Stone Equity Group and The Investor's paradigm

[Nicky Foust]

As a final note, in trying to actually make some progress with SEG I contacted the BBB to help me address the issues, because it is not productive to just whine in these types of forums.  (which I'm obviously not very savvy at since I posted my EMAIL address so that actual interested people could contact me for details and it then got deleted by a moderator.  My sincere apologies for my faux paux justin0419, and just to answer your question, I was working with SEG because even as an active real estate investor I keep my mind, and my options open to ALL possibilities.  You might try it sometime.)  To the credit of the company in answer to my BBB complaint I did receive a call from Mr. Host who I am working with to iron out the specific issues I have had. He seems sincerely confused by the unresponsiveness of his team and is putting in the effort to  remedy the errors.  This says a lot for the company.  In retrospect, to honestly answer the original posted question.  I think that you might consider SEG as an investment option if you are the kind of person who wants to park their money in a mutual fund and pay no attention whatsoever to what it is doing or the details of the situation.  If it works out as they plan you give them $25K ish and in 10 years it turns in to $60K ish.  My plans generally include turning that kind of profit in much less than 10 years, but I guess that is because I am paying attention.  Not being an investing lemming, maybe this wasn't the best investment for me, but it has been a learning opportunity.  My final recommendation would be to think about what your goals are with your money and if turning over control of that chunk of money for the next decade, for the return they envision is a comfortable and profitable thing for you then go for it.  Happy investing!

[lori.hemmie]

So I didn't find this thread until after I had already thrown $23,900 in the dumper.  I have no real estate investing experience and was contacted by SEG after I had put my phone number on a foreclosure inquiry website.  I was looking to purchase the foreclosed home in my subdivision, but after listening to the SEG rep talk my ear off, this sounded like an easier and legitimate way to make a profit.  I fell hook, line and sinker for the BBB rating and customer testimonials.  I closed on a crappy home on May 20th and have yet to get any response from SEG regarding them following through on their promises of getting an end buyer in the home ASAP.  Also, about a week after closing, I found the same house I supposedly own for sale on another real estate agents website for $7500.  Yeah, good deal, huh.  I have some more research to do to see if I have a leg to stand on with trying to get at least some of my "investment" back.  Don't touch this company with a 10 foot pole.  It's looking to be a complete waste of almost $24,000 and to tell the truth, I'm not even sure I actually own the home because 3 months later, SEG is still on the county tax records as the owner.  It's a pile of crap and I really wish I had learned a cheaper lesson.

[Brian06]

Buy it for $7500 with the realtor and then file a suit to get your money back from SEG.  Or contact someone at SEG and speak up.  Call all the numbers you can find and leave messages every day until you get in touch with someone.  Your money cant just disappear.

[lori.hemmie]

I am on the hunt for a lawyer I can afford.  If anyone knows a good one in the Savannah, GA area, please chime in.  I should've known better.

[Bluemoon06]

I am on the hunt for a lawyer I can afford. 

Don't look for a lawyer that you can afford, lawyers are free.  They take money from the settlement winnings.  You pay nothing if you lose, and if you win they take 1/3.  Don’t sue for the $24,000 you are out, sue for $100,000.  Go to the biggest fanciest law firm in town, they will take the case.  They may pass it to a junior associate but he will be the lawyer that graduated first in his class and really bright and energetic (they only hire the best).  If he runs into a problem he will walk down the hall and ask a more senior lawyer.  Because this is the best law firm in town, he will be asking the number one lawyer on the subject.  So you get the benefit of the best although your lawyer may be young.  That being said using the biggest and best law firm in town you will win and you will get paid back.

There are 3 things that will happen when you call that law firm.  Number one they will determine that you can’t win, or can’t collect.  If that is the case they will not tell you that you can’t win or collect they will just offer to represent you and ask for a retainer fee.  If they do that you should leave.  Number 2 they will decide that they can’t win or can’t collect and they will decline the take the case.  In that case you should leave.  Number 3 they will decide that they can win and can collect and they will take the case on contingency.

[BLL]

I will PM you the name of Savannah attorney.

[tctcpacma]

My problem with the deal is the closing procedures.

