The Other Duggars: The Lost Girls and Amy

[Zella]

Random thought: Amy's house is actually pretty close to the U of A. Like, 5 minutes from there to the parking lot I used to park at. I had a friend whose parents bought him a cheap house in Fayetteville while he was in grad school. He then rented it out to a few other people while he also lived there. Then his parents sold the house at a profit when he graduated.

If it was cheap enough, I could see Amy's house having the same kind of potential since it already has the mother-in-law suite for separate living quarters. 

[GeeGolly]

3 minutes ago, Zella said:

Random thought: Amy's house is actually pretty close to the U of A. Like, 5 minutes from there to the parking lot I used to park at. I had a friend whose parents bought him a cheap house in Fayetteville while he was in grad school. He then rented it out to a few other people while he also lived there. Then his parents sold the house at a profit when he graduated.

If it was cheap enough, I could see Amy's house having the same kind of potential since it already has the mother-in-law suite for separate living quarters. 

Even better if its someone from out of state, looking to get in-state tuition. 

1 minute ago, GeeGolly said:

Even better if its someone from out of state, looking to get in-state tuition. 

Amy should hire us. 

[Zella]

4 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

Even better if its someone from out of state, looking to get in-state tuition. 

Amy should hire us. 

She really should! 

Also it wasn't until I read your comment that I realized my friend was probably also totally angling for an in-state tuition benefit from that arrangement. LOL

[SnapHappy]

In Arkansas, you have to prove 6 months of consecutive residency before you can get in-state school tuition rates.  Most states are a year, and require even more proof you aren't just trying to get around the requirements.

But her house might be good for teachers or other academics without families.  

[Cinnabon]

3 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

She does look like Jana. Like a cross between Jana and Joy. Very pretty.

And Josh . . . 

[GeeGolly]

43 minutes ago, SnapHappy said:

In Arkansas, you have to prove 6 months of consecutive residency before you can get in-state school tuition rates.  Most states are a year, and require even more proof you aren't just trying to get around the requirements.

But her house might be good for teachers or other academics without families.  

Even with that requirement, if you're going to a four year school, you can get 3 years of in-state tuition. Or 4 if you plan far enough ahead.

[crazy8s]

3 hours ago, SMama said:

Does Deanna own any property or LLCs?

Deanna has 1 llc that i know of and she does own quite a few properties. She also has the same creepy accountant listed on her llc that JB and most of the minions have listed on their llcs

[Rootbeer]

4 hours ago, Zella said:

You know, I'd assumed Amy having such an unreasonably high asking price on the house was just typical Duggar arrogance, but I think y'all are probably right about their financial situation and that definitely could be a factor in the asking price.

But I just don't ever see that house selling for anywhere near what she is asking, so at some point, she's either going to have to eat the cost and sell it for what it is worth or just take it off the market entirely.

It assessed at about $175,000 last year. (Which is a pretty good leap from the $133,050 it assessed at the previous year.) But unless she's literally tiled the entire house in gold, there's no way they've done enough renovations to justify more than double that assessment price. 

I'm having a hard time anyone has even seriously considered the house since there are so much nicer ones in nicer neighborhoods that cost less. 

If they're asking for twice the house's assessed worth, it is likely that they are angling for a cash-only sale.  I highly doubt that any mortgage lender is going to appraise the house at double the tax assessment which means anyone looking to buy it isn't going to be able to get a traditional mortgage loan.  

They would've had to have done an incredible renovation, like adding an entire new wing with a couple of bedrooms and full baths, maybe a family room, too; to have the value of the house more than double in just one year.

[crazy8s]

1 minute ago, Rootbeer said:

If they're asking for twice the house's assessed worth, it is likely that they are angling for a cash-only sale.  I highly doubt that any mortgage lender is going to appraise the house at double the tax assessment which means anyone looking to buy it isn't going to be able to get a traditional mortgage loan.  

They would've had to have done an incredible renovation, like adding an entire new wing with a couple of bedrooms and full baths, maybe a family room, too; to have the value of the house more than double in just one year.

and not have duggars properties on both sides would help too

[Jynnan tonnix]

On 10/13/2021 at 2:23 PM, Cinnabon said:

And Josh . . . 

