he was doing well in 2005 and urged him to switch his business to the newly formed bank.
"The whole thing is, they prided themselves on being a local bank," Mark said.
The couple took out a mortgage on their 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home with Lincoln-Way. The mortgage was sold off to another company, Citi Mortgage.
The Triezenbergs also took out a home equity loan on the house through Lincoln-Way so Mark could buy 10 lots for his business. The two loans totaled $825,000.
When Mark missed three payments on the second mortgage last year, Lincoln-Way bank sent a delinquency notice. Mark said Citi Mortgage has been willing to work with him. But the couple doesn't believe Lincoln-Way Bank has done everything it could to help keep them in their home.
"They approached us when we were doing good," Tia said. "Then when things got tough, they pushed us aside and said we're on our own."
George Alexenko, chief credit officer for Lincoln-Way, said he worked with Mark to try to avoid foreclosure.
"It is our policy to make every attempt to seek resolutions to problem accounts without pursuing legal remedies," he said. "Unfortunately, after working with Mr. Triezenberg for over two years, we weren't able to find a reasonable compromise."
Alexenko also disputes the characterization that the bank "lured" Mark in when he was doing well and "went after him" when he wasn't.
"He wasn't responsive so we couldn't reach a compromise with him."
Alexenko said it's a tough situation.
"Nobody in his right mind takes any joy in throwing somebody out of his house," Alexenko said. "... I feel badly for him. I feel badly for him and his family." Fighting to stay hopeful
Though he knows the bank is within its legal rights to foreclose, Mark is still angry. He started an electrical business a year ago. His income is increasing and he wishes he could work out a deal to stay in his home.
The house went to a sheriff's sale May 29, but no one bought it, so the bank will take ownership. On June 29, a judge ordered the family out by Aug. 29 and entered a default judgment for $112,000 against the Triezenbergs.
"So they pushed us into bankruptcy," Mark said.
Tia is worried.
"Since October we have tried every idea," she said. "We're still at the same confused state as October as far as not knowing what to do."
The couple has raided their kids' bank accounts of baptism and birthday money to try to survive these past months. But the children, who range in age from 1 to 9, haven't been told they're going to move. That day is coming, though.
"We could write a book with all of the stuff we have gone through," Tia said. "You find out how your true family and friends are and that's the hard part. You feel sort of left alone."
Gamble at the race track, you're a lowlife...gamble on the housing market, "this isn't supposed to happen to us!!"
These whiny douchebags can go pound sand as fas as I'm concerned.
Cry me a river. My wife and I have raised our three kids in our 1953 ranch with 1,700 square foot. We've put on two roofs, redone the interior, put in new windows and landscaped. It's a fine, affordable home and allowed us to save for rainy days.
He knew he was in a volatile business. He chose to be a grasshopper, not an ant.
No sympathy for this clod. At all. None.
Yes - That would be those people who did not have their collective heads up Obama's behind and could actually see.
What idiots.
“Foreclosure: ‘This is like Pearl Harbor’”
Oh, I don’t know, do you suppose it has anything to do with buying a huge ticket item you can’t afford?
-this is not like Pearl Harbor, this is like what happens when Barney Frank re-distributes mortgages.
It does appear that there were some bad decisions made here, but I don’t get the “entitlement” vibe from these people.
Sad story. There *are* a lot of people losing their homes, and not just 4500 sq. ft. ones either.
Whining is right. My plan has always been: iy I can’t make a house payment from my paycheck, I use savings. If it goes on a few months, I sell my house and move to an apartment. No whining. No asking the bank for “help”. Just deal with it.
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Very similar to our sense of smart living. About ten years ago we could have traded up a giant step. Instead we re-did our place and used the additional funds to buy rental properties. Our house is fine, our neighborhood is fine and those two properties have been leveraged into six, each one turning a profit after all expenses and allowances for vacancies.
I lost my home to foreclosure. But we are lousy money managers. I guarantee the next chance that we given, IF, we are given another chance, mortgage payments will come directly out of my paycheck (most payrolls allow one diversion to another account)and we wont eat until the mortgage is paid. It really sucked for us, but we have no one but ourselves to blame.
What we don’t understand is how these people are staying in their homes for 18-24 months without paying a dime-four and half months from the auction we were out and renting the place we are in now..
Being a small builder is always risky. Buying these lots rather than options on the lots appears to be his biggest mistake.
