This is straying off topic, but I'd like to share it anyways. After getting fed up with flipper calls, I began playing games with them. I gave them a list of information they had to provide before I'd consider them. I didn't ask, I demanded:
1. D&B report on their company and any involved in their actions. Most of them probably don't even know what a Dun & Bradstreet report is. I offer the alternative of audited financial reports for the last 5 years.
2. Copy of Articles of Incorporation, Assumed Name Certificate, or LLC and Member Agreements, Certificates of Good Standing.
3. List of ALL transactions, purchases, acquisitions, flips and sales for the last 5 years, including address, purchase price, amount invested for fix-up and final sale.
4. Criminal checks and backgrounds for each member of the flipper team, including the advance scouts, plus misdemeanor and/or felony charges if brought against any of their team for actions arising from flipping activities.
Also, disclosure of any criminal activities (obviously they're not going to admit to this, but I just want to let them know they're under a microscope.)
5. Information on how much of their profit is decreased by discharge of existing liens, specifically mortgages, and the entities holding the liens. This is to prod them into revealing whether or not they even pay off existing liens.
6. Source for locating house in question, and their specific interest in this property.
7. Number of houses for which they’ve sent solicitations this year (2021). I've rarely received any solicitation that's stamped; they're almost all postage prepaid which to me suggests mass mailings.
8. Real estate credentials, including real estate firms for which principals have worked, titles, responsibilities, number of properties purchased. Their prime argument seems to be a no fuss, no muss transaction, no closing costs, etc. I doubt they even know how to pro-rate taxes.
9. Their status in any affiliated flipper organizations, including their “cut” of the profits.
10. Business office (not the scout's home address).
11. Real estate credentials, including real estate firms for which principals have worked, titles, responsibilities, number of properties purchased; this could confirm they have no real estate background at all.
12. Insurance coverage, including certificate of insurance from liability carrier; statement of claims against insurance for last five years.
There are more demands, but usually the D&B stops them as they have no idea what it is.
Deemartin, I am scratching my head on how a Realtor even was able to visit your Mom due to the pandemic ???
And wondering how a Realtor would even know that your Mom lived at a nursing home, there is no record base a Realtor can use to search for such information. I assume your Mom's real estate tax bill comes to her home, not to the nursing home.
If a Realtor did visit your Mom, he/she would have left a business card with their name, real estate company name, phone number, website, etc. If your Mom can produce the business card, then call the local Real Estate Board of Realtors and file a complaint.
May I ask why your Mom is now living in a nursing home? Does she have memory issues? Maybe there was no Realtor, or she overhead a conversation from someone else.
If you know who the Realtor is, contact their broker by mail (leave a paper trail), and tell them that one of their Realtors is overstepping their boundaries with an at-risk senior.
If she is competent she is able to decide if she wishes to sell the home or does not wish to sell the home. If she sells the home it should be made clear to her that she will have those assets in her name and would not be eligible for medicaid until that money is spent down. She may do better, unless she has sufficient funds for her care, to allow you to stay in the home as caretaker and perhaps pay taxes and utilities on the home. However, be clear in your own mind. As long as your Mom is competent she is able to make her own decisions.
I would most certainly speak to the management at the nursing home to verify that a realtor actually came on their premises and spoke to your mother. Then ask to see their check-in record. Visitors at a nursing home must sign in at the front desk and write down the resident they're visiting or they don't come in. Look at the sign-in sheets for the time this incident supposedly occurred, then connect the dots. You'll find a name if there's one to find. If it's true that a realtor came to speak to your mom in the NH about selling her house, it was easy enough for them to find her location. These people look at home ownership records (which are public) at city hall for certain areas of town they're interested to buy in. They check out how long someone has owned the property. That's how they get a ballpark age on the person who owns it. If someone's name has been on a deed for 40 or 50 years they assume that person is elderly. If there was a spouse and the property passed into survivorship to the other, that's a good indicator too. Then they check out the property to see if anyone is living there. If they deduce that no one is, the logical conclusion is that they're either dead or in a nursing home. So they check out the post office to find a mailing address or they do it online. NH residents get mail. That's how they find an address for a person. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities don't allow solicitation. Marketing representatives are not allowed to market to their residents to sell them things or try to get them into contract of some kind. Once an elderly person goes through the door of a nursing home, the nursing home is the only one working a scam and ripping them off. They prevent anyone else from trying to.
Good point about checking the post office. I was shocked how many have done that, not just the wannabe flippers but charities as well. And it only took them a month or so to start sending their solicitations to my house instead of my father's.
When I questioned someone (at the post office, I think) about this, I learned that the post office does in fact release information on address changes, which would be good if it was consistent. I still get solicitations, but the post office didn't provide a forwarding address for Dad's friends, and only one Christmas card made it to me the first year that he died. But the junk mail got through.
Dad was in rehab several times at a facility that had a receptionist, so I initially thought there was at least that minimum level of security. Then I learned, as other family visitors did, that there was a side entrance, visible from the parking lot, where entrance could be gained just by pushing a button which automatically opened the door.
The last rehab, then palliative care facility was much better. I couldn't even get through the exterior vestibule w/o pressing the button. The receptionist responded and opened the door. And there was a sign-in book, although someone easily could have gotten in without signing, or just made up a name to sign in.
Better yet, I saw 7 video cameras monitoring the complex, as well as a security vehicle regularly driving around.