It's not as though there is anything drastically wrong with Josh's features, per se...It's the smug and smarmy, self-indulgent expression pasted all over them that makes his face revolting.

[OpieTaylor]

Amy now has bangs. She looks better I think. She’s reopened her shop in its new location this weekend.

[jcbrown]

3 hours ago, OpieTaylor said:

Amy now has bangs. She looks better I think. She’s reopened her shop in its new location this weekend.

Is she pregnant again? As someone who also carries weight in her face, I offer no judgment, but Amy looks very different.

[emmawoodhouse]

1 minute ago, jcbrown said:

Is she pregnant again? As someone who also carries weight in her face, I offer no judgment, but Amy looks very different.

She seems to be just gaining, period. 

[OpieTaylor]

11 minutes ago, jcbrown said:

Is she pregnant again? As someone who also carries weight in her face, I offer no judgment, but Amy looks very different.

Maybe, but she’s been looking quite a bit heavier for awhile now - many months 

[xwordfanatik]

15 hours ago, OpieTaylor said:

Amy now has bangs. She looks better I think. She’s reopened her shop in its new location this weekend.

Those bangs hanging in my eyes would drive me bonkers.

[FizzyPuff]

21 hours ago, OpieTaylor said:

Amy now has bangs. She looks better I think. She’s reopened her shop in its new location this weekend.

She looks just like her mother.

[jcbrown]

4 hours ago, FizzyPuff said:

She looks just like her mother.

Looking at this photo again, between the puffed up lips and cheeks and the long bangs, she kinda looks like a sex doll.

I'll be in the prayer closet if anyone needs me...

[Nysha]

On 10/17/2021 at 7:40 PM, jcbrown said:

I'll be in the prayer closet if anyone needs me...

I'll be right with you, bringing snacks b/c I was thinking if her mouth was open just a little bit...

But I wasn't brave enough to post that.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Nysha

[BigBingerBro]

[louannems]

1 hour ago, BigBingerBro said:

Did she get lip injections?

[awaken]

Looks like she has cheek implants!

[Scarlett45]

9 hours ago, awaken said:

Looks like she has cheek implants!

It’s likely filler with small weight gain. I will never for the life of me understand this trend of young women over doing it on the filler. You often eat a cookie and look a swollen mess because of your need to misuse filler. 
 

Of course any woman can do what they want with their own face, but IMO filler looks best on very slim post menopausal women to give them a tiny bit of fullness back. Amy didn’t need any facial enhancements. 

[Ijustwantsomechips]

I wonder if that picture is heavily filtered, if she’s gained weight, is pregnant, or if it’s really fillers. She always had what I lovingly refer to as the “cookie face”, round and youthful, and was a nice looking girl.  To each his own to do what makes one happy, but she didn’t need any enhancements to me.  

Edited October 21, 2021 by Ijustwantsomechips

[Jeanne222]

Lots of makeup and darkened hair plus a bit of filtering!  Maybe lip injections too!

[Scarlett45]

11 hours ago, Jeanne222 said:

Lots of makeup and darkened hair plus a bit of filtering!  Maybe lip injections too!

I think the dark hair flatters her- brings out her eyes and looks sophisticated. 

[floridamom]

Amy needs to take up those bangs a bit. The hair in my eyes would drive me crazy. How can she see?

[Jynnan tonnix]

7 hours ago, floridamom said:

Amy needs to take up those bangs a bit. The hair in my eyes would drive me crazy. How can she see?

I guess she figures that if she's cute enough, seeing is overrated. 

[BigBingerBro]

[BitterApple]

What the heck?! How did we not hear about this before?! I can't believe no one dug up that Grandpa did time. And I'm totally not shocked that it was for fraud. As much as I can't stand Boob, maybe his criticisms of his father weren't totally unwarranted after all. Amy pretty much confirmed he wasn't a good guy.

[JoanArc]

FWIW a reddit poster pulled up an old newspaper article from the 80s, about Jimmy's car lot fraud. Also JB's grandfather was in the paper over fraud regarding accounting machine rentals. The corruption goes deep.

