Is local ‘Extreme Makeover’ house for sale?

After the television crews left town and the attention died down, Victor Marrero and his five sons were left with more than a dream home.

Their five-bedroom house, built by an army of volunteers from the hit TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, also came with some hefty bills.

Living on a small pension and staggering under the weight of old debts and new taxes, Marrero said he panicked this week when he briefly listed the home for sale.

"I gave up. I gave up out of desperation. I didn't want to lose the house to the taxes," Marrero said. "I felt like there was a lion coming after me."

He reversed course today, in part because Urban Promise Ministries, which donated the land for the house, has right of first refusal on any sale.

"I didn't know it would turn into a circus," Marrero said. "I think I put it up too quick. It's off the market right now. I'm going to see what we can do to keep it."

The TV show handed over the keys to the home, built in less than a week, on Aug. 5, and the episode featuring the Marreros aired in November.

J.S. Hovnanian & Sons, the home's builder, gave the family $59,000 to cover expenses. But Marrero said he quickly burned through the money, paying off debts that stretched all the way back to a 1994 heart surgery.

After he became a local celebrity, Marrero said, the collection agencies came calling, threatening to put liens on the home.

Then there were the taxes.

Marrero, who lives on a pension of $939 a month, paid $2,016 in property taxes in November. In February, he wrote out a check for $1,512. On May 1, another $1,512 was due.

And the utilities, he said, cost about $10,000 a year.

"It's too much," said Marrero's son, Billy Joe. "We tried taking out lightbulbs and doing other things to save energy, but the house still eats a lot of power."

The Marreros were not the first to win a new home on television, only to find they couldn't afford the place.

A Texas family who won a home in a Home and Garden Television sweepstakes were hit with a massive tax bill in 2005. In Kansas City, a family featured on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had to raise money to keep their home.

A producer from Extreme Makeover said he would not comment on the Marreros' plight.

Victor Marrero and son Billy Joe became unlikely celebrities in early 2007 when the ABC-TV news magazine 20/20 featured them in a program about grinding poverty in Camden.

At the time, the family was living in a roach-infested rowhouse in Camden.

Diane Sawyer, the program's host, spent a night there. Millions of viewers watched as Victor Marrero mixed coffee creamers with water so his hungry grandchild could drink "milk" from a bottle.

Many who saw the show wanted to help.

Hundreds wrote to Extreme Makeover and nominated the Marreros for a free home that would be built with volunteer labor and donated materials.

The home, just over the Camden line in Pennsauken, is as beautiful now as the day the Marrero family moved in, with hardwood floors, custom cherry cabinetry, and top-of-the-line appliances.

"I don't want to go back to the place I lived in before," Marrero said. "But I'm overwhelmed."

Marrero said he has soured on the Extreme Makeover experience.

"When I got into trouble, they wouldn't take my calls," Marrero said. "They didn't care. They made their 100 million and moved on."

He had the home listed for sale on Monday, with an asking price of $499,900.

Leslie Taylor, with Zip Realty, the listing agency, said selling the home would have been "challenging."

"There are no comparable houses in Pennsauken or Camden," she said. "The closest are in Philadelphia."

Marrero thought the house might make a good location for a law firm.

Officials from Urban Promise, a faith-based educational campus for children in East Camden, said they would meet with the Marreros and discuss how they can remain in the home.

"I appreciate everything - this house and everyone who helped me," Marrero said. "But it's too much house."