Post by jeffolie on Sept 9, 2007 12:40:57 GMT -6
The St Petersburg Times from Florida. “Jill Jackson, a single mom and apartment renter with an annual take-home pay of about $24,000, managed to go on an incredible real estate buying binge last year.”
"It's hard to see how the investor got 100 percent financing,"Muniz said. "It's kind of scary."
“In the span of 10 weeks, she bought 10 properties. She did not put a single penny down, borrowing the price for all 10 by signing for mortgage loans totaling $1.84-million. The investment plan seemed too good to be true. And it was.”
“A year later, Jackson’s portfolio has collapsed like a house of cards, with every one of the 10 properties in foreclosure and Jackson’s credit wrecked. The 31-year-old says she was foolish to fall for the get-rich-quick scheme pitched to her by a church acquaintance.”
“‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ Jackson acknowledges. ‘I don’t have any background in real estate.’”
“Beginning with three closings on a single day in February 2006, Jackson says she followed the Investors Outlet instructions, buying 10 properties she never had seen. She paid about $700,000 more for the portfolio than the county property appraiser said the properties were worth, a premium of 61 percent.”
“‘This is a snapshot of what’s happening in every village, town, city and county in America,’ said Ralph R. Roberts, a real estate broker. ‘A lot of unassuming young men and women are being induced to be straw buyers.’”
“As before her foray into real estate investment, Jackson lives in a second-floor apartment in St. Petersburgand owns no real estate. She says she has been hurt by the investment fiasco and the accompanying newspaper publicity but has learned from it.” “‘I didn’t wish for it to turn out this way,’ she says. ‘I know a lot more now.’”
www.sptimes.com/2007/09/09/Hillsborough/Home_buying_spree_sna.shtml
This was a corrupt, out of control housing/finance system that deserves to crash and burn.
"It's hard to see how the investor got 100 percent financing,"Muniz said. "It's kind of scary."
“In the span of 10 weeks, she bought 10 properties. She did not put a single penny down, borrowing the price for all 10 by signing for mortgage loans totaling $1.84-million. The investment plan seemed too good to be true. And it was.”
“A year later, Jackson’s portfolio has collapsed like a house of cards, with every one of the 10 properties in foreclosure and Jackson’s credit wrecked. The 31-year-old says she was foolish to fall for the get-rich-quick scheme pitched to her by a church acquaintance.”
“‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ Jackson acknowledges. ‘I don’t have any background in real estate.’”
“Beginning with three closings on a single day in February 2006, Jackson says she followed the Investors Outlet instructions, buying 10 properties she never had seen. She paid about $700,000 more for the portfolio than the county property appraiser said the properties were worth, a premium of 61 percent.”
“‘This is a snapshot of what’s happening in every village, town, city and county in America,’ said Ralph R. Roberts, a real estate broker. ‘A lot of unassuming young men and women are being induced to be straw buyers.’”
“As before her foray into real estate investment, Jackson lives in a second-floor apartment in St. Petersburgand owns no real estate. She says she has been hurt by the investment fiasco and the accompanying newspaper publicity but has learned from it.” “‘I didn’t wish for it to turn out this way,’ she says. ‘I know a lot more now.’”
www.sptimes.com/2007/09/09/Hillsborough/Home_buying_spree_sna.shtml
This was a corrupt, out of control housing/finance system that deserves to crash and burn.