The Way Things Were
In the late 90s, loans were easy to get, easy to lose, and disreputable Realtors and investors came out of the woodwork like cockroaches to buy them from unsuspecting homeowners.
If your mortgage was over ninety days past due, it became a matter of public record. The more equity you had, the more susceptible you were to the insidious racketeers who were adept at making a quick buck and callously leaving destruction in their wake.
I had known John casually for years. An at-risk adult who lived on his own in a house his grandmother deeded to him when she passed. He was a simple man who walked or rode his bike to the same job every day for decades. He was also an alcoholic.
His disgusting son moved in with him and took advantage for months. When he left, he stole John's identity and all of his life savings.
His banker had known John's family for decades and gave John a small $15,000 loan secured against his home that was worth about $225,000 at the time. Having never had a mortgage previously, John was oblivious about paying it back. He ignored the notices that piled up.
Then he ignored the phone calls and the knocks on the door and the letters. The scavengers smelled blood in the water when they saw on the Election and Demand list that there was a lot of equity in John's humble abode in a desirable part of town.
The Set Up
One shark was smarter than the others. He sat on John's porch and waited for him to come home. Mr. Charlatan pulled on a cloak of graciousness and offered to help John out of his troubles. "Your house needs some work, John, but I'll tell you what. I'll come back tomorrow with $100,000 cash and buy your house. And I see you're walking everywhere, I'll even throw in a car."
Thinking his troubles were behind him, John expectantly opened the door to Mr. Charlatan the following morning. Of course Mr. C wanted to see the house first. "Oh, John, you didn't tell me the house was in such bad shape. It needs a new roof, plumbing, electrical, drywall, carpeting. To say nothing of getting the thousands of beer bottles out of here. I'll still buy the house from you - for $1,000 and the bike I brought that's outside."
Thrown for a loop, John didn't know what to do. Mr. Charlatan opened the front door and there stood Mrs. Charlatan who just happened to be a Notary Public. She had a completed Quit Claim Deed that only needed his signature. They told him, however, that if he didn't sign it right now, the bank representatives were going to be there at noon. They would put him out on the street and he would have nothing. (John actually still had months before that would have happened.)
Being the magnanimous souls they were, they gave John thirty days rent free to find another place to live. Scared, he signed the document and it was "officially" notarized.
A few weeks later, a fix-and-flip client called to let me know about a property he was getting from a private investor. The more he told me, the more suspicious it sounded. Finding out it was John's house, and with my client's full permission, I called everyone in the phonebook with John's last name until I found a brother. No one in the large family had any idea John was in trouble.
The Victory
Furious when I heard the story, and knowing all the players involved, I had had enough. I put on my Crusader helmet and went after Mr. Charlatan and his partners in crime.
I pulled in favors from two friends who were lawyers. Both agreed to represent John pro bono. In a stroke of brilliance, one had John declared incompetent and his brother appointed legal guardian.
In an almost unheard of stroke of good luck, the other had the Quit Claim Deed overturned. John's family had to pay Mr. Charlatan the monies he had given John and the cost of bringing the mortgage current. Mr. C got a slap on the wrist, but was not prosecuted because the Court deemed there was no coercion and John had signed the QCD voluntarily!!!
I sat silently, angrily hearing the verdict. But John had his house back and that was a victory, indeed. It was my first foray into real estate Crusadership and it was glorious. There were several other victories, but that part of my career was short-lived. This story is the reason I got out of the Crusader-business.
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