All Forum Posts by: Cheyenne Davis

I'm hoping some of you experts in the community can share an answer or idea which may expedite the process of getting a mechanics lien removed. 

We used a company to renovate on of our properties and it turns out that they weren't licensed as they claimed (no need to point out that we should have checked first, we know). We ended up in a dispute over the work done, plus inflated invoices. I'll spare you the long details, but while we made mistakes in the process, the company is blatantly attempting to scam us. When we refused to pay their grossly inflated invoice for work that wasn't done, done properly, or completed, they threatened to file a lien. We attempted to work it out and pay the original agreed upon amount, but they refused to budge.

They filed a mechanics lien, which is now holding up a closing with our new buyer. The lien is fraudulent and inflated, plus they aren't properly licensed. We filed a complaint with DBPR and it also looks like they will be charged criminally with fraud, plus licensing charges, plus filing a fraudulent lien. HOWEVER, we still have our buyers waiting to close and we have to get the lien removed.

By law (we are in Florida), they have 20 days from the time we contest the lien to file suit. We contested the lien, but it took a couple weeks to even get them served with the notice, as they had the wrong physical address on their corporate docs. 

Can anyone tell me if there is a faster way to resolve this issue, considering the large amount of evidence we have showing that it's completely bogus? Has anyone dealt with a similar issue and been able to get in front of a judge quickly? We are trying to avoid bonding around the lien if we can find a quicker way. The company wasn't open to negotiating the lien either, so that doesn't appear to be an option. 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. By the way - the companies name is "Royal Investment Group" and the owners name is Wille Farah, for those of you who may be in the Orlando area and want to know who to avoid. A quick google search reveals a history of scams and deceptive business practices. Wish we would have looked before hiring.

We consistently come across sketchy wholesaler numbers in this market. Always have and probably always will. That's not saying there's no honest and ethical wholesalers here by any means, or in any market for that matter, but on any given day our inbox sees several "deals" from wholesalers with, let's just say "questionable", numbers. For giggles, anyone who disagrees should sign up on some local wholesale lists and take a close look for themselves, then go view a couple houses that are on the list and also drive the comps they include to get to their numbers. It's true that what one person can get a rehab done for may be less than the next person, plus investors have different exit strategies, but you're fooling yourself if you think that there's not plenty of wholesalers here that inflate resale values and deflate renovation estimates (even when it's just their guesstimate). But again, there is of course, the honest one's too...

Does anyone know of an app that I can use on my iphone to help sequentially organize houses I will be viewing by distance?

In other words, tomorrow I have 18 prospective deals to look at, all within a 3 mile radius. I want to start at one property and hit the other 17 along the way, instead of going back and forth. Make sense?

If not an app, maybe an online tool?

Well, not the answers I was hoping for :(. Thanks for all the great replies though. I don't think we want to L/O this one though. @Bill Gulley for clarification, their BK was discharged a few years ago, so I don't think most of what you mentioned above would be relevant. Regarding Dodd-Frank, I'm not real familiar with all of the rules and it seems to be a pretty complex (and stupid) Act. Does it apply to short term lease options, too, or just ones with a several year option? 

I've heard mixed stories on Dodd Frank. Are smaller investors being penalized under the Act very often, or is it more geared towards large institutions, with smaller investors just falling under the broad definitions but not being held to as tight of a standard?

So, are you saying that they would have to wait 7 years after the house finally goes back to the lender? The time from discharge doesn't matter?

I have someone wanting to purchase one of our houses and they have a previous foreclosure. Can any of the mortgage experts on here tell me if it's realistic that they get financing? Here's their situation... Fell behind on their mortgage 5 or 6 yrs ago during market crash. LP was filed about 4 yrs ago. They filed a chapter 7 BK which was discharged approx 3 yrs ago. To date, they're still living in the house which is being foreclosed, but the debt was discharged in the 7. Can they qualify for a Fannie mortgage or any attractive mortgage? They have plenty of income and good DTI, but don't have a full 20% down payment.

Thanks for all the good advie. Here's a quick update. The guy is being prosecuted for acting as a contractor without a license. Felony charge. Also, he is supposedly returning all the money on Monday. If not, charges will be filed once the contracted time period is up (with grace days). So, at least he's getting what he deserves and we may get our money back. 

The company I work with just made a big rehabbing mistake and I figured I'd share, since it seems like it could happen to any of us. Here's a brief summary: Closed on a house to rehab, signed a contract with a guy who was hired to do the rehab (scope of work contract which came from fileplace on this site), gave him a check for 2k to get started and now he has caused the check and disappeared. We had the police out today to file a report and press charges, only to find out that we can't file charges because we signed a contract. It's civil now. The officer did say that there is a "loophole" which will allow charges to be filed, but we have to successfully sue he guy in civil court first. If anybody has some good advice, I'd love to hear it (unleSs it's don't be so stupid next time :). Btw, this was a handyman, not a GC, as the work to be done was minor cosmetics.

So I could still have an alert set for listings in Seminole County which use the word "motivated" in the public remarks, correct? Can that same search and alert be done in the realtor only remarks?

Since you're in Umatilla, I'm assuming you would be aware of any recent changes to the local MLS which won't allow that type of search any longer.

I'm in Seminole County, Florida. Anyone know about this county and the surrounding ones? I believe Seminole is included with Orange, Osceola, Lake, Brevard, Polk and a couple others.