[AgathaC]

I work in fraud prevention and consumer protection (civil, not criminal) and fraudulent business practices can definitely run in families. We frequently see multigenerational “bad actors.” Not a bit surprised to hear this seems to be the case in the Duggar family. It’s a joke in my office that if the business name includes the word “son” or “sons” you should watch out.

[JoanArc]

Look both ways, balding boys!

[BitterApple]

3 minutes ago, JoanArc said:

Look both ways, balding boys!

"Never seen so many hairlines in retreat." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Temperance]

On 10/22/2021 at 1:50 PM, BitterApple said:

What the heck?! How did we not hear about this before?! I can't believe no one dug up that Grandpa did time. And I'm totally not shocked that it was for fraud. As much as I can't stand Boob, maybe his criticisms of his father weren't totally unwarranted after all. Amy pretty much confirmed he wasn't a good guy.

If he was in prison for fraud, it's nothing like what Josh did. 

Also JB seems like a shyster, so to me it's like father, like son, like grandsons. How many used carlots have these people? Wasn't there a story about Josiah selling someone a car and not returning their calls when they had problems with it? And all that unlicensed construction work? The point of licensing is to protect buyers that the work is done right.  They seem to cut corners. And that's not mentioning Mediccorps which seems down right fraudulent. 

If JB wanted to make a point about his dad, he should get his sons training to have legitimate work.  

[Zella]

4 hours ago, Temperance said:

Wasn't there a story about Josiah selling someone a car and not returning their calls when they had problems with it?

I have no clue what which devious Duggar is the one in question, but I have a friend whose sister bought a car from one of their lots, and he said that whichever Duggar sold her the car wouldn't return her calls. LOL But he had no clue which one sold her the car. 

I agree with you that they're a whole pack of fraudsters, and I think it's a bit rich of Jim Bob to act martyred because of his father's criminal record. If anything, JB strikes me as the type to be more mad about it becoming public than the fact it happened. 

[emmawoodhouse]

13 minutes ago, Zella said:

I have no clue what which devious Duggar is the one in question, but I have a friend whose sister bought a car from one of their lots, and he said that whichever Duggar sold her the car wouldn't return her calls. LOL But he had no clue which one sold her the car. 

I agree with you that they're a whole pack of fraudsters, and I think it's a bit rich of Jim Bob to act martyred because of his father's criminal record. If anything, JB strikes me as the type to be more mad about it becoming public than the fact it happened. 

For years, Boob said in his stump speech that JL was a shitty father and a lousy provider. Now I want to know if anyone outside the immediate family knew the details? 

Edited October 27, 2021 by emmawoodhouse

[Zella]

3 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

For years, Boob said in his stump speech that JL was a shitty father and a lousy provider. Now I want to know if anyone outside the immediate family knew the details? 

And he may very well be right about his own dad, but it's hilariously hypocritical to me for him to act as if he wasn't a shitty father and lousy provider himself. He let other people subsidize his large family and sank hundreds of thousands of dollars into a failed political campaign for himself rather than trying to make sure his family had a large-enough house. That's like textbook definition of bad dad/provider. 

[emmawoodhouse]

I still want to know how he got $250,000 to waste on a political campaign in the first place. They lived in a hovel and accepted donations of food and clothing. All the while squirreling away six figures?

[Jeeves]

34 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

I still want to know how he got $250,000 to waste on a political campaign in the first place. They lived in a hovel and accepted donations of food and clothing. All the while squirreling away six figures?

I think JB stepped into his family's businesses - real estate and used cars - at a young age. For all his dissing his dad, JB had been educated at a private school (tuition paid by his parents) and had family businesses to work in when he graduated from high school. Not exactly the start in life of a penniless guy with a ne'er-do-well father, eh? JB must have learned something from his parents about real estate and/or used car dealing since he went into those businesses himself, and I'd be surprised if he didn't have some family money behind him when he started out. Maybe a modest amount but it would still be a help. I don't know if he actually worked for his dad's biz as a young man or started his own from the get-go, but IMO he didn't fall far from the family tree. I think his mother may have stayed somewhat involved in JB's real estate dealings even late in life; I recall reading that during the early years of the show Mary and Josh would "work the phones" to get stuff comped to the family. 

