When I first made the decision to start investing in real estate, it was for the purpose of gaining financial freedom and helping my family live and have a better life.
I wanted to connect with local investors in the Chicago area, and I heard
Wendell d e Guzman speak as a guest on the Bigger Pockets podcast. I began to
follow his blog on BP, signed up for his newsletters and also started to attend
his meetups online and in person. I felt the information he was presenting
provided great value. There was no hype, and he would always say "I am not a guru. I am here to do deals and partner with you to make money." It
appeared through his blogs and his interview on BP that his goal was to provide
value and gain partners in the community.
I reached out to Wendell, and although he never took me up the offer to
meet in person, we were able to converse over the phone and email
correspondence.
With
all his experience, knowledge and value he was presenting I decided I wanted to partner with him. I thought this
would be a great way to get started in real estate investing. I asked him if
there was something we could work together on.
He said his partner in Cincinnati, Garrett Stevenson of Equity Max Network LLC, whom he
has been working with since 2005, had a property that was a great deal and asked
if I would be open to investing out of state with his partner.
He said, “I trust him with my life”.
Wendell proposed that I would purchase the property, Garrett would
do the rehab, and after we had a renter I could refinance, and repeat. I was hesitant at first, I didn’t know of his partner Garrett
Stevenson but I heard him on Wendell’s presentations, and he came across as
very experiencee and knowledgeable.
It took me awhile to think about Wendell’s proposal. I was extremely
scared, and my gut was churning over whether or not this was safe, or the right
thing to do. At first I said no, that I was not comfortable with the deal.
Wendell and Garrett both countered that this would be a great deal, and Wendell
was offering to even lend me the money for it.
I made the decision to purchase the property, and I closed on
December 5, 2015.
After that, my worst nightmare began.
At first, Garrett would update me with emails and texts as to the
status of how things were going. The first couple of months went by, and I had
no reason to be concerned. However, as
time went on, something did not seem right. I started to get a bad feeling.
As the end of May approached, it had been six months since my
purchase. The property was supposed to be completed, and we were looking for a
renter. When I contacted Garrett he would respond that he had interest and we should be able to find a renter soon. Something was not right.
I began to fear for my initial investment, and started the refinance
process. Garrett began to contact me asking for more time, that he still needed
to get some things finished on the rehab, but I told him that I wanted it
appraised and refinance out of the property.
The appraiser had difficulty with setting up an appointment with
Garrett to see the property When the appraiser began trying to contact Garrett,
he would let me know that Garrett was never responding or answering his phone, and
he had been unable to reach him.
At that moment, in the pit of my stomach, I knew I was the victim of
a scam.
I knew, but I didn’t want to believe it was happening. I kept
playing my part in this sham “partnership”, trying to get updates on the “rehab
project”. Garrett answered me by texting and emailing excuse after excuse. His
daughter broke his leg, he lost his phone, his computer was broken, he was tied
up in meetings.
Finally, the appraiser was able to access the property. He took
pictures and sent the appraisal. The property would not appraise.I reviewed the appraisal and the pictures. The pictures said it
all. It would not appraise because as
the pictures showed, it was uninhabitable.
I contacted Wendell Guzman, who, you will recall, trusted Garrett
with his life, to let him know everything that was going on, and I let both Garrett and Wendell know that I was done with the deal and wanted a buy out. They tried effortlessly to keep me in on the deal.
Wendell would say things like "This is not the Garrett I know. I will make this right."
I told him that I just wanted my money back,
and that I was done with the partnership with Garrett. I asked Wendell to buy
me out of the property, and he agreed. He stated that his company PCI, LLC
would be the purchaser.
I felt some sense of relief that this would all finally be over. I
was told that the buy out would happen within 60-90 days. I didn’t know why it
would take that amount of time, but didn’t ask because for some reason I still
trusted Wendell, or at least knew he was the only one who could get me out of
this situation, that he had gotten me into.
90 days passed. Garrett told me he found a renter that had signed a
contract to move in in July. He sent the contract to me to show me she had
signed it, and the amount of the rent.
Okay, I thought, at least I will be getting rent while we wait for the
close date.
What I didn’t know, was that Wendell never had any intention of
buying the property from me.
He sent me the purchase contract in September, but when I continued
to email, call and text about when the close date would be he rarely responded
or he would say “next Friday”.
4 more months passed, and every Friday we were supposed to close. I
desperately sent Wendell continued emails, that were met with more and more
lies or no responses at all.
Eventually I could not contact Wendell on the phone, nor Garrett.
After many days and sleepless nights spent shaking and crying, I
knew I had to take matters into my own hands.
I made the decision that I was going to fly to Cincinnati to see the
property myself.
I contacted Garrett and asked him to overnight me the key, because I
would be flying in from Chicago to Cincinnati, to see the property this or next
Friday. He gave me the contact number of the “renter”, “Kyara”, and told me to
call her first.
He also told me that “Kyara’s” hours are long, so she might not get
back to me right away.
I called and texted “Kyara” that I would be coming to inspect the
property, and to call me back. I never heard from her until two days later. She
texted me “are you coming?” I replied back “yes”.
