Special offer

Jeff Guthrie, RE Experts & The Real Estate Advocate

By
Managing Real Estate Broker with Howard Hanna Rand Realty License # 49FA1074963

This past March I was contacted by a woman who said she had a referral for me. Would I accept a referral?

Is the Pope Catholic?

This was my introduction to the RE Expert organization, Jeff Guthrie, and the Real Estate Advocate, which is, as I type, is melting down along with the $3500+ fee paid by what sounds like over 1000 brokers and agents looking to grow their business.

 You can read more about it here:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/692072/REexpert-Learn-the-truth

 http://activerain.com/blogsview/331526/REexpert

http://activerain.com/blogsview/595283/The-Real-Estate-Advocate

If you read the comments, they get pretty spicy.

There is also a Ripoff Report posting now:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/361/RipOff0361198.htm

This broker has his own story to tell, and has explored a class action suit:

http://www.reexpert.us/blog/index.php/publicblog

http://www.reexpert.us/blog/index.php/memberblog

Jeff Guthrie, founder and owner of the RE Expert organization, has lots of explaining to do. I was emailed his phone number, and he actually answered. We had a brief conversation, and he told me I would get an email that sheds light on industrial espionage in his organization and what he'll do to make things right.

Here is the email, complete and with all errors in spelling and grammer intact:

Jeff's Urgent Letter    
It has been some time since you all have heard from me, and as many of you have noticed, our business is undergoing another period of change. Some of that change has
resulted in additional frustration and confusion, and I want to take a few minutes of your time to let you know, to the best of my ability, what is happening and how the company
intends to address current challenges.
I have spent the better part of the last 20 years involved in the sale and marketing of residential real estate. This experience has brought me into contact with some of the top producers in the real estate market, and allowed me to witness first-hand the keys to their success even in market downturns. Common attributes that all of these individuals possess is a single-minded dedication to their clients that filters through every team member, and relevant expertise to make the dream of home ownership, the American dream, a reality for so many of their customers. Many of those top producers became the seed investors in the business now known as REexpert, dba the Real Estate Advocate.
My initial concept for this business was to harness the power of the internet to connect real estate buyers with the very best professionals in their market, realtors that we knew were ready to deliver customer-centric expertise and service at the highest levels of the profession. Our revenue model was tilted toward referral fees, so that we would succeed only when our partners succeeded.
A free trial for realtors in several different markets showed great promise, and I was approached by several major players interested in the concept. But I was not
satisfied. At that time, I engaged outside IT vendors, including i2 Communications, to develop what I thought would be a template and back office platform to capture the
market with niche or specialty web-sites that would quickly and organically rise to the top of the search engines in their respective markets. By employing economies of scale,
and conveying a consistent brand message supported by the excellence of our Experts, our cost to deliver those landing pages was expected to be far less than the cost to a
realtor going it alone, with far greater returns.
Within six months of forming the business, we had signed up more than thirty investor or platinum partners and more than 100 strategic alliance partners or Experts.
Against my better judgment, we launched in the summer of 2007. Again, the early results were promising, but depended entirely too much on the use of pay-per-click services to drive traffic, at a cost to the realtors of several thousand dollars per month.
The pages we had paid i2 to develop were too thin to perform well organically. With the real estate market dropping into the worst slump most of us have ever seen, we could not in good conscience go forward with what we thought was a less than efficient service.
Your marketing dollars are too precious.
In the fall of 2007, we began a total revamping of the IT platform in conjunction a new partner, Tony Pugh and his company Smart Zone. Although Tony was a neophyte in
real estate matters, we regarded him as a visionary in articulating the possibilities of social networking as applied to our existing concept and customer base. Tony toiled for
several months, without a contract in place but still being paid, helping us to define and promote the networking concept. Many of you to signed-up for our revised program,
which involved a very competitive set-up fee and no monthly commitments.
Unfortunately, like the IT vendor that came before, Tony was more talk than accomplishment, and by early February, after we had paid him more than $100,000, he
was demanding additional money for a platform that was already late and still unfinished.
When Tony did not get what he wanted, he took what we had developed while working together and has tried, in fits and starts, to use it competitively against us. He is still
looking for money he thinks we owe him, and has resorted to smearing us in the market and fostering dissent among our partners.
During the period we were working with Tony, I turned my attention to another marketing tool, IVM, which most of you have now had an opportunity to see and which will soon be available to all Experts. In February, I returned to REexpert long enough to install what I thought was a team of professional managers, and to reinstate i2 to pick up
where Tony had left off. By June of this year, we determined that i2 was again late and simply did not have the skills needed to complete the full platform, and we began to
develop that function internally.
The issue is not that we have failed to deliver on our contracts with you. Every realtor that has paid the set-up fee has received exactly what we promised and more. But
we have not, until recently, met our own expectations on the usefulness of the web-sites, and we have frustrated many of you who have been counting on the system to generate
quality leads, quickly, in a depressed market. For that I am embarrassed and sorry.
In reading this, it is probably all too clear that I placed far too much confidence in technology experts who were unable to deliver on time what we paid handsomely to create. I have learned that a few weeks away must mean something different to these developers than it does to you and me.
The good news is that we are receiving a growing number of testimonials from Experts who have embraced the system, learned how to work with it, and are generating real activity from qualified buyers. Many of those realtors believe that our company, as imperfect as it has been, has saved their careers in these tough times.
When it comes to operations, I have long realized that my management skills are less than perfect. I am most comfortable in the creative arena. The concept of REexpert
as a consumer advocate resonated with you, because it resonated with me as the best way to meet a difficult market with a truly valuable service. IVM is another example of my
efforts, and its initial positive reception, from you and others in the market, has been gratifying.
I have tried to address my shortcomings by surrounding myself with others that could manage the business to both your benefit and mine as the founder and largest
stakeholder. No fewer than five individuals have sat in the president's seat at my company and remained there until your complaints, or some crisis, have brought me back
into a more active role. When I have returned to the business, I have always found it in worse shape than it was when I departed, with processes still not in place, accounting
issues unresolved, and bills not paid.
The most recent example was an outside consultant named Charles Johnson, who in less than a month drove off most of my best staff, like Tara Dikos. When I refused to
simply give him the business for nothing as he demanded, he failed to process transactions, wrote checks with my signature forged, shut down essential systems such as
phone and internet, and departed with a server that held all of our critical information.
We are pursuing these issues through appropriate channels, but we suspect that Mr. Johnson may be working in concert with others to continue in the effort to steal the business or move it to a new company. Since he has our server and customer data, I would not be surprised if you heard from him or someone acting on his behalf. Mr. Johnson is not our only critic. You may be familiar with a realtor named
Donald Leske or visited a blog that he is running. He may also be soliciting you to join with him in some type of lawsuit against the company. Although we believe that any
claims would be unwarranted, we will leave it up to you to decide what your rights and potential remedies might be.
In making that decision, however, there are some facts you should know about Mr. Leske. Earlier this year, he was a vocal critic of the business. Rather than exchanging accusations with him, we invited him out to our offices to review our operations and check on the site development and plans. When he went home, with nourging from us, he drafted a ringing endorsement, which he allowed us to share with
those of you involved in the business at the time.
Several months after he left, just as many of the developments he witnessed were coming on line, he apparently became disillusioned again and contacted us with what we regarded as a blatant piece of blackmail-pay me $10,000 for a domain name, or I will go negative again. We refused. For the sake of completeness, we have posted the string of Don's e-mails and prior endorsement on our website, and you can make up your own mind.
Please understand that I am not denying responsibility for the company's performance to date. We have experienced delays and direction changes that would cause anyone counting on the company to wonder whether their involvement would ever pay off. I was the one who chose my managers and developers poorly, and it has created an uneven experience for you and financial distress for the business. And I have come to the painful conclusion that these missteps have caused irretrievable damage to the
REexpert brand. They have also deferred for too long the receipt of referral fees, which were the essence of our revenue model. For those Experts actively working the system, they and the company are starting to see returns, but too many others are sitting back and
waiting for the technology alone to deliver results that we are convinced will come over time but not soon enough to make sense for either of us.
Many of my friends and advisors, in looking at the hurdles we still must cross, have counseled that I simply close the business down and walk away. After all, we have
taken no more than a non-refundable set-up fee, have delivered the web-sites and landing pages promised, and have the right to terminate our contracts on thirty days' notice. But this concept has been in my blood for far too long, and we have come too far to end on a sour note. I have decided to take the concept back to its roots, which will require rebranding and converting to a new revenue model for those Experts interested in participating.
Effective immediately, and perhaps through early next week, we are taking the system off-line while we assess the damage of recent activities and introduce the new
contract terms. All of the Experts choosing to continue will be assigned to a new company that will focus all of its energies on serving you and the consumer, and will
charge a monthly fee to ensure that we have the resources to drive the results you deserve.
Some of you may decide not to move over to the new business, and we understand that decision. Rather than insisting on our contract terms, however, we are committed to making that exit as palatable as possible. If and when the new company resells your territory, and in no event more than 24 months down the road, it will pay
REexpert a fee equal to 100% of your initial set-up fee, and RExpert will in turn provide you with a full refund of the only moneys we received from you, with interest. Until you
receive that refund, you will be able to use the IVM magazine with your clients and prospects at no charge. We hope that you will decide to try the new brand and new
terms, but if you don't, know that we plan to be in this business a long time and want to part company as friends.
This is not an effort to run away from our commitments, but to keep them, and to give those Experts who continue with us both better tools and a better brand. For those of you choosing to walk away, although we can't guarantee it and legally don't owe it, our plan is to get you your money back. When the transaction occurs with the new company, it will be transparent, every penny will be accounted for, and all of the assets that could otherwise be available to provide this voluntary refund will stay within reach.
Look for a video e-mail from me by week's end announcing more details on this transition, followed by a call from our customer care staff to explain the options in more
detail. As always, I am grateful for the trust you have placed in our company, and promise you that I will work tirelessly to ensure that we not only survive this market and
our own growing pains, but emerge in a stronger position.
 