By the time JB decided on that stupid primary race, it wouldn't surprise me if he had property holdings that he could liquidate to raise the $250K for his campaign. Of course, that was instead of spending $250K to put his growing family in a decent house. And I think that back then, in their area, they could have bought or built a nice large house for that amount.

I wonder if JB redirected money he'd expected to spend on a bigger house for his family, into that stupid loser of a political race, and if that's true I wonder what Meech thought of that decision. Because it left them all literally crammed into that little house owned by a church. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Jeeves

[emmawoodhouse]

That's not the story Boob tells of himself as a young adult. He speaks of working multiple jobs to make ends meet (remember stocking shelves at the grocery store and the pantry at the TTH). They lived in a tiny house on his car lot, and if memory serves it was there that Meech had her infamous laundry room breakdown. 

All this to sat that he wants everyone to believe he came from nothing, pulled himself up by the bootstraps, etc. I do question their real estate business. If it was doing so well, why was Mary managing a yogurt shop? She had a RE license. 

So many holes in their story...

[Zella]

7 minutes ago, Jeeves said:

And I think that back then, in their area, they could have bought or built a nice large house for that amount.

And you still can for that price! Maybe not exactly one for 21 people but still that can get you a very nice place. 

You make a great point, too, about the family's money and businesses. It wouldn't surprise me if Jim Bob's dad wasn't a pleasant guy, but I'm not sure JB's characterization of him quite matches the facts. Of course, he may have been a wastrel bum and Mary did all the heavy lifting, but even then, he must have had the sense to get out of the way and let her do her thing for them to acquire and keep those businesses going.

1 minute ago, emmawoodhouse said:

That's not the story Boob tells of himself as a young adult. He speaks of working multiple jobs to make ends meet (remember stocking shelves at the grocery store and the pantry at the TTH). They lived in a tiny house on his car lot, and if memory serves it was there that Meech had her infamous laundry room breakdown. 

My guess would be that once Jim Bob married, he was expected to pull his own weight, but I don't think that's an unkind or inhuman ask from his parents. If he thinks he's responsible enough for a wife and kids, he should be able to support them. 

[emmawoodhouse]

I still question where all that money came from in a relatively short amount of time. Or were they actually better off than he likes to portray it? The only way he could have made that kind of money would have been in real estate, as @Jeeves noted. But Boob downplayed his involvement in RE until after they moved into the TTH. Something is fishy, is all I'm saying.

[Jeeves]

32 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

I still question where all that money came from in a relatively short amount of time. Or were they actually better off than he likes to portray it? The only way he could have made that kind of money would have been in real estate, as @Jeeves noted. But Boob downplayed his involvement in RE until after they moved into the TTH. Something is fishy, is all I'm saying.

Sure. I don't know, or TBH care (LOL), much about JB's career. IMO JB is by definition fishy, so there's that.

ETA: I think that although he's no business whiz, what's probably fishy is JB's version of his career. I doubt he started out in life as an impoverished young man with only his own shoestrings and a dollar to his name, and his way to make in the world. So he stocked grocery shelves for a paycheck. Big deal. That doesn't mean he wasn't also dealing in cars and real estate. We know that at some point he was canny or lucky enough to land one or more income-producing cell tower leases on land he owned. If he'd started buying properties here and there in a modest way at age 20, by the time he ran in that stupid primary at age 37 he could well have accumulated enough equity to raise $250K. For all we know his mother helped him out with that too. 

JB presented himself on the TV show as frugal. If that was true, then I'm sure he kept a miserly grip on the money he spent on the family and household expenses, to have more available for his business dealings. Maybe he was darn near broke when TLC discovered them after he lost the campaign - now, that I would believe. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Jeeves

[GeeGolly]

I think like @Jeeves posted, the situation with money was a little bit of everything. I think JB's father likely had good, but inconsistent, income. It also sounds like he drank and made some shady deals as well. I picture a guy hanging with his cronies, taking financial risks and spending more money than he probably should have. I can see Mary getting a job to have access to some steady income and feel more independent, before she became more involved in real estate.

I'm one that never believed that JB & M were poor. I think they were likely lower middle class, then kept adding more mouths to feed. I also think JB was very frugal. I wouldn't be surprised if the $250,000 campaign money wasn't truly only from JB's pocket. I think JB is shady as fuck, but I also think he goes right up to the line of illegal and plays in the gray areas. 

