BEWARE of ELDER ABUSE LAWS in Real Estate

It's a real critical point in any market, on any market segment when elderly people are normally protected by laws in their state, as an example in the state of North Carolina It’s the age of 60. If you step past the age of 60 you need to be extremely cautious on how you work with the elderly.

I really took the time to make sure that the elderly woman I was working with had representation from a family member or a son. I would also say everything we do, must be in compliance with the law. The two most consistent things I tell someone is you can get advice of an attorney and a CPA, that's what you do a lot of times. People will step past that, they'll say no "I’m fine, I don't want to spend the money on legal fees". You can't force them to get an attorney or a CPA but you have to really cover your rear on that issue.

I went and did that deal, sign them up and got it all done. Three months later I was called by social security, they set up an appointment with me and I showed up at the office. They gave me the designated place, lo and behold they had one of the detectives there and he sat down with me, and they grilled me on all kinds of questions for elder abuse. I was able to tell them they had a son, the son was there with her he helped her make all the decisions. Even with that, as much as I disclosed and did it right, they decided to file a lawsuit against me. I went and plead my case in front of the court and lost it, but it was very interesting.

Mr. Jimmy that drove the Mercedes never showed up to the court for the hearing, the only person who showed up was the little old lady that I took advantage of. So even as cautious as I was, and as many precautions that I took in the contract making, even If her son was there, at the end of the day I lost that case. The woman and the young son just chose to be deceitful and dishonest, they were well aware of everything. I showed them I disclosed everything in the contract laid out exactly what I was going to do, what I find often times is it's better to disclose too much than not enough especially on elderly.

So number one, you have to make sure that you're in compliance with the law. Anything you do, I would say don't even use a real estate agent, I would use a combination of a real estate agent and an attorney which is what I do, and sometimes I have multiple attorneys. So with every contract you deal with, make sure that you're in compliance with the law, because the elderly make a really good witness when they decide that you got the better end of the stick.