Novice Maryland Real Estate Operator Learns "Tricks Of The Trade" From Local Investment Seminar; Now Being Sued By Homeowner

in Prince George's County, Maryland, The Maryland Daily Record reports on a local financially strapped homeowner who was allegedly screwed out of the equity in her home and is now suing to stop the resale of the house.

The main focus of the story, however, is the promotion of the real estate seminars that are teaching the techniques to the novice real estate investors who pulled off the alleged scam in this story.

• [Homeowner Monica] Hill’s story might be just another tale of a financially troubled homeowner entering into a bad deal, were it not that the investors involved in the deal are linked to a pair of real estate investment teachers who have taught their techniques to, by their own account, hundreds of people.

• Consumer lawyers say they suspect that many of the people running foreclosure rescue scams and home-equity thefts are coming out of real estate investment programs, but it is usually difficult to connect individual investors with the people who taught them.

• In this case, however, the woman who bought Monica Hill’s house, LaKisha White, testified in court that she had learned how to be an investor from Lloyd and Vicki Irvin, a Prince George’s County couple who run a program called Maryland Real Estate Secrets and bill themselves as the King and Queen of Real Estate Investing [...].

***

• Del. Doyle L. Niemann, D-Prince George’s, said he considers real estate seminars and the investors they train to be a real problem in his district. [...] Both [executive director of Civil Justice Inc. Phillip] Robinson and [director of research and policy Robert J.] Strupp of the Community Law Center, represent scammed homeowners. Though they cannot usually make a connection between the perpetrators and real estate investment schools, they believe many of those defrauding or misleading people learn from seminars. [...] Strupp and Robinson said the real estate investment programs they have seen generally involved instructors recommending real estate professionals — Realtors, settlement agents, title lawyers — who will look the other way while shady deals are done.

For more, see Lessons in loss.

Addendum:

A representative from Maryland Real Estate Secrets has been in contact with The Home Equity Theft Reporter and has advised that it had absolutely no dealings with LaKisha White as it related to her handling of Monica Hill's property, it never provided Ms. White with any advice regarding any deal with Ms. Hill, and further, that it lost track of her shortly after her attendance at one of the seminars.