Lots of rumors flying around about RHONJ this morning including a blind item that one of the housewives is about to file for bankruptcy. Then, I read this article over at Daily Mail that the Gorga’s are selling their home. Click the link to see all the pictures, they are fabulous. I don’t really remember the house being so … stuffy on the show. The Daily Mail article implies that the Gorgas may be wanting to move to LA. To me it seems more like they need to liquidate their largest asset.
The house is listed at $3.8 million. The house was previously listed for $4.1 million in November of 2009 and removed from the market in early 2010. What do you think of this latest development? Are they about to load up the truck and move to Beverly? Or do they just need to downsize?
UPDATE: US Weekly just posted an “exclusive” on this story. They have an couple of quotes from Melissa and Joe saying they want to move back to Franklin Lakes. What interested me is that Daily Mail scooped US Weekly on the exclusive. It’s almost like someone leaked the info to the Daily Mail.
Click through for UPDATE 2:
Short little timeline: The Gorga’s bought the 2+ acres of land in February 2007 for $950,000. I found no mortgage records for tha purchase. They took out a construction loan in November of 2007 for $2.25 million. As part of that mortgage they were required to have the home as their primary residency for at least a year. (Thus the rumors about it being some sort of spec home owned by the business are false, All mortages are in both Joe and Melissa’s name as their primary residence).
They modified the mortgage in July of 2008. It appears the agreement was they would pay only the interest of 6.25% per annum for three years ending on July 2012 and then make payments of $14.842.46 a month for 25 years.
Also in 2008 there were two liens on the property one for about $5K and another for about $25K, These were paid off at some point prior to the next refinance in 2011 and most likely prior to listing in 2010.
The house was put on the market in November of 2010 for $4.5 million and removed from the market in September of 2011 just before they began filming RHONJ.
BUT THEN While the house was on the market, They refinanced again, with a principal of $2,185,199.07 and a new interest rate of 5% in April of 2011 giving them a monthly payment of $11,829.40 They began making those payments on April 1 of 2011. At the same time the did this refi, they signed an Assignment of Leases agreement. Where essentially the bank was given all rights to any rent that would be received from renting the property in any way. I’m not sure what that was about. They could have been planning to rent the property rather than selling it, or were preparing for a possible rent to own sort of contract, or perhaps Bravo was technically renting a portion of the property in some way for filming. Whatever the reason the bank had a special agreement regarding any rent that the Gorgas might receive or did receive.
In February 2012, the “shore property” was put on the market for $520K. The main property was listed at $3.8 million
I’m not sure where these “moving to LA” rumors came from but the Gorga’s official story in US Weekly seems to be the want to be back in Franklin Lakes for the school system. Looks to me like they just need to get out from under the big monthly mortgage payments. They’ve got just over 3 million in the property and will likely be unable to get anywhere near that. Zillow values the houses on their small street in the range of $1.5 million. Looks like they are upside down.
People with real money don’t feel the need to be “on display”. It’s always the flashy folks that are one paycheck away from broke. Jacqueline & Melissa are both living this way.
This article doeant match what I had read two years ago when they started the home.
Glad I could clear that up for you then. In NJ mortgage agreements are public record. All the information here came directly from the mortgage agreements.
We hate Jacqueline she is one BORED out of her mind housewife who is the worst person ever and hides behind the persona of being a good friend she loves all the drama and them when it comes her way she can't attend the reunion too upset!!! LMAO and her husband Chris what an edfin tool he is out your proverbial foot down sure how is that working out for you Chris housewife number 6 he is such a gossip just like Horror show Jacqueline go climb under a Rock Ms Las Vegas fat pig!!!!!!!!
