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Vanilla ICE Foreclosure

January 23, 2012 by · Comments Off on Vanilla ICE Foreclosure 

Vanilla ICE Foreclosure, An unlikely home improvement show hosted by 1990s rapper Vanilla Ice is set to premiere its second season with the remodelling of another South Florida home.

During the 13-episode run of The Vanilla Ice Project on the DIY Network, the artist – whose real name is Rob Van Winkle – and his crew will take a dilapidated Palm Beach County mansion and bring it into the 21st century with technology that isn’t on the market yet.

Van Winkle’s passion for real estate and renovation took hold in the early 1990s, after his hit Ice Ice Baby made him an international star with millions in the bank. He first bought a home on Miami Beach’s exclusive Star Island. He later bought homes in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles, New York’s Greenwich Village and Snowbird, Utah, a skiing and snowboarding destination.

“I went on tour for three years and never saw any of those houses,” Van Winkle said.

Fearing they may have been a waste of money, he decided to sell them – and a new career was born.

“I literally made millions of dollars on them,” Van Winkle said. “I was like, you gotta be kidding me. It can’t be that easy. Let’s go buy some more.”

After Van Winkle’s early 1990s stardom faded, he became more heavily involved in real estate. While he acknowledges that the housing market is different than it was 15 years ago, Van Winkle said he’s been able to make money over the years by educating himself, studying markets and taking advantage of short sales and foreclosures.

The longtime Miami resident estimates that he’s bought and sold more than a hundred homes, mainly in Florida.

The Vanilla Ice Project came together after a producer remembered Van Winkle talking about his real estate experience during an interview for another show.

Matt Levine, with Departure Films, said he had done a special on Vanilla Ice for the Biography Channel several years ago. So when the production company was looking to duplicate the success of Flip This House, a hit on the A&E Network, Levine said he remembered Van Winkle talking about his real estate experience.

When Levine called, he learned that Van Winkle was in the process of buying a large, completely gutted foreclosure in Palm Beach.

“I flew down with a camera, and we shot a little demo of him (Van Winkle) showing off the place and talking about his experience in real estate and what he wanted to do with this house,” Levine said. “It was really very impressive, and it became this little teaser reel. And DIY was immediately interested in it.”

That house became the project for the first season, which aired in the autumn season in 2010. The show became an instant hit for the DIY Network, and the home sold a short time later.

Both houses featured on the show were purchased by Van Winkle.

“This is all my own money,” Van Winkle said. “It’s basically just them following me around, doing what I do.”

Peta OJ Simpson House

January 23, 2012 by · Comments Off on Peta OJ Simpson House 

Peta OJ Simpson HousePeta OJ Simpson House, O. J. Simpson is currently serving a 33-year prison sentence in Nevada, but it looks as though the former Heisman trophy winner is getting hit with more bad news.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is asking JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon if the bank would donate Simpson’s five-bedroom house in Kendall, Fl.  for a nominal sum. The house is being foreclosed on by the bank.

PETA spokespeople announced they would like to turn the Simpson home into a “Meat is Murder” museum. Simpson was infamously accused of murdering wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

According to PETA, the museum would supposedly teach visitors that “nonviolence begins on our plates.”

CNN Money reports that PETA chose Simpson’s home because he was outspoken about his consumption of meat. PETA also targeted Simpson because he was a spokesman for a chicken restaurant chain, owned two restaurants and held a stake in Honey Baked Ham stores.

Simpson is currently serving the 33-year-sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping after he and several armed accomplices attempted to retrieve memorabilia that Simpson claimed belonged to him.

PETA is not new to grabbing headlines. They claimed that meat eaters were “Jeffrey Dahmers” and that “to animals, all people are Nazis.”

Vanilla ICE Foreclosure

January 17, 2012 by · Comments Off on Vanilla ICE Foreclosure 

Vanilla ICE ForeclosureVanilla ICE Foreclosure, Vanilla Ice’s Florida mansion was in jeopardy of foreclosure … but only for a second. Ice lives in a gated community in Palm Beach. Seems Hurricane Wilma destroyed some palm trees back in 2005, and the homeowners association levied a special assessment of around $2,800 per homeowner to cover the cost of replacement.

Ice never paid, and the figure swelled to $4,100, so the homeowners association filed foreclosure documents in order to squeeze the money from the “rapper.”

Ice’s lawyers, Bradford Cohen and Joseph LoRusso, tell TMZ … “The issue stemmed from Mr. VanWinkle (aka Mr. Ice) being unaware of any outstanding charges. As soon as he was made aware of the situation it was completely resolved.”

The hired guns took a shot at the homeowners association, saying, “It is surprising that the association chose to waste funds on filing an action against our client.”

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