[quote=t36tran]Couldn’t sleep. Quite angry today. I am going to post all the details that I am aware of to try and get the word out about these guys. Address of the listing is 4107 Tim St, Bonita Ca. Listing agent is Don Pelletier of Keller Williams. Short sale negotiator is Jim Sullivan of Blue Anchor Advisors. When you search for Blue Anchor, it directs you to Nationwide Short Sale Solutions based in Florida. Their website does not list an address or DRE license number. Searching for a DRE license number in Ca. for Jim, Blue Anchor, or Nationwide came up empty. Jim is not authorized to perform any kind of real estate transaction in Ca. Even though Don Pelletier is suppose to be my agent, in six months of “representation”, I have spoken to him on the phone twice and had some email interaction. Never met in person. I’ve also had some dealings with his subordinate, David Weintraub, also only through email and phone. I believe they did this intentionally so they could claim plausible deniability if needed. Now for the scheme. There is one outstanding mortgage at 637K on the house. Taxes have not been paid in 2012 and 2013 totaling a little over 3K. In conversations with Jim, he had mentioned that they had an “investor” that had been in negotiations with the bank. The “investor” had decided to drop out, but their negotiated price at $371K was still good. This was strange to me because I thought they had submitted my offer for 456K back in Nov. 2012. Why would the bank accept an offer for 371K over one for 456K? Turns out my offer was most likely never submitted. Of course when I heard that I could get the house for 371K, I became somewhat blinded and decide to mostly ignore the little voice saying this sounds a little too good. Of course the caveat was the payment of 45K to Blue Anchor to help settle the “secondary liens”. When I asked Jim what specific liens were on the property, he became evasive. Now, I’m ignorant of real estate law, but it seemed weird to me that I would be paying 45K to a 3rd party with no ownership interest and trusting them to pay off all the secondary liens. Searching records, only the 3K in property back taxes has come up as a secondary lien. Again, I wanted to believe the deal was still legit, so I reasoned as long as things are done through a title/escrow company, I should be covered. But when Don filled out the original sales contract, he also specified the title and escrow companies to use. I do not know how extensive this scheme is, so I’ll leave it at that. Hate that I let the prospect of a good deal somewhat cloud my judgement. The old saying really is true. If it’s too good…
There is one more catch. When I submitted the original offer, Don had me open up escrow and deposit 5K. Hope there are no issues with getting my money back. Thanks to everyone for providing input and assistance. Yes, I do plan on filing a complaint with the DRE.[/quote]
t36tran, you never mentioned to me that the LA was Don Pelletier and I never checked. I just saw that it was an “out of area” broker (Carmel Valley – not “out of area” but far enough away to be “questionable” to me). A red flag because there are many brokers who grew up within a one mile radius of that property. IIRC, Don is a south county local. He never struck me as one to pull a fast one. Had you told me who the LA was, I could have possibly assisted you better.
I tried to assist this poster extensively without document examination as I have an intimate lay of the land, having lived and worked in the immediate area for many years. Based on his preferences, this property would have been outstanding for him if acquired under $450K if he got a full inspection/enginnering rpt and received it vacant at COE (poss problematic). The document examination was to be performed tomorrow morning. I am convinced there are actually TWO outstanding loans on this property.
t36tran, for a variety of reasons, even though the transactions “smells fishy,” I am not yet convinced that you should have withdrawn your offer yet.
Perhaps a Pigg with REALIST can help as I do not have a current subscription.
I’m sorry to hear about your withdrawal, tran.
Seller is a longtime San Diegan or possibly a native (35+ years).
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edit: Okay, back from my early morn HS trek. Drove by subject property which is located 9 houses from one of the most well-known exclusive enclaves of south county (Wheeler Ridge). Six houses to the northwest is a newer street with six newer spec homes with 270 deg pano views, all in excess of 5000 sf.
There is no “For sale” sign in the yard but there is a big sign to the left of the front door (tenant operates day care biz).
The flood control channel (county easement) is shared with two neighbors behind (uphill, on Choc Cliff) as I suspected.
The driveway visible to the street appears to be top-quality and poured within the last few years. There are no cracks visible on the approx 17-20 yds visible from the street. The RV gate is 18-20′ wide and also of very good quality. As I stated before, seller has poured at least 70 yds of concrete in recent years, IMO. I also stated the newer rear garage/workshop would cost ~$65K to build today if you didn’t build it yourself.
I did not find any active businesses registered in CA with the name, “Blue Anchor” or “Blue Anchor Advisors.”
Not sure a “negotiator” between the 1st and 2nd TD HAS to be licensed to do biz in CA. (Any SS agents know?) The most current first and second TD were taken out on this property in tandem in January 2007 with the notorious (likely subprime) Countrywide/MERS. B of A undoubtedly acquired them in 2008 but filed an assignment of one of the loans (the 1st TD?) to BNY Mellon in January 2013 (sold off at discount and/or likely in anticipation of new lender filing an NOD, IMO).
I find it odd that buyer here was recently asked to deposit $45K “out of escrow” in order to make this deal go through IF the deposit was to be truly “out of escrow.” AFAIK, the 2nd TD is still outstanding. No NODs have been filed on the property, but of course, that doesn’t mean seller isn’t behind in payments on the 1st TD note and/or the 2nd TD as well.