 
Tara Dikos
The Real Estate Advocate

 This email was sent from leanne.reexpert@gmail.com, which is suspicious (at this point, what isn't?), because it is a gmail account and it isn't Jeff Guthrie's email, so he might claim later that he isn't the author (of course, Tara Dikos, who is the byline, has left the firm, as the letter says). However, Mr. Guthrie TOLD ME he was sending an email to explain the situation.

The email itself is a rambling, quasi-self congratulatory deluded excuse fest which begs many questions, such as how he could be selling this as a legitimate thing as recently as 2 weeks ago knowing all this was happening.He also appears to have been busy fiddling as Rome burned.

Donald Leske, the broker who explored the class action suit and is mentioned unflatteringly in the letter, has told me that his lawyer doesn't think we have much recourse. He has also explained quite clearly how he has been misreprented by Mr. Guthrie.

So be it. But anyone who googles Jeff Guthrie will know what he has done in these pages, and they will be well advised to stay away from him. I'd hate for my name to be mud. Maybe Jeff Guthrie doesn't mind. If he had integrity, he'd refund everyone's money whom he mislead. Don't hold your breath.

Every agent who has been scammed by this firm should immediately contact their state attorney general as well as the Colorado Better Busines Bureau.

http://denver.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=33&bbb=0885&firm=90093310

Comments (20)

Anonymous
Patty Luther, Broker, Rock-n-Roll Realty

I just found this BLOG on line from this address below...see the BLOG note this former employee wrote...I have just cut & pasted it from the site so it has several spelling errors. dated Sept 25, 2008

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-861-7912

866-861-7912 

Did you get a call from 866-861-7912? Read the posts below to find out details about this number.