If I had insomnia, perhaps I would "peruse" these documents, but who needs to read that to understand what this person is doing is totally unethical? I have received mailings from "flippers" for my house and realtors for mom's condo, but that's it. No calls. No personal visits. Even before we moved mom to MC, I had changed her billing address to my PO box so I could manage her finances. I get SO much junk mail in her name! I really love the ones regarding getting extended coverage on the car - no mention of the car itself, as they don't have a clue, but it is amusing because the car was spirited away well before we needed to move her!
What isn't amusing is how many gullible people fall for these scams and others, including the phone calls, some threatening, which are becoming more common again...
For original Star Trek fans, wouldn't it be nice to have a Tantalus Device App for our phones? For those who don't know, in an alternate universe, Captain has this device, and when the image on the display is one's enemy, the push of a button would cause the person to cease to exist. Doesn't kill them, they just never were. I haven't added any Apps to my phone, but I WOULD pay for this one! All those scam calls... POOF!
1. D&B report on their company and any involved in their actions. Most of them probably don't even know what a Dun & Bradstreet report is. I offer the alternative of audited financial reports for the last 5 years.
2. Copy of Articles of Incorporation, Assumed Name Certificate, or LLC and Member Agreements, Certificates of Good Standing.
3. List of ALL transactions, purchases, acquisitions, flips and sales for the last 5 years, including address, purchase price, amount invested for fix-up and final sale.
4. Criminal checks and backgrounds for each member of the flipper team, including the advance scouts, plus misdemeanor and/or felony charges if brought against any of their team for actions arising from flipping activities.
Also, disclosure of any criminal activities (obviously they're not going to admit to this, but I just want to let them know they're under a microscope.)
5. Information on how much of their profit is decreased by discharge of existing liens, specifically mortgages, and the entities holding the liens. This is to prod them into revealing whether or not they even pay off existing liens.
6. Source for locating house in question, and their specific interest in this property.
7. Number of houses for which they’ve sent solicitations this year (2021). I've rarely received any solicitation that's stamped; they're almost all postage prepaid which to me suggests mass mailings.
8. Real estate credentials, including real estate firms for which principals have worked, titles, responsibilities, number of properties purchased. Their prime argument seems to be a no fuss, no muss transaction, no closing costs, etc. I doubt they even know how to pro-rate taxes.
9. Their status in any affiliated flipper organizations, including their “cut” of the profits.
10. Business office (not the scout's home address).
11. Real estate credentials, including real estate firms for which principals have worked, titles, responsibilities, number of properties purchased; this could confirm they have no real estate background at all.
12. Insurance coverage, including certificate of insurance from liability carrier; statement of claims against insurance for last five years.
There are more demands, but usually the D&B stops them as they have no idea what it is.
And wondering how a Realtor would even know that your Mom lived at a nursing home, there is no record base a Realtor can use to search for such information. I assume your Mom's real estate tax bill comes to her home, not to the nursing home.
If a Realtor did visit your Mom, he/she would have left a business card with their name, real estate company name, phone number, website, etc. If your Mom can produce the business card, then call the local Real Estate Board of Realtors and file a complaint.
May I ask why your Mom is now living in a nursing home? Does she have memory issues? Maybe there was no Realtor, or she overhead a conversation from someone else.
Is it mom who told you this? Have you verified that?
Is there dementia involved? If so, your mom can't enter into a contract.
Can you tell the front desk to keep this opportunist out of there?
However, be clear in your own mind. As long as your Mom is competent she is able to make her own decisions.
If it's true that a realtor came to speak to your mom in the NH about selling her house, it was easy enough for them to find her location.
These people look at home ownership records (which are public) at city hall for certain areas of town they're interested to buy in.
They check out how long someone has owned the property. That's how they get a ballpark age on the person who owns it.
If someone's name has been on a deed for 40 or 50 years they assume that person is elderly. If there was a spouse and the property passed into survivorship to the other, that's a good indicator too.
Then they check out the property to see if anyone is living there. If they deduce that no one is, the logical conclusion is that they're either dead or in a nursing home. So they check out the post office to find a mailing address or they do it online. NH residents get mail. That's how they find an address for a person.
Nursing homes and assisted living facilities don't allow solicitation. Marketing representatives are not allowed to market to their residents to sell them things or try to get them into contract of some kind. Once an elderly person goes through the door of a nursing home, the nursing home is the only one working a scam and ripping them off. They prevent anyone else from trying to.
When I questioned someone (at the post office, I think) about this, I learned that the post office does in fact release information on address changes, which would be good if it was consistent. I still get solicitations, but the post office didn't provide a forwarding address for Dad's friends, and only one Christmas card made it to me the first year that he died. But the junk mail got through.
Dad was in rehab several times at a facility that had a receptionist, so I initially thought there was at least that minimum level of security. Then I learned, as other family visitors did, that there was a side entrance, visible from the parking lot, where entrance could be gained just by pushing a button which automatically opened the door.
The last rehab, then palliative care facility was much better. I couldn't even get through the exterior vestibule w/o pressing the button. The receptionist responded and opened the door. And there was a sign-in book, although someone easily could have gotten in without signing, or just made up a name to sign in.
Better yet, I saw 7 video cameras monitoring the complex, as well as a security vehicle regularly driving around.
What isn't amusing is how many gullible people fall for these scams and others, including the phone calls, some threatening, which are becoming more common again...
For original Star Trek fans, wouldn't it be nice to have a Tantalus Device App for our phones? For those who don't know, in an alternate universe, Captain has this device, and when the image on the display is one's enemy, the push of a button would cause the person to cease to exist. Doesn't kill them, they just never were. I haven't added any Apps to my phone, but I WOULD pay for this one! All those scam calls... POOF!