“The Triezenbergs also took out a home equity loan on the house through Lincoln-Way so Mark could buy 10 lots for his business. The two loans totaled $825,000.”
It would have been nice if they had included what their family home was worth, as well as the 10 properties?
whoops!
Not sure how that post wound up there.
sorry about that.
Beyond the big ticket he borrowed against the home to buy more lots for his home building business. Hows that for putting all your eggs in one basket?
"They approached us when we were doing good," Tia said. "Then when things got tough, they pushed us aside and said we're on our own."
I'm still not sure if the financial crisis of the last few years is primarily attributable to irresponsible borrowers or irresponsible lenders.
You should have sympathy. He was working, employing people, then the economy went bad. I doubt he built his own home for nefarious reasons.
“So they pushed us into bankruptcy,”
“lured”
Shows that he still hasn’t learned the lesson.
But this sounds like he took a business loan and failed to pay.
During the *housing bubble* there were millions of home owners and flippers making huge windfall profits - subsidized by mortgage lenders.
I remember; young families *traded up* using the profit for down payments. The elderly who had no mortgages, sold their homes and used the funds for retirement or assisted living arrangements.
The dizzy days pulled in people who normally would not have been eligible for any mortgage - but there they were - being helped along by Freddie & Fannie.
Now we have all lost our fannies!!! It’s up to us to solve our own problems and not play victim. Nobody died for square footage!!!!
To use Pearl Harbor for an analogy just illustrates how ignorant these pitiful people are.
People want to blame the banks and Wall Street for the tanking of the economy. In reality, the fault entirely belongs to DEADBEATS who won’t pay their mortgages. If people would just MAKE THEIR PAYMENTS, things would be fine.
Here is how you make the payments: First KEEP YOUR JOB. Be among the 80% (mostly conservative Republcans, as it turns out) who are not seen as expendable to the boss when the economy goes soft. That means SHOWING UP for work, not calling in sick on every sunny Friday and PULLING YOUR WEIGHT. Better yet, BE the boss.
I have zero sympahthy for people who are playing the victim these days. The hard workers, non-whiners and non-crazy people are getting by just fine.
Here is what everyone needs to remember: WHATEVER HAPPENS TO YOU IS YOUR FAULT. You get what you deserve. God sees to that.
With the money we saved in interest we were able to pay off our mortgage in four years, buy a nice lot in Florida, then build our retirement home. When we retired at the end of 2006, we sold the Texas home and paid off the construction loan on the Florida home.
Many of my wife's coworkers have lost jobs and consequently, high-priced homes, to foreclosure.
With the money we saved in interest we were able to pay off our mortgage in four years, buy a nice lot in Florida, then build our retirement home. When we retired at the end of 2006, we sold the Texas home and paid off the construction loan on the Florida home.
Many of my wife's coworkers have lost jobs and consequently, high-priced homes, to foreclosure.
I have to quibble with you a little on this - the deadbeats should never have been approved for the loans in the first place. Our idiot "leaders" (Barney Frank and Chris Dodd among them) insisted, under penalty of law, that banks make loans to people who should never have had them.
The foreclosure crisis has hit home for the Triezenbergs of Manhattan Township. Mark and Tia Triezenberg and their five young children, including one with severe disabilities due to autism, must leave their home by Aug. 29.
LOL. Just how’d you find the pic of our retirement dream home?
Now, Government has placed such absurd guidelines and practices on lenders, most potential borrowers cannot get their loan requests funded. Hence, there are far fewer capable buyers, meaning home values will continue to decline. With the further decline in values comes even more foreclosures, meaning more supply.
Regardless of what the Government says, the entire economy will not improve with a continued housing depression.
What a classic example of how Government can ruin a free market system and make victims of average people.
That's why it's called the 'profit and loss' system. When the wind is at your back you can't lose and you're a "hero", a "genius" ...when the economy turns and the music stops your a "bum", an "idiot".
Clearly the guy's a whiner and deserves to be mocked for his attitude.
But too many on this thread are dancing on his grave because he had the balls to risk everything and try to build a business.
It may be unfashionable to say this in this climate...but the risk taker, the gambler, even the semi con man are what gives our system the juice. These men may not be attractive to more sober folk but they don't exist in the socialist world of Barrack Obama. Don't be too happy to see them destroyed. Because when they go, our free enterprise system goes with them.
I definitely have sympathy. That said, he owes a million dollars that he will never pay. Time to move on, and downsize a bit.
