1. 5 Celebrity Real Estate Mistakes
Real People Make

2. A friend of mine who is generally inclined toward
intellectual pursuits recently took a trip out of town
on her own. As she recounted her solo hotel stay,
she exclaimed that the high point of her trip was
being able to watch reality television without her
family’s judgment. I told her that when her family
gives her guff, she should point out that beyond the
pure (albeit debatable) entertainment value, there
are lots of lessons and takeaways that can be
gleaned from the stars of reality TV, film and the
music industry.

3. Celebrity Real Estate Mistake #1: Overspending. If you’d
seen the episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey in
which everyone’s favorite “Skinny Italian” table-flipper
Teresa Giudice pulled out a fat bankroll of cash to pay for
her four kidlets’ every little leopard printed, pink ruffled,
pose-striking desire, it probably came to you as no
surprise that her home with husband Joe ended up with
their home - and all its contents - on the bankruptcy
auction block in 2009. (To be fair, Giudice has always
maintained that her home was not in foreclosure.)
Nevertheless, the auction listing confirmed the worst
overspending suspicions; the Giudice estate was laden
with gilt rococo couches, faux marble chess sets, even a
suit of armor!

4. Celebrity Real Estate Mistake #2: Assuming the
bank will work with you. Here, again, the Real
Housewives are our teachers, but this time, we’re
talking about Lisa Wu Hartwell in the ATL and
Alexis Bellino in the OC. From the
blogosphere and their own
admissions, it seems that they
both were in loan workout talks
with their banks, having sought
assistance with their upside down
mortgages, when things went south.

5. Celebrity Mistake #3: Knowing nothing about
your own finances. Real Housewife of OC Lynn
Curtin was shocked to tears when her teenage
daughter was handed an eviction notice. She
was surprised, but her husband wasn’t - he’d
been hiding their deteriorating financial
situation for a long, long time. The end
result? She and her kids had to move out of
their luxury waterfront rental home - and into
Grandma’s condo.

6. Celebrity Real Estate Mistake #4: Flipping a house,
expecting a fast fortune. In 2007, Ricky Martin
paid over $16 million for this house, then poured a
good deal of cash (and some very good taste I might
add) into it, preparing to flip it. He’s made
beaucoup bucks using this strategy in the past - but
this one was timed all wrong. The market tanked
right around the time he listed the home for sale at
$22.5 million in 2007 - and it’s still on the market at
$18.5 million! Given the fact that a mortgage on
$16 million would run a mere mortal a cool
$100K/month, it’s a good bet he’s losing money
faster than his notorious hips can swivel.

7. Celebrity Real Estate Mistake #5: Not paying your
taxes. In the face of tax liens in the millions of
dollars and allegations of fraud by his financial
advisor, Nicolas Cage
lost at least 3 homes to
foreclosure in 2009, and
has at least one more still
on the market. Comedian
Sinbad’s new reality series
actually opens up with a stand-
up routine devoted, in part, to losing his home due
to tax issues. Chris Tucker’s $11 million tax lien was
publicized right before his 6,000-plus square foot
Florida home went on the market.

8. Randy Bett
Investment Realtor/Author/Investor
Real Estate Professionals Inc.
Better Group Real Estate
202-5403 Crowchild Trail NW
Calgary, AB T3B 4Z1
Phone:403-774-7464 Ext:1
Fax:403-208-0082
Toll Free fax:888-711-6801

9. Randy Bett
www.BetterGroupRealEstate.ca