Gvorhies - 25 Sep 2008 For those of you who have joined this program, I am truly sorry. Like any program there will be afew success stories, but with this one there are very few. You see, I worked for this company for almost 8 months. Not being from a real estate or sales background I was very much in the dark as to how things worked. I believed what I was being told, and I implemented that on the phone. As time went on and the complaints started rollind in, I questioned the truth of what I was being told to say and to sell. I always got promises and time lines, but never any results. Now I my not have been the sharpest marble in the drawer, but this smelled like a skunk, looked like a skunk, and it all damn sure "STUNK"!!
I started telling every potential customers to stay away from this scam. I quit in late may of 2008. I wrote an email to the Colorado States Attorney General [as I had heard he was investigating this company] and offered to give him or his office and help they needed to put R.E. Advocate out of business. I now hear that 50 of the agents that signed up and have received nothing, are filing a class action lawsuit against Mr. Guthrie and his company. I have thought about the real estate agents that unknowingly scamed and I feel horrible. I thought we could provide what we were stating, and this program could really help in a poor market. I was scamed also, but once again to those agents that were looking for some help and took the bait, I am sorry!! Please try to find out who is leading the class action suit and join them. I will do the same and offer any help I can to see if I can help recover and lost monies.
Sincerly, Gary C. Vorhies
720-891-0347

 

this doesn't sound too good either...

Sep 29, 2008 12:25 PM
#1
Patty Luther
RE/MAX Rock-n-Roll Realty - Lewiston, ID
Lewiston ID Real Estate, Idaho-Washington

J Phillip: it seems my original BLOG was getting too many mean, bad comments...

There's a new comment on the blog entry The Real Estate Advocate

Comment by Bob Stewart - ActiveRain:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are numerous slanderous comments being left here by too many anonymous people. We are removing this post.    Please follow this link to respond: http://activerain.com/blogsview/595283/The-Real-Estate-Advocate

This is BOB below:

Name: Bob Stewart - ActiveRain
Company: ActiveRain

Email: Contact Bob Stewart - ActiveRain
Website URL:

   
   
Description: In charge of ActiveRain community support. I'm the link between ActiveRain and our great members. Are you having an issue? Get a hold of me, hopefully I can work it out for you.
 

Areas of Expertise

Sorting out the differences that are bound to arise when you put over 100,000 Real Estate related professionals in one place.

Oct 08, 2008 04:01 PM
Patty Luther
RE/MAX Rock-n-Roll Realty - Lewiston, ID
Lewiston ID Real Estate, Idaho-Washington

I was quite surprised they completely removed the BLOG it all began with this BLOG I just did on Realtor.Com (see link below) ... and look what it has turned into...I did get a CALL from Leanne yesterday from the Real Estate Advocate,  just before ActiveRain deleted my blog...she asked me to take the BLOG off that had all of the investors names, numbers, eMails, addresses...I told her I would ... Leanne & I visited for awhile... she said she HAD never wrote a BLOG on my BLOG on ActiveRain ... so if you were reading my original Blog and the comments on ActiveRain you could see many anonymous entries that were MEAN and appeared to be from disgruntled employees & Jeff Guthrie himself or atleaset someone who was trying to PORTRAY this ... it was QUITE and Active issue ... so then about ½ hour later I went in ActiveRain to remove what Leanne asked me to remove and IT was gone ... all of it... the WHOLE BLOG ... I am just glad I saved all of the eMails pertaining to the BLOG, in a file in my eMail filing cabinet ... so I still have most of the information... I did not save some of the MEAN  comments... but the ones that had good information about this REexpert Issue...  And as you can see from this Blog I did on Realtor.com  on October 6th... this is my original BLOG  I did do on ActiveRain... It just asked a innocent Question and I had only a few replys on it until  September...and then WOW... there have been NO comments on this Realtor.com BLOG though... not quite as Active place as ActiveRain is...

 Blog on Realtor.Com   http://pattyluther.featuredblog.com/

Patty Luther Business Card

Oct 09, 2008 07:37 AM
Anonymous
Anonymous

I find it difficult to accept Mr. Guthrie's new business plan as sound. Going forward, if everyone was to pay the $2,000 and never have to pay any referral fees ever, how is this company going to sustain itself in the future?  Again, another get rich quick scheme? How can we be assured he will not take the money and run!

Also, I find it odd that we have to send our checks to a UPS store mailbox and not the office!

Oct 16, 2008 04:42 AM
#5
Patty Luther
RE/MAX Rock-n-Roll Realty - Lewiston, ID
Lewiston ID Real Estate, Idaho-Washington

BOY things are crazy on a few other Blogs about this...

