Having grown up and lived most of my life in OC I have come to the conclusion that the people here who seem to have money can be broken down to three types of people. The first is the person who actually has money and accumulated wealth. They may be a business owner or they may have a decent paying job. They may not have the most glamorous job but they live within their means and have saved and invested well. They don’t really ever mention money or talk much about material items. They also are the most humble and happiest people I meet. The second is the person with a very well paying job but they live paycheck to paycheck. They always have a newer car, nice high end clothes and the latest gadgets like a plasma TV. They are the one who will have the IPhone before everyone else. I know too many people who lived like this in the RE industry. The third is the person who lives beyond their means. These are the people who you would never know that they are dead broke but appear rich and are best exemplified by Irvinerenter’s post on Cultural Pathology. The third is in the worst situation today if they own a home because they no longer have the appreciation to bail them out. They are the type that always talk about money and material things. They think this will make people like them and they believe that really one day they will be rich. The only problem is they never seem to catch up or the reality is no matter how much they believe in reality it never happens.
Why do I bring this up? Well I am not one to gossip and I really hate to admit that I have watched The Real Housewives of OC but I couldn’t resist the sad facts of a person who lives beyond their means. Most of you like myself will hate to admit that you have watched the show but even if you haven’t you are probably aware of Slade Smiley. He appears to be like the third type where in the show he always talks about being rich. I shouldn’t be so modest because he brags about being rich and the show makes it seem this is what his life revolves around. He rents owns a house in Coto De Caza that has been listed for over 250 days and with only one price reduction. Maybe the reason it is listed is because Slade needs money and the appreciation spigot has been turned off. He bought the place in July of 2005 and less than a month after he bought the place he got a new second pulling out $20k and ten months later he got another new second extracting almost $100k for a total balance on the second of $225k. It would be obvious things are not going so well when the NOD was filed on 4/30/07 and how he owes his pay option lender $15k at the time. Of course if he only made his minimum payment it would be an additional $50k on top of the $1.28mil he borrowed for the first loan. So assuming only the minimum payment was made we have a total possible mortgage debt of $1.57mil. But wait there is more since he hasn’t paid his property taxes there is an additional $20k and of course a family attorney is owed about $12k and filed a lien against the home. Now the total with the commission and fees he is barely breaking even. If all those nice suits, diamond rings, high end cars and other various OC life expenses he has some serious credit card debt on top of all that.
What happened? He was one of the people who started United Title and an assistant vice president with them. It appears they sold to Land America and he should have received a decent amount for the buy out. Plus he has a highly rated show and is producing his girlfriend/fiance Jo’s singing career. Even the LA Times had recent article about how well he was doing.
Oh and I almost forgot this house was a past bubble victim when it was bought back by the bank in 1995 at the trustee’s auction for $568k when the unpaid debt was $573k. The bank sold it seven months later for $540k.