Barney Devito hilarious I hate Jacqueline too!'n she stirs the pot them pretends to be the concerned friend SHEBIS ONE BIG BORR and always watch when the drama unfolds her husband positions himself smack Dab in the middle to hear everything I can't stand Jacqueline and all my colleagues HATE her too
anon 2:01 and crsteen 12 your reply is super duper funny, that song is so appropriate and cute. Thanks for the laughs!Lannette
Why do these stupid people buy fancy things for the show? They always end up bankrupt be normal give a damn about somebody other than yourselves. I cannot stand Melissa~ Bully Carolyn. Come on Bravo they were supposed to be kicked to the curb hurry up and give them the boot
Those columns aren't even pretending to hold anything up. Vulgar.
~{o:< T*A*M*A*R*A >:o}~Thanks for the update..Interesting info…
Honestly, I don't even care about Melissa BUT I'm getting tired of poor little Jackie being a bad mother to Ashley and I'm not saying that Ashley is a saint, BUT playing the victim card and handling Ashley with such immature drive, gots to stop! It is painful to watch and there is more to this story than Ashley bad, my new family and husband that works cuz I don't do anything else in life makes me feel the better person, hooray for me: Jackie!. And Caroline, plz? Wasn't Caroline and Jackie supposed to end their 'presence' of the RHONJ show? I hope they are GONE by next season, geez!
Tamara I seen you try to play a comment or as if they didn't know what they were taking about only to go back a read what they said and comeback and post the samething and not even acknowledge you were wrong … Shame on you.. You really are a bitter lol smh
You can see the listing on realtor.com. I thought it was interesting that while the listing mentions small things like a garbage disposal, it doesn't say a word about a recording studio. It even says unfinished basement.
I read someplace that their house was actually built to be a model or staging home. They moved into the house and refused to leave. Later, one of his business associates began talking of legal action….It's a rather complex case involving investors, an insurance company and others all threatening legal action….I guess it's all coming to a head now. At the end of the day, they are just another couple among many fronting in front of the cameras.
I think it’s Joe Gorga and Melissa big time. For one why all of a sudden throw all their property on the market to sell. One person on the next story said that she might be moving to LA, no she’s not. For one her music sucks and even her producer was caught on mike saying “absoulutely not” to her trying to sing 3 more ballads. She only sounded good once he started instrumenting her voice, pure and simple. Another thing, Bravo has her little tight but and midget Joe for another 2 season at least, and if they do go they can’t do any shows or programs because of the non-competition clause in their contracts since they are still legally Bravo property, and they still will have to share money to Bravo from their ventures. As stated Joe got a construction loan for 2.5 maybe 2.3 million dollars and the balloon payment was coming due this June. It was said last year that the construction loan was converted to a mortgage for 15,000 a month, do anybody have links to documents or anything stating they did that or the bank said no way. Because it’s awfully convienent that they are trying to sell this house and the beach shore house before this deadline. In fact they are trying to sell it at 3.8 million a couple of hundred thousand under the 2009 attempt which was 4.1 million. The house on another realestate webpage was valued in that area for 2012 at 1.56 million, well below their loan they owe. Essentially they will have to short sale big time, if it’s even allowed in a construction loan. And I also think that Melissa is setting him and Teresa up for the big split or divorce, because guess what he has no money. And add to the fact that he may be looking at major issues with his properties if people who worked for him (and put their name out on the articles) are correct, and that is he left asbestos and other dangerous stuff in his construction or renovation of those buildings that people are living in. If so not only is he facing federal and state fines along with lawsuits from the people who live there, he could be facing prison time also. Hell he might be sharing a cell with Barney Devito (Joe Giudice).
Why is Kathy even on the show? She's so boring –does she even have her own story-line/life? She constantly rags on teresa and is in cahoots with Melissa. Rich is annoying as hell. Dont even let me get started on Jacqueline–the "ashley drives me crazy" got boring in season 3…why are they still dragging that along…
From what Ive seen on the blogs and in the papers, the Gorgas are in debt..serious debt. They even still owe over 400K for the christmas party they threw on one season–was it season 4? Still havent paid it. Im not Team this or that, but while you do see Theresa hustling (doing magazine covers, cookbooks, Celebrity apprentice, etc) to keep her house, Melissa and Joey are spending money left and right to fund her "career."-Valerie
The house was originally built to sell. They built it in 2009 and then took it off the market in 2010 when they were hired on to RHONJ. I think they realized they couldn't continue the costs associated with such a large house. It does seem strange that they built a studio in the basement only to put the house on the market less than a year later.
