Saturday, May 10, 2008

UPDATE: Michael Jackson

Oh dear Jeezis. Everybody please stay calm and go pour yourself a big tumbler of booze before you get hysterical. That's right puppies, all the little real estate pigs are flyin' because fallen pop icon Michael Jackson has somehow...somehow! managed to rip his tattered, torn and (in)famous Neverland Ranch from the uglee clutches of foreclosure just five days before it was set to be auctioned off on the steps of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

You read that correctly...the foreclosure auction has been canceled.

Your Mama can hear all the children screaming and moaning, "Whaaat!?"

No one seems to know how the pale skinned moon walker managed that shocking mortgage miracle, not even the always well informed Fox 411 gossip Mister Roger Friedman who speculates that Mister Jackson may (we said, "may") have somehow finagled a refinance agreement with Fortress Investments, the asset management company that currently holds the $24,525,906.61 (estimated) note on the 2,900 acre ranch.

We know some of you are tired and tuckered out from this seemingly never ending Neverland Ranch foreclosure saga, but apparently Mister Toad's Wild Ride is not yet over and Your Mama is sunk way too deep in Mister Jackson's real estate quicksand to get out now.

Stay tuned or tune out, whichever works for you.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

is anyone actually surprised? there is NO WAY that property will ever be for sale.

EVER

StPaulSnowman said...

Five bucks says there is some Arabian coin embedded in this little cabal. I didn't have room for the merry go round anyway. I would rather know more about lil' gay boy's ancestral home......maybe a single photo?

Alessandra said...

That's a decent guess, snowman.

I'm not holding my breath. Eventually, financial chickens lay their eggs.

Anonymous said...

I guess you'd have to be MJ to understand this one. Why he'd want to retain ownership of the compound associated with his ugly scandal, one he'll probably never use again due to overhead costs he cannot afford, not to mention it's location in a county that hates his guts and would love nothing more than throwing his buttski back in the slammer, one can only wonder.

Anonymous said...

Could somebody please come and clean out my cage.

Anonymous said...

CL - the sooner you are buried in in up to your beak, the better for all the children.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone really surprised? Three years ago all these people were saying on the news how broke he was, etc. and meanwhile he keeps plugging along and has the means to keep a 50 million dollar house that he doesn't even live in.

Anonymous said...

Well, even in these beleaguered times of real estate, $8,600 an oak-studded-acre is pretty damned cheap for beautiful property like this is.
I'd say it would be worth more if he tore down that tacky house of horrors.

Anonymous said...

you people are like ugly vultures who obviously have no lives......let the guy keep his property and the rest of you, go out and try to find something interesting about your own lives no matter how hard it might be.......

Anonymous said...

Whenever the name Roger Friedman is attached to some piece of "news" regarding Michael Jackson it often turns out to be a load of tripe. "Always well informed"? Hardly.

lil' gay boy said...

The White Lady lives to fight another day - who'd have believed it????

StPaulSnowman - I'll try scanning a photo for you - details to come.

StPaulSnowman said...

lil' gay boy; Thanks for your consideration. I'll, or we'll, look forward to it!

Anonymous said...

Apparently Mama has raised the ire of the last 2 or 3 fans The White Lady had.

2:40 - The property wasn't "for sale". It was being foreclosed on. Big difference. This is not the last we will hear on this. MJ does not have the income to service (make the payments) on his debts, of which this 24 million is a drop in the bucket.

7:54 - 50 million is a stretch...A huge stretch in this market. And MJ didn't pay anywhere near that. The property is suffering from major differed maintenance because MJ doesn't have any money to take care of the property. Trying to hold on to it is either ego driven or childish illusion.

9:02 - Exactly how fufilling is your life that you are here? At least the rest of us have an interest in real estate and seeing this property become something other than a scrapyard of old amusement park rides and the probable scene of crimes against young boys.

Anonymous said...

Does not make any kind of sense to me, but I don't think logic and sense figure much in MJ's fantasy of life.
He can't seriously think he is every going back there? Its a ghost town. Would probably make a fortune for someone taking tours around it just as it is.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with anonymous 9:25. Roger Friedman is obsessed with MJ (and Warner Music Group's Edgar Bronfman, though not related to this story). He has major disdain for both of them and barely a week goes by that he doesn't have something nasty to say about one or the other and he is rarely if ever correct. I'm starting to think he makes most of this shizz up but if he was guessing you'd think he'd be right at least half the time. He's been wrong about the downfall of the Pasty Faced Pedophile more times than Margaret Spellings on Celebrity Jeopardy. I'm not sure what Roger would write about if MJ suddenly turned normal. I think he secretly wishes he could buy Neverland and spend his days on the merry-go-round endlessly chasing his next "scoop".

Anonymous said...

I'm staying tuned that's for sure. I used to be such a fan of this guy back in the day. It's weird how he went from The Gloved One to The White Lady. Sad.

Anonymous said...

9:02=avg joe

StPaulSnowman said...