Oct 17, 2008 02:26 PM
Bruce Brockmeier
Internet Marketing Consultant to REALTORS® - Yorba Linda, CA
Coached By Crouch

Wow.  What a mess.  Over 1,000 brokers and agents?!  That's a lot of money.

Dec 18, 2008 06:43 AM
Anonymous
TD Helios

YOU WANT THE TRUTH!  YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!

Don,

Prior to sending you that email on your dammed blog, I asked you to edit my name so that I could remain anonymous.  You did a real good job there buddy, you think anyone in this country doesn't know who 'T' is as it relates to REExpert?    You should have been a brain surgeon!!

Also I noticed on your blog that you wanted to know what the former employees are doing. Why?  You know that was Jeff's mess and it doesn't follow the people that used to work there.  But no one has anything to hide so I'll tell you what I know. 

Jeff and Patsy are in hiding.  They have moved around town so much that I think they qualify for witness protection.  They do keep in touch with Hunter Harris as he is their flunky.  If you can get a hold of him, you can find the Guthrie's.  Jeff was trying to get out of the country for awhile there.  But he's still here in town. 

Joe Lavelle-Who knows?  He was a contract player at the company who was used as Jeff's whipping boy.  Not liked or respected at all.  Has the ugliest wife many have seen in recent memory. 

Kirk        - The person in charge of IVM development and company president for less than a month.  He replaced Joe, and ultimately Joe replaced him.. Go figure.  Never amounted to much. Too high strung and was just around for the paycheck. A zero contributor. The three months he spent on IVM was an exercise in futility and wasted income.

Grant     - Supposedly the companies IT man.  That was a joke as was his contribution. Outsourced all of his work to other companies and was replaced by Charles Johnson. 

Sue Lawrence- Sue is still running the companies' operations.  She is up to her neck in fighting all of your refund requests.  As you may remember the merchant account is in her name and destroying her, and her husbands' credit.  ...BTW it is she that is STILL processing your credit cards monthly for operational funds..I.e. paying Jeff's expenses.

John Souza- Never an employee of the company. Remember all of those telemarketers that couldn't speak English?  Yeah, Souza brought them into the equation. Little man with a Napoleon complex.  I believe Charles bitch-slapped him once.

Leanne Hodgson & Tom Trujillo- Have kept pretty much a low profile.  Leanne is back into Real Estate and is rumored to have closed a very large deal for which she plans to either resurrect REexpert or a company like it.  Information is sketchy but whatever she's doing you can bet it involves a ton of eating. 

TStallings, Adrian- Don't know what Stallings is doing; you can bet he's selling.  Adrian is selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.

David (something died inside my mouth) Yost- Worse breath on the planet. Another one of Jeff's punching bags.     Yost is selling counseling for businesses.  Should have sold some to Guthrie.

Ed Spitzlberger- another pathetic little man who's scheming backfired on him. Hired as a sales rep, manipulated himself to the rank of sales manager. Sales manager for three months. No sales.   Actually pulled all of the sales reps from the office in a coup attempt.  Ultimately left the office disgraced and shunned. 

Tony Pugh - Was the driving force behind the ‘social network'.  Probably would have worked but Jeff's plan and Tony's didn't match. Ultimately Tony was weaned from the company when the income he derived was weaned from him.  

Charles Johnson- He's running his GTI Company.  Technology services. People gave the man a bad rap about him shutting the company down. Was never true.  Jeff tried to cheat the man and was caught.  REexpert was doomed months before Charles ever hit the scene. Worked there for a month and was never paid. 

Tara Dikos- is working for a technology company as a sales rep. Doing a fine job too!

Matt Rodgers- Don't know.  Funny, I didn't know what he did when he was employed at the company either. 

Debbie Harris- Still in Real Estate.  Jeff paid her simply for her managing broker license designation.  She sat around all day for months doing nothing really, but cashing payroll checks.  $8000.00 monthly for doing nothing.  Good work if you can get it. 

