Another ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ Family Facing Foreclosure
By Lindsay Robertson | Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The team from ABC’s heartwarming and popular reality series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” may give worthy families a whole new house. But yet another family who appeared on the show learned that they don’t guarantee you’ll keep that house forever.
The Wofford family of Encinitas, California, got their house from the show five years ago, but now claim that after struggling for two years to pay their bills, they’re facing foreclosure . Dr. Brian Wofford, a widower and father of eight, explained the crisis, telling 10News: “A lot of people think when you get the house, you get the mortgage. Well, you don’t.”
The Woffords aren’t the first family featured on the show to face serious financial problems after their home makeover. The Harper family of Atlanta, who received the show’s biggest house to date, along with the money to pay taxes on it for 25 years, famously faced foreclosure last year after taking out an ill-advised $450,000 loan using the house as equity. And at least four other “Extreme Makeover” recipient families have had to sell or lose the homes they won on the show. ABC is probably considering changing the show’s rules (maybe the houses don’t need to be quite so lavish, for example) to help avoid such disasters in the future.
However, there’s still hope for the Woffords. Loan modification papers are being promised by their bank, OneWest, next week. If they don’t go through, the house will be auctioned by the bank in two weeks, but Dr. Wofford is optimistic about his family’s future: “If I have my family and I live in a tent, I’m in good shape. Better be a big tent though.”
Filed Under: News • Television
