Jarrod F.

My family and I decided to move to Idaho from California in late 2017/ early 2018. After numerous offers and attempts to purchase a home with Michael's help and without success, we decided to give up and just rent. Out of the blue, Michael graciously offered a lease option to purchase where we would put all of the down payment (20% of the sales price)and he would purchase the home as an investment and lease back to us. Michael wrote up a contract and we agreed to lease back the home and then purchase it a year later. To be clear he did not have 50 cents into this transaction. We were beyond thrilled to finally move here and not have to waste money on rent and so our 3 children ages 9, 11, 13 could go to better schools and we could live in a nicer area in the Bainbridge subdivision.
In addition, since the real estate market was hot, we also agreed to split the profits 50/50 on whatever the home appreciated in the years time.
After moving in and after a few months my income drastically declined as a result of moving my business from California to IDAHO and since I am 100% commissioned. We did absolutely everything humanly possible to hold up our end of the bargain but could not after months of struggling, draining our savings, selling a vehicle, etc. We even offered to give Michael 60% of the profits after a few months because we felt bad about the situation. He had an addendum drafted up that same day and was more than willing to accept and jumped all over it. We notified Michael all along the process and throughout 2018 and he knew all along how much we struggled financially. We were late yes but always paid the mortgage payments monthly. At the time we moved out were were completely current on all payments. We finally decided to sell the home in February 2019, well before the years contract had expired. He listed the home and once it hit the market it sold within 2 weeks for over $45,000 more than what we originally purchased it for. We even moved out early and rented a place within a few weeks at Michael's direction so they we/he could get the house prepared, cleaned and immaculate for showings and so "it could sell faster". Once the home closed escrow and on the day we were expecting to finally receive our initial down payment back, I was sent an email from Michael with a letter from his lawyer. This is where the nightmare began. It included a breakdown of all costs, repairs associated with selling the home and a "release of liability agreement". If we did not sign the agreement, we would have to go to arbitration and if we lost our case we would/could lose everything and even have to pay his legal fees and all court costs. Furthermore, to add further insult within the letter Michael and his lawyer decided he was not only going to keep 100% of the profit BUT also pay himself another 3% commission on top of this on a home he already owned? Keep in mind the home sold in 2 weeks after listing and there were ZERO open houses performed. My wife and I were completely blind sided, shell shocked and completely devastated. We were excited to move on and planned on getting OUR money back so we could finally keep our head above water and put this behind us, not to mention that this money was our entire life savings. After assessing our options and next steps, over the next few weeks I tried numerous times to speak with him in person and he was not available, "too busy" texts and continuously delayed meeting in person. After getting no where after repeated attempts, I have spoken to a lawyer and filed a formal complaint with the IDAHO REAL ESTATE COMMISSION which is currently in process. We adamantly feel he did not have our best interests at heart from day 1 and simply did not do the right thing especially since he represented both himself and us the whole time. Please do your homework and speak to previous employees and clients and be careful who you trust. We unfortunately found out the hard way and I wish I had listened to my wife from day 1. We truly wish in hindsight that we would have not trusted Michael but time will tell what becomes of this horrible experience we had to endure while Michael got to line his pockets with half of our life savings with zero risk to himself.