Foreclosures With The Stars
Although it sounds like it would make for a pretty good reality television show, the problem with the premise is that it’s actually ..well…too real. Well many people have adored celebrities. People beome obsessed with celebrity and want to know what celebrities are wearing, where are they eating, what are they wearing, who are they dating, even who has been arrested.
So in an effort to have the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog be a little like the “Smoking Gun” crossed with TMZ, I bring you today, “Celebrity Foreclosures”.
The clubhouse of foreclosure is not an exclusive one. No all access passes needed here. Foreclosures are’nt just for middle or urban America. Foreclosures have gone Hollywood!
“Celebrities just like normal American citizens can be living paycheck to paycheck too and can get in over their head,” said RealtyTrac Inc. Vice President of Marketing Rick Sharga.
Former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Evander Holyfield, is about to lose his Georgia mansion in a public foreclosure auction. Holyfield is in default on a $750,000 loan.
For decades, Ed McMahon uttered the words..”Here’s Johhny”, now he may be saying “Here’s the Sheriff” as he is about to lose his multi-million dollar home to foreclosure as well.
“If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens,” said Ed McMahon on the Larry King Show.
Ed McMahon risks foreclosure after falling $644,000 behind on a $4.8 million loan. McMahon’s publicist is optimistic, telling CNN “the home has not sold, but is still on the market, and people are looking.”
The self-proclaimed “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson, narrowly avoided losing Neverland Ranch earlier this year when a private equity firm bailed him out of a delinquent $24 million loan, but former baseball MVP Jose Canseco did not fare as well and struck out trying to stop his foreclosure and forfeited his California home, citing cash flow problems due, in part, to costly divorces.
“To see somebody who makes millions of dollars in the course of their career have financial troubles, you know, I think it’s hard for the average person to sympathize with that,” said The RealEstalker Mark David.
David tracks celebrity real estate moves and says it’s often the extravagant taste of the rich and famous that costs them later, which David says could someday be the case for Ellen DeGeneres. “It sounds like she spent like $40 million putting this compound together. It remains to be seen whether she could ever turn around and sell that compound for $40 million.” Sure hope syndications and ratings hold up.
Reality TV star Denise Richards doesn’t appear to in much better condition. “She buys and sells every year, so and she doesn’t seem to really make any money. And in fact, she’s actually lost money on a couple of these deals. I guess the whole Charlie Sheen thing didn’t work out. So she tried to flip some homes and realized it is easier to flip men.
Proof not even Hollywood royalty are immune to the housing meltdown. “There are probably hundreds of other people whose names we’d recognize, that just haven’t bubbled up to the surface yet,” Sharga said.
Singer Aretha Franklin felt the foreclosure heat earlier this year when it was revealed she was in danger of losing her home due to back taxes.
The entertainer said it was all a clerical error on her attorney’s part. Franklin says “the back taxes have been paid and they were paid the very next day that I became aware of it. I wasn’t losing my home then and I’m not losing it now and I’m not going to be.”
What else you expect from Aretha. R-E-S-P-E-C-T! That’s what my home means to me. Tell ‘em girlfriend!
sources: courtesy CNN & Sun Sentinel
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