Well, it was during COVID, tough times, rarely are singular.
I was home recovering from breast cancer.
I had a double mastectomy. Hence the phrase when it rains, it pours.
I had taken a huge cut in pay based on COVID.
The storm of 2021 hit Laura Walsh especially hard and
I needed the money to help pay my bills,
my medical bills.
So she looked to her biggest asset,
her home for a little financial help searching
for refinancing offers online and out of nowhere,
I received a text from a company, a text offering Walsh a deal,
sign this contract letting us MV Realty sell your home if
and when you're ready to sell and we'll give you cash.
Now. It was $1500 for
basically doing nothing.
It took care of some small things that at least got me some relief.
About a year later, Walsh decided to sell her home.
So she reached out to the company MV Realty to get it on the market.
I couldn't find or contact any of them when it was time to sell my house.
She says phone numbers were disconnected,
emails went un repp I tried to look them up online.
And the only thing I could find was an office listed down
in centennial and I went down there and there was nobody there.
It was a small empty like storefront.
We went there too. Hey, guys
looking for is MV Realty based in here. No, she told me not here but based
in Florida
known for this homeowner benefit agreement in exchange
for a small amount of cash up front.
This agreement gives MV Realty the exclusive right to list your home,
meaning that they get thousands of dollars in commission when you sell it.
Now, if you do go through another real estate agent to sell your home,
this contract still guarantees that envy realty pockets 3% of the sale
and it says this agreement is a covenant on the land,
meaning even if the homeowners die,
their successors are still on the hook and
to make sure everyone knows about this agreement.
MV Realty files a memorandum with the clerk and recorder.
Then
they just wait,
I just thought they went away, unable to contact MV.
Realty Walsh listed her home with another agent, found a buyer too.
The home went under contract and then, and then the very next day I received,
I received an email with a lawsuit
breach of contract.
The contract showing that MV Realty was entitled to
3% of Walsh's sale price nearly 20 grand.
I mean, they literally did nothing for that money. Walsh is by no means alone.
We scoured county property records and found more than 900 of these agreements. 900
more than 900 Colorado homeowners who signed up for
the homeowner benefit program between 2021 and 2023.
They may have signed it and not know what the ticking time bomb they're sitting on.
I know
better.
I know better. Poncy
Chavez
is no stranger to financial contracts.
I
banking since 1977 I knew a lot of the scams that were going on out there yet.
She also got a text from MV Realty and signed that same agreement.
I just deposited the check and paid some bills when she went to refinance her home.
The memorandum filed with the clerk and recorder halted the deal. I was too,
it
doesn't feel
good.
MV Realty's agreements have ticked off a lot
of people in real estate across the country.
Six states sued the company in the past year
here in Colorado,
mvs listing contracts got the attention of state lawmakers.
It's designed to be predatory.
The intent is to do as little work for as much money as possible.
But while they call these agreements predatory,
they also realized they were technically legal.
While I think it was clear to everybody that they were
violating the intent and the spirit of Colorado real estate law,
they weren't violating the letter Senate bill 77.
So Democratic State Senator Nick Heinrich
practices sponsored legislation to ban them going forward,
not allow a recordable lead.
Passed with bipartisan support that passes yan.
Good news for homeowners moving forward.
Bad news for the 900 people who've already signed.
It's incredibly difficult for legislation to attack contract law retroactively.
And this legislation
does not bad news for people like Poncy Chavez.
They didn't grandfather it in.
They all signed an agreement that's effective for 40 years.
40 years,
40 years.
Good Lord. No.
40 years when
Chavez learned that she told us she'll have to die in her current home.
It's just something that
we have to live with now unless we could find a way
to
dump them,
you know, without paying them $15,000 because I don't think that they deserve it.
Some,
we've talked to have taken their house off the market after threats from MV realty.
Others like Laura Walsh felt pressure to pay up. It's
completely
unscrupulous and taking advantage of people,
especially at the time when they came after me.
In the end,
Walsh paid $9000 to the real estate agent who did all the work to sell her home
and nearly 20 grand
to MV Realty for doing
nothing.
We worked too hard to make the money we do to pay for the homes that we have.
It's the American dream and it, to me, it was the American nightmare
in a statement,
Envy realty called their Homeowner Benefit program innovative and
said it fully complies with the law yet,
amid all of these lawsuits nationwide,
the company says it has paused signing up new people.
The Colorado Attorney General couldn't comment on
whether the office is investigating MV Realty.
Do you have one of these deals with MV? Realty? We wanna hear from you.
Email Steve on your side at nine news dot com.
I'm Steve Steger.
Nine news.