Perhaps she was told to stay there, so it wouldn’t sit vacant? It’s one thing to leave a $100K house vacant for awhile, but leaving a $12MM house vacant is risky.
Also, it looks like the “owners” owed way less on the mortgage than what it was worth. Perhaps they gave it to Wells Fargo on a temporary basis, in exchange for some cash (valued at $12MM, minus $3MM loan, perhaps WF fronted them $9MM or less so they could pay off the other debts that were mentioned).
Maybe the owners thought they could come up with the money to bail out the house and debts once they after some other deals go through. This would also explain why WF didn’t put the house on the market right away.
It just seems like some information is missing from the story. Those “Colony” neighbors are a hoot! When I was a kid/teen, we’d walk along that stretch and get yelled at for being on “their” beach, when in reality they do NOT own the beach (California law). Those people are the epitome of the “entitled” class. Very arrogant.
