All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

@Son D. sorry the local PD was less than helpful. Kind of surprised by that but then again, I guess I’m not that surprised. 

Simon C. I recently started using Mavi, headquartered in Lakewood. I interviewed dozens of PMs in this area last year and finally settled on Mavi. It’s only been a few months but so far I really like them. It may be hard to find someone good to just find tenants for you without getting their monthly %, but one thing I like about Mavi is that they are okay with ordering their services a la carte like that. They don’t mind when I step in and want to turn a unit or rebuild a deck myself, so maybe they’d consider just fillin units for you or splitting the workload with you somehow for a discounted rate. Most PMs want total control and for owners to be hands off, which makes sense and that’s my end goal but for now I still like to save money by doing a lot of my own work and find I do a better job than most handyman type people that a PM would hire anyway so being somewhat hands on is what works for me.

@Account Closed thanks for weighing in. Dividends should definitely not be overlooked when deciding how to invest. I’ve cherry picked a few individuals as well (MSFT has been a good one, and the Vanguard high yield ETF I mentioned is heavily weighted with MSFT anyway as it is which I like but I still like SPDR better overall so I have SPDR and I’ve supplemented that with adding shares of MSFT to my portfolio for example) but wanted to keep it as simple as possible by pointing the OP towards high yield funds. Cherry picking individuals can be dangerous and I don’t recommend it for unless 90%  goes into a fund and 10% is play money used trying to outsmart everybody else (be prepared to lose it, but you’ll learn from it too). Another good thing about dividends is when the market takes a dive, aristocrat companies tend to actually increase their dividend payments in order to keep investors from selling. Hopefully GE isn’t a proxy for the market! I think that one  is an anomaly and a prime example of why I would steer most investors away from picking individuals. It could be a great buy at it’s current price, or not. You never really truly know what’s going on inside of a company, even if you work in the same industry or even if you work for that actual company and think you know, even if they look great on paper and seem like a slam dunk, **** happens. I’ve learned that myself the hard way just when you think you’ve got a pick nailed something comes out of left field that’s why funds are great. 

Just checked out the most recent Morris Invest youtube video. It's about how to use debt to protect your personal assets in the case of being sued. Very topical video! 

@Son D. Also congrats on getting access to their client email list. That's amazing. You should write a book and make a movie. I have a feeling this investment might pay off after all but in a much different way than expected! 

@Son D. Not doing the rehab work you paid them to do is a physical crime no different than any old fake contractor scam on Craig's list. It's simple grand theft. People get arrested for that every day and I bet local PD would be all over it. They wouldn't drive to NJ and get the kingpin but they'd get the guys in Indy. The larger interstate fraud piece, that's obviously more complicated, seems like that could be a RICO case the FBI would be interested in, get them for wire fraud at least possibly a host of other crimes. Creating fake leases for example I bet is a crime (forgery?). Not a lawyer, but if you feel you've been robbed, never hurts to call the cops! 

I would add that if you're looking to invest in both real estate AND stocks (making this assumption seeing as this is primarily an REI site), it might benefit you to look into an ETF that pays high dividends such as Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEMKT:VYM) and SPDR S&P Dividend ETF(NYSEMKT:SDY). Dividends can benefit you greatly if you're also investing or have the long term goal of investing in real estate because lenders consider dividend income which helps you qualify for bigger loans on property (with the caveat that you need minimum 2 years of dividend income history before they will consider it). VYM and SDY are both high yield (about 30% higher than an average index fund), but they're quite different. Vanguard's dividend ETF is basically a collection of the highest dividend paying companies from the very top of the list while SPDR S&P Dividend ETF is a collection of "Aristocrat" companies. I prefer SPDR's dividend ETF for various reasons but do your own research. 3.2% yield, 11% annualized returns over last 10 yrs, owning a little piece of world's greatest companies, padding your income in case you have a slow period at the day job or no W2 income at all, can't go wrong! Additionally if your goal is passive income, dividend stocks are the holy grail, forget about real estate altogether and skip right to collecting "Aristocrat" stocks. 

Poetic justice indeed! They sent an email and CC'd EVERYBODY? Wowzers! I hope all who invested with MI/OP get obscenely rich from the lawsuit, that would be even sweeter poetic justice! 

Maria Dantas thanks for posting this and sorry you’re in this situation. I was referred to MI/OP a few weeks ago, luckily found the other BP threads right away and have been watching this thing unravel since then. I feel for you and others who were/are being duped. Yes lesson learned, everybody do your DD but that doesn’t mean the scammers are innocent. What I’m wondering is why haven’t investors simply called the local Indy police and reported the crimes being committed? Seems to me if you paid for rehabs that weren’t done, that’s a pretty cut and dry crime with not much grey area. Taking money up front and not providing materials or services outlined in scope of work is textbook grand theft, or am I missing something? Fake Contractors/ scammers get arrested for this exact thing all the time. Why not just have them arrested and charged and if you’re planning to open a civil case, then an arrest/conviction would likely make your case even stronger (not a lawyer but this seems like common sense). Maybe this is happening behind the scenes and I shouldn’t be mentioning it on here, if so I apologize. I’ve just been watching this play out and I’m saying to myself REPORT THE CRIME! Seems like they’re still making podcasts and selling, probably trying to sell their way out of the Ponzi scheme they’ve created which means more good people losing their hard earned money. Like others have mentioned when you google Clayton Morris or Morris Invest nothing negative shows up and it seems like “Former Fox News Host Indicted in Massive Real Estate Scam” should be at the top of the page but it’s not. Some major negative press would be a good thing for the general public at this point. I wish that investigative journalist and whatever government agencies working on it would hurry it up!

Have any MI/OP investors who have been burned by these guys simply called the local police? If the AG is unresponsive you may get a quicker response from the local PD. Taking payment and not delivering goods is straight up theft. If I paid a contractor who never did the work, I’d report it to the police. A potential theft arrest/conviction would probably only help your case later in the chance of a any potential civil lawsuits as well.