Pictures are worth thousands of words, and the pictures of the Duggar 19's early years (prior to and during TLC) did not show a poor family. Other than being crammed in tiny houses (which I think was by choice - JB's choice), they wanted for nothing. I believe in the early-ish years they were spending a couple thousand, in cash, on groceries per month. The kids had clothes, beds, toys - including swing sets and bicycles. Maybe everything they owned was used, but again I think that was by JB's choice. Now, if TLC didn't come along, I think they would have had to struggled some, as the kids got older and they added more, but TLC did come along.

Long story longer - I don't think JB grew up poor and I don't think the Duggar 19 grew up poor.

Edited October 27, 2021 by GeeGolly

[Churchhoney]

Being suspected of and/or charged with and/or jailed for fraud usually goes hand and hand with having bunches of money squirreled away in various places, as far as I can tell. 

Very unlikely that somebody caught committing fraud, just did it once. It's a lifestyle and their lifelong livelihood in most cases, I think.

And they get caught because odds are that if you do dozens of fraudulent things,, something will go wrong once or twice. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Churchhoney

[Churchhoney]

9 hours ago, emmawoodhouse said:

I still question where all that money came from in a relatively short amount of time. Or were they actually better off than he likes to portray it? The only way he could have made that kind of money would have been in real estate, as @Jeeves noted. But Boob downplayed his involvement in RE until after they moved into the TTH. Something is fishy, is all I'm saying.

By a couple of accounts I've seen, real-estate dealings in that family go back at least to Boob's grandfather and possibly to his great-grandfather. ... I know a case where that's true -- and where simultaneously the whole family has pretended that they aren't in the real-estate business....They act like their other hustles are their main businesses but that's almost certainly not true.

They're real-estate bottom feeders and sometime fraudsters who do a lot of slimy, suspect, half-crooked but not necessarily fully crooked deals....and my guess is they don't want to be known as being in the business because then business might come to them-- and expect them to behave according to some kind of standards. They prefer to sniff out their own deals so they can find the stuff where they can tell some kind of cheat is easily available so there's shady money to be had.

Two of my family members inadvertently bought into a project by one member of that family, and lawsuits resulted where some of the dirty history -- though apparently far from all of it -- came out. That was about 25 years ago now, and the mother and son who pulled the scam on my relatives (really more of a scam on the previous owners of the property and on the county than the new buyers...) did get convicted on a charge or two, served a couple months in jail and  went right back to having a real-estate hustle. And that whole family lives pretty large.  

Sounds Duggarlike to me. I think of that lawsuit a while ago against Josh and the property with no contract, or whatever it was......And why do sons like Joe have real-estate licenses but apparently sell almost no real estate? .... As has often been said here, a lot of things about them suggest shenanigans, some of them real-estate related. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Churchhoney

[lascuba]

Not to discount the possibility of fraud--we all know JB is, at best, shady as hell about his finances--but on the $250K campaign, I lean towards it being his legitimate money, and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have to liquidate any assets to get it. I don't think that JB and Michelle were ever truly strapped for cash--they instead chose to live well below their means for years and saved a lot of cash in addition to buying real estate. JB is a zealot in all things, and early in his marriage he want to that financial freedom for fundies seminar and went all in with what he learned there. He was going to save and penny pinch as much as possible no matter what. Then when the kids started piling up, instead spending a higher percentage of his money on raising his kids, he noticed he could milk his wife's fecundity for "love offerings" and free laundry and discounted groceries and cheap rent. Having 14 kids in a tiny house was also part of the family's "charm" that drew TLC to them.

[CandyCaneTree]

Now admit that you really want to own Amy's house and have the wonderful Duggars as your neighbors. 

[lascuba]

15 minutes ago, CandyCaneTree said:

Now admit that you really want to own Amy's house and have the wonderful Duggars as your neighbors. 

A group of dedicated fans should buy it and use it as a sort of leghumper timeshare.

[CandyCaneTree]

1 hour ago, lascuba said:

A group of dedicated fans should buy it and use it as a sort of leghumper timeshare.

Ok where do I send my 2 cents.