The company is dead. There is nothing now but the aftermath.  With Jeff on the run I fear yall will never see a dime of that money returned to you.  I think that all of that posturing he was doing with the emails and all was just to give him time to bail. 

Jan 27, 2009 08:47 AM
#8
J. Philip Faranda
Howard Hanna Rand Realty - Yorktown Heights, NY
Associate Broker / Office Manager

TD Helios-

Who is Don? Did you just cut and paste that response from another posting?

Jan 27, 2009 11:34 AM
Anonymous
TD Helios

Yes I did.  I refer to Don Leske. 

Jan 28, 2009 06:18 AM
#10
Anonymous
Dianna Vigil

AN EXPLANATION

Mr. Faranda.  Ms Helios letter is in response to one that I wrote yesterday.  I include it here for those of you still interested in REexpert LLC

"Here is is almost February. We've elected a new president and the economy has taken the turn for the worse we've feared the most. The real state of the economy and this down turn is what fueled the Reexpert phenominon. 

 As a former employee( we are all former employees now)  I was always amazed at how greedy all of you Realtors and unaffiliated agents and brokers were. You literally jumped over rhyme and reason to get the competitive edge from one another.  Jeff Guthrie did indeed feed you a line of crap, but he didn't force feed it to you.  You stood in line to get the dose.  Fighting and sniping at each other the whole time while he 'slipped it to you'. 

Don't take too much credit Mr. Leske.  Yes you came to Denver, was Paraded around the offices and told all the things you wanted to hear.  They threw our COO at you who was on the job all of two weeks at the time.  They distracted you with the physical charms of our office staff and prevented you from getting a real good look, and you went home a happy boy, singing the praises of the company.  It wasn't until after you got home and the ether of the experience didn't wear off until a MONTH later that you came to your senses.  ..Hell, you could have stayed home for all the good YOU did. 

You didn't even make him pay for stealing your money.  You let him simply walk away after all of the warnings we put out there.  Now, with the economy crashed, bet you guys wish you had that money.  It's still around... it just 'trickled down' to Guthrie's pockets. 

Thieves and con men will always be around. In fact, I've seen a few more pop up in the image of the former RE experts.  You want to know the funny thing about that?  YOU BOUGHT THAT CRAP TOO!  Yes, you did and it was even worse than the original.  I think that list of all of you Reexperts is being sold and resold all over the country. 

It contains by far the most gullible, stupid, unconscious, unrepentant buyers on all the planet. Shame on Jeff Guthrie for being the Con man he is.  Shame on you for being that stupid.  I mean really. Come on people!  If it wasn't Jeff, it would have been someone else stealing from you.  It least in this case you know his name. 

In the future, whenever I need to sell anything, I'll go to the list of people that are the easiest to make a living off of.  Real Estate Brokers and agents.  You can't blame Jeff for that one. 

 It's the truth.  It's the truth that you all run from and avoid this whole history of the Real Estate Advocate.  It is the strangest and most indelible mark of corporate greed and stupidity that stands to your true nature that exists. 

It's ugly.  I'd run from it too.  Shame on YOU."

Jan 28, 2009 06:32 AM
#11
J. Philip Faranda
Howard Hanna Rand Realty - Yorktown Heights, NY
Associate Broker / Office Manager

I think it is a little silly to accuse the people that Jeff Guthrie bamboozled of being greedy. We are in business. We have families to feed. We took a risk that the guy was legit to forward our businesses. He turned out to be a fraud to surrounded himself with not very good people from the sound of things. I'm out some money. I'd rather lose some money than my reputation.

Jan 28, 2009 01:14 PM
Anonymous
JG-The Real Estate Advocate

J. Phillip,

Please have as many REexperts as you know come to my Facebook site.  I'm not a bad person just surrounded myself with some incompetent people. I have a plan to make everyone whole.  I just need a venue where I can talk to everyone at the same time without all of the distractions of personal interests.

We got into this together, we'll get out together as well: 

REExpert: The plan for world domination. It's ALIVE!!

 

 

Feb 05, 2009 07:31 AM
#13
J. Philip Faranda
Howard Hanna Rand Realty - Yorktown Heights, NY
Associate Broker / Office Manager

Jeff.

