The Mysterious McMansion
There is a McMansion on my street. To be exact, it is just a couple houses across the street from us.
We live on an emergency route. Unlike the historic district of our town, it is busy and not scenic. Many people may even find it noisy. The only advantage is that we are never snowed in. Most of the houses are small bungalows. So, why would anybody plop a McMansion in a neighborhood like this?
When the original house was demolished, it was already curios enough: Everything was torn down except the foundation and the chimney. We speculated that it could be just a trick to reduce the building permit fee by calling it a renovation rather than rebuilding.
As soon as construction began, the project quickly became the talk of the town because it is double the size of an average house on our street. It really sticks out like a big, sore thumb.
The new house was built rather quickly. The FOR SALE sign went up right away. All neighbors were dying to see what the house was like inside. We waited eagerly for an open house . . . Finally! It was like a multi-block party. People were elbow-to-elbow inside to check the place out.
"1.3 million dollars? This house is listed for 1.3 million dollars?!" The floor was covered with eyeballs from astonished neighbors. At the time, the average price of a house on our street was not even $400,000. It was hard to imagine anybody paying $1.3 million to live here.
The moment you enter the house, like a McMansion should, there is a foyer with super high ceiling, a chandelier and marble flooring. On the upper floor, there is an overlook above the foyer behind a set of fancy railings. But, wait. How come the balusters are not even or plumb? Mike and I exchanged a look without saying a word. As we toured the house, we continued to find "unusual features" for a professionally built new house. For example, drywalls that are notched in a jagged manner to fit the stairs after carpet has been installed. Or, the tiled flooring in the basement is not level, and the tiles rocked in place as we walked on them . . . The list goes on and on. The place smells fishy.
Not surprisingly, the house did not sell at the open house. The FOR SALE sign stayed on for a while. Then, it came down. It went up again, and down again, and up and down again. Several more open house events took place. By then, all curious neighbors have seen the place. Hardly anybody went anymore.
The house stayed empty for over a year. One day, a moving truck pulled up. A family moved in.
Months later, when I went over to talk to Dana, the neighbor who lived next to the McMansion, I was introduced to the lady owner of the McMansion. "Wow! You have a huge house. Did you pay 1.3 million dollars for it?" It must be rude for me to ask a stranger such a question, but I really could not contain my curiosity.
"Oh, no, no, no! Where do I find that kind of money? We paid a whole lot less than that. We bought it as a foreclosure." Foreclosure. Foreclosure?!
"Do you know of the FBI story about the house?" Dana asked me. "What FBI story? No! Tell me all about it." As the saying goes, "The plot thickens."
Dana says that an FBI agent came to her multiple times to ask if she knows anything about the Nigerians who owned the house next door. "Nigerians? What Nigerians?" She was asked all sorts of questions, but she had no answers for any of them. The many questions, in turn, ignited her curiosity about the investigation.
According to the FBI agent, this was an investigation of a series of similar scams by a Nigerian gang.
First, Person A applies for a bank loan to buy an old little house and to do a major renovation for resale. The new house is to resemble a fancy McMansion with all the bells and whistles, but is just hastily built with shoddy construction. Once the house is on the market, Person B pretends to be an interested buyer and applies for a bank loan for the purchase. As the second bank issues a bank check for the closing, both persons disappear, leaving the banks with a house that is worth much less than what they expected. Apparently, there have been many cases like this in the area, but banks continued to fall for it.
This explains everything about this mysterious, big house in our humble, little neighborhood. However, it still leaves one big mystery unresolved in my mind . . .
While the FBI agent failed to get any intelligence from Dana, Dana managed to extract from the agent the entire story behind the investigation! Why is the FBI agent an FBI agent, but my neighbor, Dana, is Dana, a housewife across the street? WHY???
We live on an emergency route. Unlike the historic district of our town, it is busy and not scenic. Many people may even find it noisy. The only advantage is that we are never snowed in. Most of the houses are small bungalows. So, why would anybody plop a McMansion in a neighborhood like this?
When the original house was demolished, it was already curios enough: Everything was torn down except the foundation and the chimney. We speculated that it could be just a trick to reduce the building permit fee by calling it a renovation rather than rebuilding.
As soon as construction began, the project quickly became the talk of the town because it is double the size of an average house on our street. It really sticks out like a big, sore thumb.
The new house was built rather quickly. The FOR SALE sign went up right away. All neighbors were dying to see what the house was like inside. We waited eagerly for an open house . . . Finally! It was like a multi-block party. People were elbow-to-elbow inside to check the place out.
"1.3 million dollars? This house is listed for 1.3 million dollars?!" The floor was covered with eyeballs from astonished neighbors. At the time, the average price of a house on our street was not even $400,000. It was hard to imagine anybody paying $1.3 million to live here.
The moment you enter the house, like a McMansion should, there is a foyer with super high ceiling, a chandelier and marble flooring. On the upper floor, there is an overlook above the foyer behind a set of fancy railings. But, wait. How come the balusters are not even or plumb? Mike and I exchanged a look without saying a word. As we toured the house, we continued to find "unusual features" for a professionally built new house. For example, drywalls that are notched in a jagged manner to fit the stairs after carpet has been installed. Or, the tiled flooring in the basement is not level, and the tiles rocked in place as we walked on them . . . The list goes on and on. The place smells fishy.
Not surprisingly, the house did not sell at the open house. The FOR SALE sign stayed on for a while. Then, it came down. It went up again, and down again, and up and down again. Several more open house events took place. By then, all curious neighbors have seen the place. Hardly anybody went anymore.
The house stayed empty for over a year. One day, a moving truck pulled up. A family moved in.
Months later, when I went over to talk to Dana, the neighbor who lived next to the McMansion, I was introduced to the lady owner of the McMansion. "Wow! You have a huge house. Did you pay 1.3 million dollars for it?" It must be rude for me to ask a stranger such a question, but I really could not contain my curiosity.
"Oh, no, no, no! Where do I find that kind of money? We paid a whole lot less than that. We bought it as a foreclosure." Foreclosure. Foreclosure?!
"Do you know of the FBI story about the house?" Dana asked me. "What FBI story? No! Tell me all about it." As the saying goes, "The plot thickens."
Dana says that an FBI agent came to her multiple times to ask if she knows anything about the Nigerians who owned the house next door. "Nigerians? What Nigerians?" She was asked all sorts of questions, but she had no answers for any of them. The many questions, in turn, ignited her curiosity about the investigation.
According to the FBI agent, this was an investigation of a series of similar scams by a Nigerian gang.
First, Person A applies for a bank loan to buy an old little house and to do a major renovation for resale. The new house is to resemble a fancy McMansion with all the bells and whistles, but is just hastily built with shoddy construction. Once the house is on the market, Person B pretends to be an interested buyer and applies for a bank loan for the purchase. As the second bank issues a bank check for the closing, both persons disappear, leaving the banks with a house that is worth much less than what they expected. Apparently, there have been many cases like this in the area, but banks continued to fall for it.
This explains everything about this mysterious, big house in our humble, little neighborhood. However, it still leaves one big mystery unresolved in my mind . . .
While the FBI agent failed to get any intelligence from Dana, Dana managed to extract from the agent the entire story behind the investigation! Why is the FBI agent an FBI agent, but my neighbor, Dana, is Dana, a housewife across the street? WHY???
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