Buyer Beware: Did Your Realtor Take You to the Cleaners?

Have you recently done business with Keller Williams?  Better do a title search and get a new inspection.  Buyers are discovering that encumbrances are being hidden and so are structural defects in their newly acquired property. 

Keller has the money and power to crush dissent.  So maybe that’s why ABC hasn’t aired the buyers and sellers screaming and bursting into tears.  Keller Williams’ corporate office reports annual revenue of $119 million in 2007.   Keller’s 70,000 agents generated $3 billion in transaction commissions. Its corporate office reported paying  $40 million to its agents   It is considered one of the top three realtors in sales transactions in North America.  That’s a lot of power for a disgruntled buyer to go up against. 

Still, 92 of their recent customers have had the courage to file ripoff reports.  These involve everything from false advertising,  fraud and threats to assault and elder abuse. If you have the time, go down the list for yourselves. 

My research on this company has led me to a situation involving violent elder, spousal and child abuse that is so horrific as to make one wonder if PATRIOT Act violations are involved.  Among the deaths is the loss of a reputable realtor out of Claremont, David R. Hull.  In 2009, David offered to help an abuse victim clean up and fix up a house the abuser had trashed and seriously damaged.   The abuser, whom I’ll refer to as Mark, responded to the offer of clean-up by threatening to kill David. .  This is all documented in the couple’s divorce case.  After that, David and his wife Pat Gousha suddenly and unexpectedly died.

Later Mark brought in Cesi Pagano of Keller Williams to sell the property.  But Mark had a problem.  The equity was owned by Mark’s daughter and Mark would not get a penny in a legitimate sale.  So Cesi filed a false declaration in the couple’s divorce case to help Mark steal the documented child abuse victim’s money.  The declaration was accompanied by a title search document showing unequivocally that the information in the declaration was false.  This is case number 10D003328. The declaration purports that the liens on the property total $245,000.  The title search shows that the liens total $655,000.   Hlere is the delcaration and title search documents supplied by another writer at this site.  The family name has been whited out but I checked and these documents were in fact on file and appear to have been presented for the purpose of allowing the father to steal his abused daughter’s equity in the property. Merely filing such false declaratiosn theoretically consitutes an act of perjury, a felony, and I suggested the harmed parties take the douments to the Orange County Sheriff’s Deparmtment and insist on action.

Consistent with other claims by lvarious buyers who were sold structurally unsound property by Keller Miler, this declaration does not disclose major damage the father created during his angry fits.  Apparently his violence did not just result in serious injuries to his family.  n the declaration, Cesi listed the value as being about the low market value of $400,000  As her client Mark did all the damage, she should know that it is below market.

I contacted the wife and she said that Keller Williams never contacted her about selling the property.  This leads one to believe that Keller may have a buyer who is not in a position to see the property..   Some poor sap will buy the property without notice of the daughter’s deed of trust.  Then the buyer will go to the property they owe another $410,000 on the house that was disclosed to them and will have to pay it off or be subject ot a foreclosure aciton by the lien holder they didn’t know existed.  The address of the property is 25741 Chrisanta, Mission Viejo and the wife stated that she does not want to be involved in any fraud.  She hopes that nobody is harmed by the actions of a disreputable real estate agent.

Cole had a similar, but not quite as egregious complaint regarding a house he purchased through Keller Williams.  After he purchased the house, he discovered the foundation, itself was in need of repair.  The realtor had promised to repair the problem, which resulted in cracks around the house, walls, window frames, etc.  Nothing was done to repair the situation or to provide any relief and at the time of the complaint he was still waiting.   

Look at this ripoff report regarding the property at 760 CAMINO RAMON #200, Danville, CA 94526 100 PRINGLE AVE STE 100, California

“Realtor, Nathan Ellis, of Keller Williams, license number 01842043, forged a signature in order to close and failed to inform all parties the transaction was closed.

Many offers were withheld by Keller Williams in at least two transactions, and I suspect I wasn’t even allowed to view them all.  A voicemail from Nate indicated he had “a dozen” offers, but when I arrived to view them I was only shown 2, until I specifically asked to see them all, and 3 more were retrieved from their back office, but I was strongly urged and steered into the first one presented.  Claims to have a dozen offers, then only produced 1 clearly steering and forcing the seller to take only the one offer.
“Keller Williams, also withheld accepted offers on multiple occassions from lenders waiting for short sale offers.  Nate’s Facebook page brags about waiting “right at the wire” before submitting offers in short sale transactions. 

“He suggested if we had a friend who could buy, he could sell the house twice and make a lot of money; that people “get away with it all the time” when we merely wanted to sell a home we couldn’t afford and move on with our lives.”
 

Buyers are asking the California Attorney General to ivnestigate real estate fraud and in particular the apparently false representations and fraudulent sales of Keller Williams, Cesi Pagano and Nathan Ellis.

Until Kamala Harris acts, it’s buyer beware and particularly beware of short sales involving Keller Williams.