Not interested. Seriously.

Feb 05, 2009 08:44 AM
Anonymous
W. Clarkson

I'm not sure about the rest of these folks, but I, as well as several other web designers, flash guys, etc, were contracted by Charles Johnson to create flash presentations, which we did, and never got compensated.

Apr 01, 2009 03:07 PM
#15
Anonymous
Gryffon

Mr. Faranda,

First, I apologize for having to come to your board and post what I am about to post.

TD Helios, you are a coward, a liar, and a fraud. You are worse then Jeff Guthrie, you hide behind a fake name that only you and a few other know, yet still claim to know it all. Jeff at least believes he did nothing wrong, you know your wrong. You, little boy, know nothing. You knew nothing of the dedication of certain employees and you knew nothing of the company and those in the company who were trying to do the right thing for the Realtors involved. You insult others, Leanne Hodgson, David Yost, Matt Rodgers and others with no regard for who they really are and what they tried to do for the Realtors. You praise some that came into the company seeing it as a cash cow. You, like Jeff, are hated by many people, both inside the company and outside. Yes, we know who you are. It doesnt take much to find information on who posted to these blogs if you know the right people, and know how to trace an IP address to its source. Here is what you DON'T know TD.

Jeff and Patsy are in hiding.  They have moved around town so much that I think they qualify for witness protection.  They do keep in touch with Hunter Harris as he is their flunky.  If you can get a hold of him, you can find the Guthrie's.  Jeff was trying to get out of the country for awhile there.  But he's still here in town. 

Wrong, Jeff and Patsy never left the country. After they were forced to leave the rental they were living in they moved into a house owned by the new owners of the video magazine

Joe Lavelle-Who knows?  He was a contract player at the company who was used as Jeff's whipping boy.  Not liked or respected at all.  Has the ugliest wife many have seen in recent memory. 

Partly true, no one liked, or respected Joe, but then Joe didnt like anyone either. I wouldn't mention ugly without looking at your wife and mistress first.

Kirk        - The person in charge of IVM development and company president for less than a month.  He replaced Joe, and ultimately Joe replaced him.. Go figure.  Never amounted to much. Too high strung and was just around for the paycheck. A zero contributor. The three months he spent on IVM was an exercise in futility and wasted income.

Wrong again, Kirk brought several ideas that were shot down by Jeff, and Joe.

Grant     - Supposedly the companies IT man.  That was a joke as was his contribution. Outsourced all of his work to other companies and was replaced by Charles Johnson. 

Wrong again big guy, Charles didnt replace him, he left because of Charles.

Sue Lawrence- Sue is still running the companies' operations.  She is up to her neck in fighting all of your refund requests.  As you may remember the merchant account is in her name and destroying her, and her husbands' credit.  ...BTW it is she that is STILL processing your credit cards monthly for operational funds..I.e. paying Jeff's expenses.

You did get this one right, even monkeys get lucky now and then.

John Souza- Never an employee of the company. Remember all of those telemarketers that couldn't speak English?  Yeah, Souza brought them into the equation. Little man with a Napoleon complex.  I believe Charles bitch-slapped him once.

Wrong, Charles did not slap John. Charles hid behind a locked door and told all the employees that if John showed up to call the police. He was very afraid. True he did have the call center out of the country.

Leanne Hodgson & Tom Trujillo- Have kept pretty much a low profile.  Leanne is back into Real Estate and is rumored to have closed a very large deal for which she plans to either resurrect REexpert or a company like it.  Information is sketchy but whatever she's doing you can bet it involves a ton of eating. 

Wrong, tell your source she got this one wrong too. Leanne and Tom are not keeping a low profile, they have something you never will, friends. As for eating a ton, she can lose weight, you cant lose stupid or ignorance. You did get one thing right, she is back in real estate, she does know that working with Jeff has damaged her reputation, but those she has talked to (ex reexperts) dont blame her for Jeff's mistakes.

TStallings, Adrian- Don't know what Stallings is doing; you can bet he's selling.  Adrian is selling Kirby vacuum cleaners.

