Mike Lee Forced To Sell 'Dream Home' In Short Sale

The Salt Lake Tribune:

Less than two years into office, Sen. Mike Lee was forced to sell his dream home in Alpine with his mortgage bank taking a significant loss — up to $400,000 — in a "short sale" as the housing bust in his neighborhood drained his house’s value.

Read the whole story at The Salt Lake Tribune

Comments

[watswidu]

08:23 AM on 05/30/2012

After trying to sell our home for 1 ½ years we had to do a short sale due to the neighbor across the street foreclosing. Bank said in order to qualify for a short sale you have to purposely default on 4 payments. After months and weeks of no call backs on offers on the house mind you only 10K spread to payoff. Buyers walked away due to bank "said there behind on there 60-90 day reports" REALLY! That was in 2009 it was finally sold at sheriff sale on 3/2012. Credit was 780 now I can’t buy a dam thing.

[Judson Witham]

09:27 AM on 05/22/2012

Yeah and JP Morgan Chase AGREED to take the Loss and the NON REPAYMENT will not even be reported on The Poor Mormon Senators Credit Report ... OH GEE a $400,000 WIN For the Poor Senator. $$00,000 Debt Forgiveness Now This is a Deal Huh .... OH WAIT the Senator Votes on Banking Regulation ... It's what a SPECIAL GIFT .... Ha Ha Ha Ha it's so Great to be the Son of the Mormon BYU Law School in Provo

[maxwelldog]

02:32 PM on 05/21/2012

Well, losing your home...happens probably more often than most would think.
I lost my $18,000 home, once, and I was only three years shy of paying the mortgage out. And, no...Waterfield did NOT offer an option of refinancing. 1989 China was showing her strength over the people, and here, banks and private investors were doing the same.
(MAKE A FORTUNE IN A YEAR! BUYING BAD MORTGAGES!)
"Trickle Down" was supposed to make us feel like, what comes around, goes around.
Instead it was more, "What goes around, we grab; try to catch us"
(somewhere, right now, some smart butt is saying, "well that's WHY you should RENT!"
and then getting tossed out for late payments)

I still question the culpability of the banks in some cases.
They are selling what they hear is good.
Folks, the truth is, if you don't know this already...Houses today are identical to houses built in the 1400s, only NOW there's indoor plumbing, energy sources, and entertainment centers.
That may sound like "yeah, so what" but the thing is, the houses that are touted as "modern, time saving, efficient"?
sorry.
bs
100% hype.

[MyDogs4Ever]

09:10 AM on 05/20/2012

Mike Lee should recuse himself from ANY votes having to do with banking or finance. No one should be able to bail on $400,000 of debt and then vote on issues that have to do with the very industry that bailed him out. This is disgraceful -- he chose to short sale instead of having his wife work and supplement their income and move to an even more affordable neighborhood. He is still living in Alpine (the most expensive area of Utah County) in a very large comfortable house. Cry me a river Mr. Lee -- I am still in my house after years of up and down employment because we chose to meet our obligations.

[maxwelldog]

02:41 PM on 05/21/2012

that way, his sponsors and donors were closer to him. Easy access support parties.
Of course, in the city, I guess they're called "rent parties" where a bunch of folk gather round and help in whatever way.
Can you imagine he got the article posted to gain access to us?
for a "mortgage" party, as it were?

nahhhh.

hmmm. maybe.

nahh.

no, seriously...

[Judson Witham]

09:28 AM on 05/22/2012

OH Yeah and JP Morgan Chase AGREED to take the Loss and the NON REPAYMENT will not even be reported on The Poor Mormon Senators Credit Report ... OH GEE a $400,000 WIN For the Poor Senator

[jsgaetano]

02:39 PM on 05/19/2012

I'm a big fan of having conservatives bear the brunt of their failed and fraud-based ideology. Hopefully more events like this will happen!

[annekeb68]

02:23 PM on 05/19/2012

Tsk, tsk. Another deadbeat who bought a home they couldn't afford. Oh wait he's a republican so that makes him a victim.