The morning of my flight, I started receiving email and text blasts from Garrett and Kyara at 6 AM.
They were telling me the key they “overnighted” (that I had never received) wouldn’t
work because she changed the locks, and that I needed to contact her because
there were kids in the house. She added she was going to get me a key during
her work break and mail it to me.
Meanwhile, Garrett was frantically texting me, “Can you cancel your
flight?”
“She has kids on the house, the key won’t work”
And on and on, in a desperate attempt to try and get me not to see
with my own eyes that in twelve months, there was no renter, and no work had
been done on the property.
My responses to their messages were either brief or non-existent. I
knew what was happening, and I had to make sure Garrett thought I was only threatening
to come to the property, that I was bluffing.
I got on the plane that morning.
Shaking, nervous, tears rolling down my face.
Fear, anger and every emotion and thought that you can imagine going
through my mind. My kids, my husband, my family. How could I have let this
happen?
I knew my entire “partnership” with Wendell and Garrett was all
lies.
I got off the plane, hopped into my rental car and drove through the
city of Cincinnati to the property. I pulled up and saw that there was a red Ford
in the driveway ,with no license plates.
I didn’t want to knock on the door in case someone was home, so I
waited for the locksmith I had set up an appointment with earlier in the week.
I called him and he came in 30 minutes. I waited in the parking lot of a nearby
Target, out of fear for my safety.
The locksmith met me at the property. He was a kind young man. He
asked me if we needed to call the sheriff, because “he has seen a lot of things”.
Jesus, I never even thought of that. I showed him proof of ownership and my id.
He proceeded to open the lock, he opened the door.
When he opened it and I stepped in I asked him to give me a moment.
My first site was of an empty living room, a chaotic mess of dust
and construction material. I began to cry for my expectations were confirmed. I
was scammed.
I walked through the house crying, taking pictures. It was freezing
as there was no heat. My body was
trembling and my fingers were frozen. The doors and windows were covered with
cheap drapes to hide that there was no one living there. The side door was
boarded up.
I told the locksmith to go ahead and change the locks. He offered me
a hug because of how distraught I was. I told him to never trust a single soul
in his life.
Once the locks were changed and I paid the locksmith $300.00, I called a Cincinnati area realtor I had been
in contact with to meet me at the property. He said he would be there.
I drove back to the Target parking lot, and completely broke down.
I bawled. Just kept bawling. Asking God why? Still hoping that I was
in a nightmare and was soon going to wake up from it.
I drove back to the property, and met the realtor. I told him that
if I started to cry not to be surprised and told him a quick synopsis of my
story.
I just hoped that he wouldn’t run away and prayed that he could help
me in some way.
I let him inside the house to show him around. He gave me an offer $15,000.
I looked at him, tears swelling in my eyes and said “I will take it,
I want to be done, I need to move on.”
I handed over the keys, shook his hand and drove away with tears
rolling down my face.
I drove back to the airport. My head was pounding from the day, the
tears, not having gone to the bathroom or eaten anything in past 6 hours.
I received his contract shortly after, and signed it hoping and
waiting for this all to be over.
I also contacted a lawyer in the Cincinnati area, who did a
background search on Garrett Stevenson, the man Wendell Guzman had been working
with for 11 years, that he trusted for his life.
The lawyer informed me that Garrett Stevenson had over 40 civil
judgments against him.
The final day for the closing is tomorrow. December 21st.
Four days before Christmas. I will have absorbed a loss of at least 42,000
after all that was spent trying to recoup the property.
Why am I writing this? Why am I sending this to you, or posting it
everyone for all to see?
I want everyone to know what kind of people Wendell de Guzman and
Garrett Stevenson are. I hope I can prevent a person from working with these
individuals.
I take responsibility for not doing my due diligence on Garrett and
Wendell. There are a lot of things looks back that I should have done, but all
I can do now is learn from my mistakes and move forward.
Garrett Stevenson Jr. has close to 40 judgements against him. He also goes by Garrett Stevenson.
After further investigation of Wendell de Guzman I became
aware that he has been scamming individuals since 2009. He has also been known
as Trace Trajano and Trace Wendell Trajano. He wrote a guru
book and would sell his programs and seminars to individuals in the
Philippines, Ohio and Illinois. He utilizes BiggerPockets.com to build his
community and continues to scam individuals all across the U.S.
Here are the links to all his websites that he has created
and all his videos.
He has many of them.
Hi. Sorry this happened to you. He Garrett Stevenson Jr scammed me in 2014. I worked with him as a mentor for real wholesaling for 9 months. We did 8 deals together. I even met him in Cincinnati once right before he scammed. He said he had a multi family project as he stole 3,000 dollars from as I believed him after nine months. I see he is federal prison as the US Fed government got him on mail and wire fraud started 2.14.2014 3 years prison time and 3 years probation so now he is doing time for some of his crime at least. I couldn't get him but the US Fed Gov't did!
ReplyDeleteCorrection he went to prison on 2.14.2024.
ReplyDelete