Teh town Melissa & Joe live in is only 15 miles from Franklin Lakes, so I doubt that is the reason. Joe's business is in Paterson, NJ so it would not help his drive all that much. They maybe going to LA to push Melissa's career and only stay in Jersey when RHONJ is filming. Or they maybe brokeass bitches. NJB
a large % of these reality show people misrepresent themsleves by living way large than they really can afford. They rent houses, get loaned cars, clothes, jewels the ~ designer $$ handbags ( nothing says wanna be rich HouseHag than toteing around a handbag worth thre price of a car ) hairstylist and make up people are'nt cheap either the also get comped for expenisve vacations / dinners etc etc,the Gorgas also listed their beach home , its crappy fixer upper and probably more realistic way they really live .
They knew they couldn't afford to keep living in that house, all of that was just for being on the show and trying to make some money because they are just as money hungry as Teresa and her husband. I can't stand these two fame-whores who put put there family business on TV to make money.
I have watched RHONJ since the beginning and I have seen every husband got to a job. Chris, Jacqueline's husband, works at the Brownstone with Albert, Caroline's husband, and I believe Chris works some where else also. I have even seen Joe, Teresa's husband, at his bankrupt business and the pizza parlor. I also remember seeing Kathy's husband doing something or other, I am still not sure what he does, but I do not ever remember seeing Joe, Melissa's husband, leaving for work or at an job. And I am not saying 'what goes around comes around' but when you make a statement like 'we pay our bills' and then when the biggest bill that you have, your house payment, comes due you place your house on the market. Please lets all remember that some statements can come back to bit you in the rear. I would also like to remind all that Teresa stated in the beginning on season 3 that she would do all that she had to do to stay in the house that she and Joe, who is "away", built from the ground up. If Teresa can hold onto her house and she is millions in debt then there has to be hope for the Gorgas, right?
I’m not siding on any particular party here but this last commentor sure doesn’t really digest the show that much. Both Joe Gorga and Joe Guidice are real estate speculators who buy properties and try to flip
them for profit. In this economy, that’s rife with risks. They had an episode where Joe took Melissa to one of his properties he was working on with his partners. These type of speculators are not rare, and they almost always live in their own properties from time to time and then also, all that creative budgeting is common too. Not so easy to do these days after they finally cracked down on the lending laws after the housing kaboom of 2008. Thats why we are seeing both Joes hustling more and more, course Juicy Joe didn’t handle his bidness quite so well! Now as to your Richie comment, he owns several gas station/convenieance stores and there was an episode where he visited the first one he bought. Additionally Chris Laurita is a distributor of products, first and foremost the drink blk, which they showed long ago he and the Manzo Bro’s mtg with its makers, and now wines. It’s interesting to me how you can quote Tre from Season 3 and yet not have even the slightest handle on these points about the Gorgas and Walkilies. I mean they don’t do nuttin, right, right??
its in the Daily Mail comment section ( Susan from NJ USA ) that the Gorga's built this house on spec and as an builder Joe got an interest free loan but now as to start paying it off.
Sigh. The Daily Mail article doesn't say any of those things.
opps wrong HouseHag its Melissa whose husband is a construction / builder guy the Daily Mail says he build this mansion on Spec but when they got on the show they moved in to give the apperance of wealth. Now the mortgage is due and the gorgias are selling.
It is hard for me to beleive they live in that McMansion when Joes business is a hole in the wall pizza joint.
Oh hush, Teresa.
Cause I’m on display, on display, on display each and every day, every day, every dayEverybody’s waiting on me to fall… KABOOM!