[suennui]

01:59 PM on 05/19/2012

I am confused. He has a mortgage on a 1.1 million dollar home and was apparently making enough money in private practice to pay for that home, and then he opted to run for office. Didn't he know what his new salary would be and what expenses it would cover? These are the people we have elected to make fiscal decisions for the nation?

[chicagurl]

02:26 PM on 05/19/2012

Worse............they (republicans) then have the nerve to tell us all they're the party of "fiscal responsibility." Hahahaha.

[Joe Krumbach]

01:55 PM on 05/19/2012

One might think that this Senator would be leading the charge to work with the banks to do something that the head of FHFA Edward DeMarco refuses to do, principal reductions on loans that are deeply underwater and to keep people in their homes, but nah, he's a member of the "do as I say, not as I do" Party.

The GOP.

[annekeb68]

02:22 PM on 05/19/2012

You know, the party of personal responsibility...everyone else's but their own.

[Alice Ferrell]

01:43 PM on 05/19/2012

To quote one of my favorite songs..."Practice What You Preach"
Now you have something in common with your fellow Americans.

You brought your dream house and lost it...Hard working American brought the dream of owning a house and lost it.

You had to moved your family into a rented house in the same upscale neighborhood...The hard working Americans had to move their familes into a shelter, parents' basement or under the number 7 bridge near the food pantry.

Betcha Mike Lee never thought that he had so much in common with his contemporaries.

[MyDogs4Ever]

09:12 AM on 05/20/2012

The most upscale community in Utah County.

[MorpheusXNYC]

01:42 PM on 05/19/2012

A Republican being undone by the financial and housing crisis their party's legislation and obstructionism created?

The chickens are coming home to roost...

[ticoune]

02:31 PM on 05/19/2012

This is call, poetic justice.

[Find the Truth]

01:21 PM on 05/19/2012

I hate to laugh...but another Gopper who talks about personal responsibility fails to live up to his own words! The guy made several hundred thousand a year and yet didn't put ANY of it away!!!

[Micheal Anderson]

01:09 PM on 05/19/2012

I'm certain that anyone could have gotten out of their mortgage the same way, I'm certain the fact that he's in elected office had nothing to do with his ability to get out from under a mortgage he freely and knowingly took, apparently despite his inability to pay for it. Yes, I'm certain....

[NVEd]

01:06 PM on 05/19/2012

A person might feel some sympathy for Lee except for the fact that he feels no sympathy for anyone else especially the unfortunate.

[BUSTERtheCAT]

12:38 PM on 05/19/2012

ANYONE, and i mean ANYONE who pursues being an ELECTED Republican is either in it for the money(shelly), the ego (mitts), the POWER (issa) or all three...helping America is the LAST thing on their mind.

anyone and i mean ANYONE who defends the GOP on TV, radio or in writing is either doing it for MONEY(h annity) or is out of their mind, or BOTH (all FIXED hosts)

[bluereality909]

12:31 PM on 05/19/2012

Another wealthy "deadbeat" that has the ability to pay the mortgage he took out.

I am sure he has hundreds of thousands in investments that would have made the payments, but he chose to take advantage of what was meant for poorer people who lost their jobs.

$174,000 a year on the taxpayer dime and he couldn't make his mortgage payment....BULLS$&T !!! Maybe his wife should get a job, just like millions of other households across America !!!!

[BCS]

03:03 PM on 05/19/2012

As a person who made a series of what turned out to be bad investments and also one who is biting the bullet and paying all of the mortgages- on time- I certainly have no sympathy for this guy.
On the other hand, I think we need to look at the lack of sound regulations which made this real estate meltdown- not only possible- but inevitable.
I am afraid that both parties have their fingerprints on the repeal of Glass-Stegal. Both parties accepted huge campaign contributions from Wall Street.
If our government was not corrupt, this never would have happened in the first place.
So, guess what?
I mainly blame the government rather than Wall Street because the government is supposed to protect us.
This is why I don't get how bigger government will solve these problems. We need a leaner, meaner and EFFECTIVE government- not necessarily BIGGER government.