Foreclosure suits have grabbed the headlines but it has devastated the life of one worker Carrie Yeary. She gave up her work as a realtor earning six figures during the peak of the housing boom in Twin Cities and joined a new firm Midwest Equity Consultants. By doing so she thought of doubling her income. But by a twist of fate within a year she had to leave the job starved of cash.
Disappointment centering on Midwest Equity turned to alarm when after many months since her leaving the firm the clients of the firm started filing civil legal suits against it and its associates. Some of the suits mentioned the name of Yeary as a defendant.
Speaking recently at an interview Yeary said she was devastated. She had been instructed by the lawyers of the firm and its founder Brian Smith that the kind of loan packages the company was bundling together would be of help to those who were facing financial troubles; they would be able to keep their houses.
Midwest Equity based in Chicago had opened its office in the Twin Cities region nearly five years previously when the housing market was hot. Yeary claims to have met Smith through an acquaintance. Smith engaged Yeary to help his firm set up relationships with banks and rope in business in this area.
House owners having equity but were facing foreclosure were targeted. They were given advice about continuing to stay in their houses. The plan involved the selling of the house by the owner to any investor for a short term; the recruiting would be done by Midwest Equity. The house owners then later purchased it back on the basis of contract-for-deed while continuing to occupy the unit.
But sometimes it meant that the house owners failed to meet the new schedule of monthly payments or failed to get a fresh loan prior to coming to an end of the contract-for-deed that generally had a time period of 15 months.
Yeary said that she gave up the job because she did not get the proportionate cuts as had been promised. She admitted never seeing any of the clients get back the ownership through this process. She left before any of the 15 month agreements completed its run. She regrets having left her previous occupation. Today Yeary is embroiled in civil suits together with Smith.
