Posted on 02/27/2006 1:27:11 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
BELLEVILLE, WI - Five days after Samuel Mills was laid off from his $7 an hour job as a meat cutter at Jim's Food Center in Belleville last Oct. 29, he and his wife, Victoria, were approached with an offer they felt they couldn't refuse.
They had fallen behind on their bills and were facing foreclosure. So the Millses agreed to list their modest home at 128 Mitchell St., where they had lived for four years, with James "Jim" Olson, the owner of River City Realty.
Jim Olson, as it happens, also owns Jim's Food Center. He was the boss who laid off Sam. Sam is 68 and had worked for Olson for about two years.
The couple was already struggling to make ends meet because of the cost of litigating a work-related injury Victoria, 53, had sustained at a child care center 3 years earlier. The loss of Sam's income was the final straw, she said.
So they went with Olson. "The mortgage company was hassling us and we have these lawsuits going, so I said, 'OK, let's give it a try,' " Victoria said in an interview. "We listed it for $134,900 and they showed the place about eight or nine times. We had another offer on the place and somehow they just backed out."
Then, just as foreclosure proceedings were scheduled to begin on Feb. 6, Olson came in with an offer from John Baker of J&J Commercial Rentals LLC.
The Millses accepted it. At the closing, they were shocked to learn that Olson was actually Baker's partner - the other "J" in J&J.
Olson had agreed in writing to take a 3 percent broker's commission if he alone found a buyer. But at the closing Olson took 5 percent - $6,000 - for his role in selling the property to himself and Baker.
The Millses, when all was said and done, had nothing left after they paid off their mortgage, fees and back taxes.
Olson now rents them their former house for $500 a month. They pay the rent out of their Social Security and disability payments. But they don't have a lease.
"Our whole life is turned upside down and now we don't have a house," Victoria said. "I don't know how this is going to end. I don't know what we are going to do."
'Just trying to help'
Olson, when contacted about this story for comment, first scheduled and then canceled an interview with himself and Baker. Olson said he and his partner had decided not to comment.
He did say: "We were just trying to help them out to save them from being foreclosed on."
Kevin King of the Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin said that real estate agents are obligated to reveal any personal interests in a deal.
"You're not prohibited from acting on your own behalf but certain disclosure rules apply," he said. King referenced Chapter RL 24.05 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, which deals with self-dealing and disclosure of interest.
It says: "A licensee acting as an agent in a real estate or business opportunity transaction may not act in the transaction on the licensee's own behalf, on behalf of the licensee's immediate family or firm, or on behalf of any other organization or business entity in which the licensee has an interest without the prior written consent of all parties to the transaction."
The Millses said they gave no written consent and learned of Olson's financial interest for the first time at closing.
According to the Residential Listing Contract signed by the Millses and Olson on Nov. 3, 2005, the broker's commission for the sale was set at 3 percent, with 6 percent being the rate if a co-broker was involved in the sale.
According to the settlement statement from the closing dated Jan. 31, 2006, a 5 percent commission of $6,000 was paid to Olson's River City Realty and $5,805.81 was paid for the Millses' current and delinquent taxes as well as an assessment charge.
The remainder of the $120,000 paid off the mortgage company and settlement fees, leaving the Millses with a zero balance at the closing.
"Our beef is the misrepresentation and the fact that he shouldn't have taken his Realtor's commission," Victoria said. "If he was one of the buyers, I don't think that's quite ethical."
The Millses are struggling to live on the $900 a month they receive from disability and Social Security payments and are in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. Victoria suffers from sarcoidosis and other respiratory conditions and lives with chronic pain.
Sam is looking for employment, but said, "When you're past 65, you take what you can get."
That is some bad juju there. That guy's going to get his someday, in this life or the next.
Some people are just scum.
That's just plain sad.
I luv lawyers AND realtors! /sarc off...BAD attitude ON full time toward them both
Sociopath. He probably never lost any sleep over this.
ingrates
I wouldn't solely take the word of the couple in this scenario.
The realtor/buyer may very well be scum, and acted with ill will toward them. But in my experience, people who are about to be foreclosed on, are not the best stewards of their money, and their word about how it was "stolen" from them should be taken with a grain of salt.
L
Too many people are watching those real estate scam infomercials...
People who do thing ethically, nothing wrong with picking up a house at auction...but those that run scams like this are parasites.
Whadda guy! Big man, ripping off the elderly and disabled.
I say trouble right here in River City...
I have seen houses like this sell fast for 10's of thousands less than what they are worth too, in all honesty they might have screwed the couple, but it could have been much, much worse when the bank kicked them out, and $500 a month is probably less than what their house payment was originally.
I'd like to know how a $7 an hour meat cutter was able to afford a house in the first place.
So basically, what they're saying was scummy was the extra 3% he took? Since he agreed on 3%,but took 6%, all he really did wrong was charge the extra 3% which was what...about $3,000??? Hardly life-alterhing. I'm not saying it was scummy, but these people were in alot trouble with or without him.
Ellen Williams-Masson certainly makes it sound bad for the old couple in her telling of the story. Olson may be a chump who stole their money, or he may have helped them out. He did, after all, let them continue to rent the place.
Of course, he may have had to cancel the meeting with the reporter because he had some evicting to do ...
Either way, this story is one-sided.
I think I would be looking for a nice, contingency fee, junkyard dog lawyer to do a little suing.
What did a lawyer do this time? As far as I can tell, a good real estate lawyer is exactly what this couple needs now.
-people who are about to be foreclosed on, are not the best stewards of their money, and their word about how it was "stolen" from them should be taken with a grain of salt.-
Totally agree. We really don't know much about the couple, and they sound like trouble to me.
Sounds like he bought their house, at the price they agree to sell it.
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