Thunderstorms in northeast Tennessee set $28M mansion ablaze!
 

Story and video here from out local CBS station / newpaper website.... (this was only 20 miles southwest of my house!) It was a terrible storm Saturday evening. I was driving home and the lightning was terrible. No storms were even forecasted and it was only about 50° when this storm was in progress with torrential rains.

http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/grindstaff_home_burns_the_aftermath/18679/

Then the update....

Here is an update from the Johnson City Press. The fire was indeed caused by a lightning strike on Saturday evening. Very unfortunate this happened. Thankfully no one was hurt.

http://johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=HOMEPAGE&ID=66580

Here is a video and interviews about the home a couple of years ago on a TV show....

http://etricities.info/?p=2965

Boy, what a house! They were in the middle of seelig it, too. I guess that'll be a deal killer.

You need to fix the links, they got truncated. I've always had lightning rods on the house and I had new ones installed on the garage when it was built. The neighbors think I'm kind of crazy but hey, I'm on the top of the hill in the neighborhood... :eek:

Damn thats a lot of house for $28m, very cool!:cool:

To bad it burned.

[QUOTE=KarTek;2075983]You need to fix the links, they got truncated. QUOTE]

Oh, thanks... here is a new link with the update...

http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/grindstaff_home_burns_the_aftermath/18679/

and...

http://johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=HOMEPAGE&ID=66580

Thats a freaken complicated closing. I guess it shouldn't stop it, just might delay it a bit.

Is it easier to close if you have no mortgage? While the story doesn't mention liens, it does say that they had no insurance. That implies to me that there was no mortgage.

They were probably self insured. If both sides have no mortgage all you have to do is a title search, so yeah closing is easier. Put the funds into escrow, and once the search comes back good the lawyers just do their thing, and you own it.

Is it easier to close if you have no mortgage but the buyer must get one? This may be the case of that sale (although I doubt it), but I'm asking for my own nefarious reasons.

No, its just as hard and expensive. Thats what I'm dealing with now on a used house, it was supposed to close at the end of last month...:rolleyes:


Doesn't really matter if you have a mortgage and are selling...well it does if your going to be short...than you have to come to the closing with a check.

Yeah, I have heard on a couple of sources (local news) that they were "self insured".

I know it was a terrible storm and it must have covered about 50 mile stretch, as I am 20 miles northeast of where this happened. My drive home was an interesting one on Saturday night. The rains were torrential and the lightning was horrible.

They can just market it as a Fix It Upper. A Handyman's Special. :P

Well the latest news is that they are going to fix it back as good as new. AFAIK, reconstruction started that very evening!!!!!!!!!