When they came to the seminar, they wanted you to put down $1000 as good faith payment. And, they said "when they show you the property in paper, you pay and buy". After I paid the $1000, they now wanted me to pay the whole $25,900 before seeing any proposal. Well, no problem, since the money is only going to an escrow account. But, then, you can only wire the money to an account, not even knowing the name of the account holder. The escrow company is Coast to Coast Abstract and Title, which does not even has a physical address. And, it is not a corporation. If you want to send a check, (No personal check, just cashier check) the address is a residential one. After I goggled the address, the place looks pretty bad.  So, SEG came to show you the deal in a seminar. You ends up contracting to buy property from someone you do not know with a name of SEG Commercial LLC. And the contract asks you to send money to Closeline Settlement, the escrow holder. But, the wire instruction asks you to send money to Coast to Coast Abstract & Title.

If everything works out, I think you will get your property sooner or later.

But, if some how your money is misplaced, who do you go ask for help? Which party is legally responsible for any problem?

The lady who deals with us like to say this..."If you want this or that, you are not going to buy any property." It is their way or no way. Well, I am the buyer, the consumer, the one who has the money to buy in today's economy.  They only hold on to one thing, our hope to make a lot of money with their deals. They need our money to buy the properties before they can sell them to us. Should we at least pick a mutually agreed escrow holder to keep our money before I even see the property.

They dictate the escrow holder. I do not think it is fair.

[propertymanager]

I'd like to see Joshua comment on these customer issues! 

tctcpacma,

I would not spend your money on ANYTHING without completely understanding the process and actually seeing the house you are buying.  You need to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to make sure that all deals are legitimate, not only deals from this company, but for ANY deal from ANY seller you might consider.  If you have ANY question about the legitimacy of a deal; a seller; an escrow company; or anything else - DON'T RISK YOUR MONEY UNTIL THE ISSUES ARE CLEARED UP TO YOUR SATISFACTION! 

Mike

[joshuahost]

Evening,
I just received this updated thread last night and wanted to respond. First to Nicky who posted the initial issue, I don't understand the complaint as we sold her property on land contract within a month of her close of escrow for the terms that were initially offered. The buyer then moved in the first of the next month. The buyer "Phillipia" has not defaulted, rather Nicky sent her a letter stating she was supposed to send her payments to a different loan servicing company but had no contact info for her to call and verify it was correct so she continued to send her payments to the loan servicing company. This is a great house and is producing $450 net cash flow on a $23,900 purchase. That is a 22.5% ROI.

I wish I could say that I had similar news on Lori Hemmie's property. The fact is we dropped the communication ball. Her rep is no longer with the company and it was never properly assigned to a new rep. I spoke with Lori personally today and here were the issues:

1. She has yet to receive the deed from the county

2. She does not currently have insurance on the property and does not have the information to give her insurance company for a policy.

3. She has not had consistent communication with our company

Resolution:

1. It can 1-6 months to receive arecorded deed depending on the county, and sometimes they send the deed to the title company. We have contacted to county and title company and working to track down the recorded deed.

2. In early June we started sending out insurance quotes to clients before they closed. Before this point we figured clients were getting them on their own. We have requested an insurance quote from AMIG and should have by Monday for Lori.

3. I have given Lori my personal cell phone number and assigned Lori's account to a manager at our company to insure consistent updates.

Sometimes we drop the ball, but we are dedicated to getting Lori back on track. I had a great phone call with her and hopefully Tuesday after we are caught up she can update her post with the results.

Hopefully this sheds some light, jph

[joshuahost]

Oh yeah,
One more side note. As far as the post on the  $1000 deposit; This starts the process and is fully refundable. We never have kept anyone's $1000 that has canceled.

 

Thanks, jph

[AWAM]

Many new investors are trying too hard to recover massive equity losses in their home and their 401k.  I have seen similar Real Estate programs offering very high rates of return.

It is very much in the best interests of investors to do all the due diligence they can before investing with any sponsor.  Not having enough references from happy customers is a red flag. Projecting returns based on 100% occupancy is a red flag. Not being able to see the property before a purchase is a red flag.