Yes there is fault on both sides...one for the dope who over extended his finances and put his family at risk and the other to the lenders who were soliciting applications to finance based on funny money equity. But to whine about it after the fact is not productive.
Both the dope and probably the bank who holds the second paper are going to come out badly on this deal gone bad as it has for many others across the land. I credit Frank Santelli for asking the question of his coworkers on CNBC one morning: how many of you want to pay for your neighbors more expensvie and lavish homes than yours? The answer was we don’t.
What is very unfair is the taxpayers are being tasked with bailing out Fannie, Freddie and others who wrote those federal guaranteed bonds to fund this lending nightmare. When taxes go up next year, they will be the whiners who actually have a legitimate cry.
I appreciate it, but as I said we have no one to blame but ourselves. Thanks for sharing the info-things are about to change for the better (we hope) so in a couple of years we are hoping to try again..
Those sneaky Japanese./s
Let me guess, you made your money selling sub-prime mortgages at variable rates with a 5 year adjustment to people with insufficient income and loans that required no docs.
You are right about that. When the bet pays off he is the beneficiary. But when the bet fails, he has no reason to complain. He knew the deal going in, and should have protected his family and himself first.
Sad story. There *are* a lot of people losing their homes, and not just 4500 sq. ft. ones either.
I don't either.
So now we're calculating sympathy based on square footage? Class warfare is alive and well with certain segments of the right, I see. Absolutely disgusting.
These people had 5 kids, were self-employed, and were apparently doing well enough to think they could expand the business. And if he initially had 825 borrowed and the judgment against him is for 112, he was somehow able to knock down a pretty good chunk of the outstanding debt.
Yes, there are a lot of people everywhere who are losing their homes, and I don't think a lot of these smug ponies realize how absolutely horrible the job market is right now. Unless you want to work for the government or have a union bugger you, you don't have a lot of alternatives.
Keep fingers crossed that the November elections go well, and this POS in the WH will be a lame duck for the next two years. Maybe then business will have a little more confidence and start taking some chances again, so people can find work and get their bills paid. If things stay as-is, it will be like Pearl Harbor.
You have no clue, do you?
It’s completely understandable how a ‘builder’ could get caught in a housing bubble. He leveraged his house to buy 10 lots which would have been ‘home’ to 10 families. He couldn’t make the interest payments on the lots and with no income from sales, his own loan went into default.
And the average if 5-1/2 years when people move from one house to another. You skew the average, POF. While you were putting on that 2nd roof and redid your interior this builder was making mega bucks.
It doesn’t make you stupid....but it also doesn’t make him a ‘whiny moron’.
Home builder from 1998 to 2008 so he saw the run up could have cashed out a long time ago. "only a few people saw this coming." Bullsh*t.
LIAR!!!
EVERYONE saw this coming. They all thought they'd get out before the collapse with their piece of the big bucks.
They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
To top it off, this GREEDY CAPITALIST took out a second on his house....the house where his 5 children and wife reside...in order to milk the wave even more.
I have no sympathy. None. Zilch. Nada.
I was just thinking about a woman I used to work with who lost her house because she was not told about the financing and how it really worked, or so she said. If this is true - it seems to me that Frank & Dodd and the others who did this were really working towards diminishing the middle class and the crash was the goal.
What an insult to the memory of the over 2000 men who lost their lives on that day.
That was the goal all along - they don't make people that stupid.
I think the part that is being covered up (with some success) is the role of Government in all this. I think Government pressured banks to make risky loans to enhance social policy. That policy was that everyone should be a homeowner. There were many upsides to this policy, including the thought that it would spur economic growth, help people assimilate and become more responsible citizens, and further racial equality. And, once the banks imbibed, all they saw was the potential profits and not the associated risk.
Will we learn from this? I think not. For my entire adult life (and then some), this country has been stuck on stupid. All we seem to care about is the short term, feel good solutions even when we KNOW it will burn us in the long term.
You know there are few stories out there that don’t have points to connect to see exactly where their mistakes were made that led to foreclosure. it’s just too bad that people can’t take responsiblity for their actions.
Believe it or not, on another thread today a freeper dogged me for being educated and for using that education to build wealth...seems to him, that's un-American.
Where is your seriers about the, "Adventures in Entitlement" when it comes to the banks, fat corps and Wall Street being bailed out by the home owners to the tune of multiple trillions?
That would clearly be the overall majority.
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