Fantasia Barrino Keeps Her House

Well, whaddaya know? I’m glad they were able to reach an agreement. Something’s usually always going on behind the scenes in these cases.

Yeah, this is a pretty typical scenario. Set the do or die date to bring the parties to the table. If the earlier story is to be believed, then they had little choice to get her attention, if she wouldn’t respond to their efforts to reach her. What did she think would happen, nothing? Anywho… Blah, blah, blah.

I’m happy for her and hope she keeps things in better order in the future…

Yaay for Fantasia. I hope that she does all that she needs to keep her homes. Things are not always as they appear.

In the current economy and the rapid decrease in property values, many buyers are “upside down” in their mortgage, which means that they owe more than their home is currently worth.

It is a fairly common strategy under those circumstances to let the property have foreclosure action instituted against the owner, as the bank will probably then be more open to negotiating the interest rate or even decreasing the total outstanding loan. It is also possible to arrange a “short sale” which is a sale of the property for less than the bank is owed (with the bank taking the loss), to a third party who might then lease the property (or sell it) back to the original owner.

The bank usually does NOT want the property back. With the high inventory of foreclosed properties on the books these days, banks are becoming more like property management firms and it isn’t helping their bottom line.

I have zero information about Fanty’s particular case, but I know a lot about what’s happening in the mortgage industry at the moment.

Cat that is a cerebral take on Fantasia’s dilemma. It’s much easier to say she’s lazy and ignorant. I say there but for the grace of God….

I’m glad they worked things out. I’m sure both sides are glad they worked things out. Hopefully she will be smarter with her money (or lack thereof) in the future….or maybe this was smart.

I’d say it was more like her lawyer wasn’t ignoring her problems. Fantasia seems pretty much out to lunch when it comes to her finances. This wasn’t the first run in with banks and/or creditors she’s had and the irresponsibility is becoming a pattern. I hope somebody can give her a talking to so this doesn’t happen again. More likely scenario will be she decides no matter what she’ll always get bailed out and eventually she’ll run out of luck. Sad.

Fantasia is no different than the average American: if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it and if you can’t pay it back, don’t borrow it.

“Fantasia is no different than the average American: if you canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t afford it, donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t buy it and if you canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t pay it back, donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t borrow it.”

Both average Americans and wealthy Americans have seen their net worth decline by 40% or more in the last year. Most were blissfully unaware when they signed on the bottom line for homes, cars and assorted bling that they were about to lose their shirts and have no ability to pay for those things that they were quite able to afford a few months previous.

It is not “irresponsible” to structure your purchases to be able to take tax deductions for interest rather than paying cash, and it is not “irresponsible” to take out a loan which you are well able to pay back and then have your net worth be yanked out from under you by the disintegration of the Ponzi schemes of the banking and investing communities.

I hope that people are more kind to you should you one day find out that you have far less to work with financially than you had assumed that you would.

I’d say that was a possibility if this was the FIRST time this happened to Fantasia. That’s it’s only happening now like it’s happening to millions of Americans NOW.

BUT, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. It’s the 2nd time that we know of. The first time happening 3 years ago long before the crap hit the fan. What excuse are you going to make for her for THAT one?

Clearly it’s a pattern. She needs to learn and not have the world making excuses for her.

Cat it has nothing to do with being kind. If this was the first time Fantasia had run into problems paying her bills I would certainly cut her a break and see it as a sign of the times. But it is documented that she has been negligent with her taxes, car payments, etc FOR YEARS. This isn’t the first time so no, I see this as the extension of a pattern rather than a one time crisis.

OK, so she’s lousy with handling finances.

Many artists have various inabilities to handle life issues. They do drugs, drink heavily, don’t pay their bills and demand that no green M&Ms be found in their dressing rooms. They get liver transplants which they then continue to destroy through continuing alcohol abuse. They beat their wives and cheat on their husbands and write songs or paint pictures or write screenplays about the whole mess.

We are, as a fanbase, generally very hard on Idols. Perhaps it is because we feel more attached to them and feel that we are part of the reason that they are successful to whatever degree that they achieve success. Perhaps it’s because we start out our acquaintance with them by obsessing over minute details of song choice and hairstyle and breath control. I think that this hyper-critical tendency is unfair and a bit creepy. It’s like rather detached stalkerism, IMHO.

I’ve been kind of fascinated with this phenomenon for years.

Well if we’re “stalkerish” then you are too, because you’re right here with us talking about the Idols.