Last night, Jennifer Kraus with my local news, NewsChannel5 did a story on a company called dont4close.com. As a part of the NC5 Investigates report Mrs. Kraus chronicled a very depressing story about a family who is loosing their home due to mortgage arrearages and were taken advantage of by a less than scrupulous man who guaranteed he could save their home from foreclosure.
As a Certified Home Retention Consultant with Titanium, when I saw the story come up, I was entranced and attempted to understand every detail.
Ultimately, the family was facing foreclosure and contacted dont4close.com to help them save their home. Allegedly Charles Jones behind dont4close.com offered the homeowners, the Reynolds, a deal they couldn't refuse. He offered to pay their mortgage for 1 year and after that time, the Reynolds could start paying him back.
Well, to make a long story short, allegedly Charles Jones sold the Reynolds home to a third party, a woman named Gladiz Romano. After some investigative work by Mrs. Kraus she found Mrs. Romano who admitted she bought the house but has never made a single payment for the home or ever even visited the home.
In closing, NewsChannel5 offered up some "tips" on how to prevent other homeowners from being in this situation. One of the tips they offered was,
"If you face foreclosure, stay away from businesses that guarantee to stop the foreclosure process, require you to sign over your property deed or pressure you to sign papers you don't understand."
Web link for full story....
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=9815589&nav=menu374_2_2
As a HRC, Realtor and concerned citizen, I totally agree with the statement but, what bothered me was, the story left it there.....they didn't go further. They didn't explain that sometimes banks will send out representatives to homeowners residences because homeowners loose communication with their mortgage servicers and they (the servicers) don't have any other choice.
I am sure this oversight was simply due to a lack of knowledge that a legitimate process does exist to preserve homeownership or at the very least avoid foreclosure so, I wrote an opinion editorial to Mrs. Kraus and hopefully will be able to address my concerns with the story but, either way, it's important that those of us who work hard, legitimately, morally, ethically do what we can to create positive news worthy stories and get the message out, we are here to help!
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Jesse: Have it ever occured to why the story was left?? Maybe it was the fact that the Reynolds were lying to Ms. Krauss and thats why the News story did not go any further? or maybe it was simply the fact the story that they told wasn't totally factual. Could it be that "Mrs. Reynolds" lied her way through the interview to get sympathy and hopefully people would feel sorry for her to make her house payment? The News story failed to mention that before Ms. Reynolds contacted Mr. Jones, yes, Ms. Reynolds contacted Mr. Jones, that she hadn't made a house payment for 5 months and her home was going into foreclose the following week?? It also failed to mention that Mr. Jones paid to get her out of the foreclosure. It also failed to mention that the contracts that Ms. Reynolds (at the time Ms. Pompeii) signed clearly stated that a third party would be buying her home. I did investigative work myself on this story but did not feel the need to blog about it. I've met Mr. Jones and he is a moral and ethical man. The "Reynolds" would have been on the street a year and half ago if it wasnt for Mr. Jones. It is a shame that everyone believes what the news says. Anything for a story. And talk about "a less than scrupulous man" have you looked in the mirror lately? And for you to put a blog on the internet about "your expertise" makes you look ridiculous. Get the facts of the WHOLE story before you start blogging your 2 cents worth.