Buyer beware is not just a saying...

[David487]

Well a little about stone equity from first hand knowledge from dealing with them. As a ex property manager for there houses here in KC, I found that stone equitys method of remodeling a house is a little paint, maybe carpet, if not carpet then they paint the wood floors, their plumbing is just pieced together and usually when you turn the water on there are leaks. 90 percent of the time, there is no guttering on the house, so there goes the new owners investment down the drain, no guttering, facial boards rot, soffits rot, but why should stone equity care, they have sold the house to another unsuspecting out of town owner who has been promise a high rent for houses purchased in the hood.

The stone equity finds a property manager to rent the houses for them. Like us, we were renting the houses, but repairs still needed to be made to bring the house up to city code standards. SEG would never follow through after a house was rented, so we would take the rent money and make the repairs ourselves. The tenants knew us, not stone equity, and we were taking the heat for repairs not being made.

I have more to say, just not enough room on this site or time to say it.  But to sum it up, stone equity doesn't stand behind their product

[Nick Brian]

That's just too tempting to be true and it's not acutally. Only confused people go there. It's not practical if any body thinks I've no knowledge about property.

[joshuahost]

Evening ReiClub members,

What a great day, we donated a home today to a family in Columbus OH for "Make a difference day".

I was reading David Trammel's response and wanted to add light to the story. David Trammel was authorized to lease properties owned by SEG and certain SEG investors. David put 4 families into homes and never informed SEG or our clients. In some cases we found out within days of the tenant moving in and in one case we did not find out for a month. In none of the cases did David inform us the unit was rented until one of our agents found the properties tenanted. In all cases we had to move the families out. In some of the properties we do not install water heaters or furnaces until the unit is tenanted to avoid theft as vacant units are targets. We would get calls after the unit was already tenanted and have to scramble. After issuing a cease and desist to David Trammel and Jones Investment Group in August of this year they put 2 more tenants into units without authorization nor sent anyone the agreements. We have 2 other property managers in Kansas City that perform incredibly well and have helped clean up these issues.

Have a good night, jph

[Wonder]

Hi friends, Jus a little of my sharing. I had invested on the oilpod investment which had also given proven track record of payment to the investors. Investor fly over to check on the company personally. there are people investing a few hundred thousand of USD. They organised high class party, meeting session, training for recruitor, investor, FAQ. even the popular investment interviewed MC n report this atlernative investment. so with magazine write up back up, people more believe the scheme can work.

The earlier investor even show us big paycheck, but look wat happen now, we got nothing back, except less than a yr of repayment.
they took 8 yrs to operate this biz n gone bust. this company is frm USA, there are actually many investor in a few country but we hardly know who are the group of investors even in spore.  The Spore operator Mark Chang is nowhere to be found. Initially they pretend to be helpful, when it get to the point that nothing can be claim back, all the sale person disappeared too. none can be in touch. why let people manage your money? Report police so wat, nothing can be done. This is wat i learnt a lesson. (i also got tiltle deed chop by US lawyer n govt )

There are also warning in website forum saying it is a spam. but the gangho me still harbour with greed n jump into this trap. Really regret!

The best to invest your money to get avg 9% returns is buy unit trust with insurance related and do dollar cost averaging. be it you die or alive or perm disabled, you get to manage your money(alive) n your money back if death/perm total disabled occur. It is very liquid. anytime you need the money, you can liquidate the amt you need.  You have peace of mind, you can sleep n eat even when mkt is down. the only thing you need to have is time. set a correct time horizon/goal, you will get your ideal returns. it had been proven over the past 30yrs. some more the company is back by our govt regulation.

Stock is too risky n tiring (need to monitor) though give high returns.

Because of greed that is why there are so many scheme around to tempt us.

By the way, SEG jus presented to us their scheme (abt USD30k, no member fee). I am actually worrying these group who are so tempted to make good money, so will always be offered with such scheme by their petite leader. Well, jus hope these group will be more careful. Key advise is do more research , research n research before you invest. Invest wat you know, don invest wat you don know. If it is a good investment (i got no comment on this investment), then congratulation! God bless.