Would one of you California Chilun please briefly describe where this thousand acre tract is relative to landmarks a bohunk from the back country like me could understand. Is it remote ? Is it this vast land parcel surrounded by developments housing relatively normal people? Thanks

Alessandra said...

It's up past Santa Barbara and inland.

Anonymous said...

Hi Snowman,
Put this location into maps. Remote yes. Lots of agriculture and wilderness; population (?)...not much.

I think MJ only settled this score to irritate Our Mama and Roger Friedman--who haven't missed a beat on dispelling fact from fiction, and probably hoped their work was finally done on this mess.

StPaulSnowman said...

Alessandra and Piper; Thanks for the response. I now have a better idea what all the kerfuffle is about since I can't imagine how the balsa wood monstrosity of a house could be very interesting. By the way............HAPPY MAMA'S DAY to all!

Anonymous said...

Being in the business (yes, Real Estate) and living just a few miles away from the MJ property, it would fetch easily 30M - 35M. 50M might be a stretch, it would be hard to split due to the topography, a lot of it is real rugged. I have been there a couple of times, previous to MJ's ownership, it truly is a special property. At least it was!

Anonymous said...

Agree with anon 6:44, I've also been there and it is a nice piece of property but would be difficult to split. stpaulsnowman I must respectfully disagree, the house itself is certainly not a monstrosity, in fact it's relatively modest in size.

Anonymous said...

Snowman,

The train station with overgrown boxwoods and clock in Disney-like landscaping is often misrepresented as the actual house but it's not. The house is a little further up the drive and is heavy masked by trees (in a green patch on map), positioned near the unmaintained tennis court, fishing pond and another little structure.

Anonymous said...

5:46, 9:02 wasn't Average Ho. That post lacks his/her trademark style. I think he is laying low after the virtual beat down and complete loss of any credibility last week.

Anonymous said...

Maybe NAMBLA purchased it for use as a retreat center kinda like that Zion ranch in Texas ???

Anonymous said...

Not intended to pile on, if Michael cared about children as much as he seems to believe he does, you'd think he'd be focused on securing his own children's financial future at this point. Charity starts at home, and I don't see how this decision does anything except further insure he'll be bogged down making interest payments the rest of his life while accumulating very little pinciple to pay off his enormous debt, of which the $24Million owed on this place is just the tip of his financial iceberg.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

Since we're grasping for straws, perhaps MJ envisions Neverland Ranch turning into a restored cash cow tourist attraction al la Graceland after he's gone.

Anonymous said...

Someone asked of the location, and it's a good one. It's essentially Pinot Noir, avocado and macadamia nut county. Gorgeous, serene. Close to the coast, but not on it. Perfect weather. If someone can't subdivide that land for $20,000 an acre (or a LOT more), then they're not good developers.

Anyone know what the land is appraised at? A market appraisal, that is.

StPaulSnowman said...

Sandpiper; I was basing my opinion of the house on the old television interview filmed there with the English journalist who was supposed to have "ambushed" the pale one regarding his "Playtime with little boys." The exterior and interior shots, as I remember, showed lots of floorspace and little charm.There were also shots of the aforementioned Victorian train station and the rides. It will cost a lot to get rid of all that, I suspect.

Anonymous said...

8:29,
Do you really think so? Lets avoid detailing his unmedicated rants. distorted patterns of improperly Our sad little average joe and aka's are dumber than a box of hammers.

I think he's a prisoner trustee with access to internet.

Anonymous said...

fixin a mistake

detailing his unmedicated rants and distorted patterns. Our sad little average joe and aka's are dumber than a box of hammers.

lil' gay boy said...

Nurse Nancy,

I'd say a box of hair, myself - hammers can be useful . . .

;-)

StPaulSnowman, (personal post)

Sorry - went to scan the pics you asked about only to discover they're in storage whilst I seek a new abode (lost my lease). I can tell you it was 27 Prospect Park West, and Google Earth shows it's still standing (it's the one with the bay window to the left of the door.) Title search would indicate the owner in 1895 as Nathaniel Dinsmore Hoxie.

Great granddad was a haberdasher at 1 Maiden Lane near Wall Street and family legend says his clients included the likes of Jay Gould & J. P. Morgan (where he probably earned the money to own a brownstone in Brooklyn).

StPaulSnowman said...

LGB...absolutely fascinating.....I'll check it out. Thanks

Anonymous said...

nurse nurse,

He's like Beetlejuice. Type the name too many times and he'll appear with his trademark "huh?" and "since you called on me" post that has nothing to do with this blog. Then he's harder to get rid of (and as much use) as chewing gum on your shoe.

so_chic_darling said...

I am,in fact,making very loud squawking sounds as I type!

Anonymous said...

Capital Colony, a real estate investment group, bought out the loan from Fortress, that's why the foreclosure stopped. They said they are "very comfortable holding the loan while they figure out a payment plan."

Anonymous said...

Well done mugsy, thank you. Capital Colony has afforded MJ a face saving opportunity to sell the place. If he has any sense, he will, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anonymous said...

Just curious if he is paying the tax man on this property. Are those records available online?

Anonymous said...

me poopy pants..WAAAAAAHHHHH