Partly right, but then who cares, both were in it for the money. Tim got his $130,000.00

David (something died inside my mouth) Yost- Worse breath on the planet. Another one of Jeff's punching bags.     Yost is selling counseling for businesses.  Should have sold some to Guthrie.

I wouldnt mention anyones breath until you sit next to your wife.

Ed Spitzlberger- another pathetic little man who's scheming backfired on him. Hired as a sales rep, manipulated himself to the rank of sales manager. Sales manager for three months. No sales.   Actually pulled all of the sales reps from the office in a coup attempt.  Ultimately left the office disgraced and shunned. 

This is funny, Ed hired you.

Tony Pugh - Was the driving force behind the ‘social network'.  Probably would have worked but Jeff's plan and Tony's didn't match. Ultimately Tony was weaned from the company when the income he derived was weaned from him.

Wrong again, Jeff owes Tony also  

Charles Johnson- He's running his GTI Company.  Technology services. People gave the man a bad rap about him shutting the company down. Was never true.  Jeff tried to cheat the man and was caught.  REexpert was doomed months before Charles ever hit the scene. Worked there for a month and was never paid. 

Another wrong answer, Charles tried to take over the company, when he seen he couldnt he ran away only to come back with a fake badge and a fake story, we all had a good laugh about that one.

Tara Dikos- is working for a technology company as a sales rep. Doing a fine job too!

Another right one, your doing great, not really but...

Matt Rodgers- Don't know.  Funny, I didn't know what he did when he was employed at the company either. 

Wrong, you blew this one again. Matt was one of the key figures in getting the back end system together despite Jeff and his constant changes

Debbie Harris- Still in Real Estate.  Jeff paid her simply for her managing broker license designation.  She sat around all day for months doing nothing really, but cashing payroll checks.  $8000.00 monthly for doing nothing.  Good work if you can get it. 

Wrong, Debbie didnt sit around all day, she was working with Tara in customer support til she had enough and walked out on Jeff.

There are many employees that TD didnt mention in HIS post. Someare back working for Jeff and the "new video magazine" and some can't stand to hear the name Jeff Guthrie. It doesnt matter where they are or who they are.

 

 

Apr 27, 2009 09:25 AM
#16
Anonymous
GTISupport Victim

Hello,

I am trying to gather supporting documentation for a (hopefully) criminal case against Mr. Charles Adam Johnson of GTISupport, GTISupport.com, Global Technology Inc of Aurora, Colorado.

We need to put a stop to this guy, I would love to hear Greg's side of the story, and if it's true that Charles Johnson stole his server, did you file a police report? 

I have been in touch with numerous victims of Mr. Johnson, and am myself owed thousands of dollars by him.

It's not about the money anymore though, it's about stopping a criminal.  Please contact gtisupportvictim at gmail if you want to help stop him, and maybe even get your money back.

Customer's and former 'employees' of GTI Support, TheREPro, The RealEstatePro, People that have had contact with him, his wife, Tim Stallings or anyone else associated with him are encouraged to tell their story (good or bad). 

Thank you!

BTW - He's now posting on job boards under 'Global Technology, Inc' to disguise himself from anyone who does google search.

Jul 05, 2009 02:17 PM
#18
Anonymous
Lori Marco

Any new developments on getting a refund from REexpert?

Oct 28, 2009 06:02 AM
#19
Anonymous
Victim of Jeff Guthrie

Trying to get a refund from REExpert, The Real Estate Advocate, or Jeff Guthrie is like trying to get blood from a turnip, (excuse the pun). Several people have contacted the Colorado AG to no avail. It seems Jeff will most likely get away with defrauding alot of people. I cant blame just Jeff Guthrie for the lose of my $4,000.00. His management staff knew what was going on. They did nothing then,  and they are doing nothing now, to help us with our claims to the Colorado AG.

Dec 25, 2009 02:24 PM
#20
Morgan Evans
Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY
LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

I spent a lot of time reading the post and many of the comments.  This is definitely one of the those shaking the hornets nest situations, a lot of people with lots of emotions and opinions.

Mar 23, 2010 02:14 AM